The Thaw!

If snow is Mother Nature's way of telling you that you don't have to scoop the poop, beware of the thaw.

We have had more than a week of sunny and bright weather around here, while the rest of the country is busy freezing and shoveling. This means that the play yard is defrosting into a mud pit at an alarming rate. This also means that my yard, my walk down to the kennel, plus the play yard is turning into a mine field. Step lively.

As a expert on scooping poop, I offer my expertise in the area of scooping in the winter. Dog poop is a whole 'nother beast in the cold and snow.

If you just plan to wait until the warm weather, more power to you. This is not an option for me. A single weekend with big dogs and I would have to wear hip waders down to the kennel.

WINTER POOP REMOVAL 101

Fresh Poop in Snow

• Scoop it while it is still warm, but try to get the least amount of snow with it.
• Extra snow in the garbage bag will make it impossibly heavy.

Not So Fresh in Snow

• Don't even attempt to remove partially frozen poop.
  
• You will only be able to remove the non-frozen top portion.
  
• Leaving you to later find all these chunks of poop shrapnel all over the place.

Frozen Solid

• This requires chipping the now rock hard poop out of the snow.
• Hit the snow behind the poop, never the poop as it will destroy your scooper.
• Or dig under and just flip it out of the snow whole.

Waiting for the Thaw

• This is the best option, but it requires some patience.
• DO NOT attempt to remove any poop until the ground it is sitting on has dried out
• It make look like poop, when in fact it is a gelatinous mass with the consistency of pudding that has no structural integrity.
• Wait and get it when it reconstitutes back into a liftable form of poop.

I hope you found this helpful. I like to think that I have gained all these skills for the sake of passing them all.

May you all have clean shoes until the next snow storms.