15/04/2025
So this is a bit of a change of theme to my normal posts in a couple of ways.. firstly I want to talk about dog poo and stray dog poo to be exact which is a topic I have deliberately avoided for some years. It will, however, be a slightly different view to what you are probably used to from dog field sites.
This week I have had an increase in customers telling me about finding large numbers of poos at the field. As a dog field owner getting messages / emails / phone calls regarding people finding poo is not out of the ordinary but occasionally you get weeks like this one when it seems every day at least one person feeds back that they have found a large amount of poo. So now for the unusual bit of this post.. I am not going to go into rage mode and threaten to ban anyone that doesn’t pick up, neither am I going to go all woe is me passive aggressive mode and beg people to just help me out by picking up. I am simply going to say this.. Frank’s Freedom Field is a dog field, it was built to enable dogs to play and run and relax in a safe and secure environment. It is used by approximately 50+ dogs a day every day. It is a large area, approximately 3 acres which is about the size of 2 professional football pitches. It has areas of longer grass to keep things interesting for dogs and humans plus providing wildlife with precious habitat which unfortunately is a great hiding place for poo. It would be impossible to ever keep a field like ours free of dog poo. Every week we have over 80 litres of dog poo disposed of so clearly most people are doing a good job of picking up poo.
When you find a stray poo it doesn’t mean that previous customers have simply ignored the rules and left it for someone else to deal with, because trust me you would be finding 30 - 40 plus if that was the case. It is likely to be the fact that someone has been getting water for their dog or choosing a toy etc when the dog toileted so they didn’t see it, or perhaps the dog ran as far away as possible then by the time the owner got there the poo was lost (been there done that sooo many times!) then while hunting for that lost one their other dog may poo without them noticing.. sh*t happens - literally.
I am not excusing people from picking up their dog’s poo and every single dog owner in this country knows that it is their responsibility to do that. However I am also a realist and I fully accept that there will never be a day that the field will be 100% poo free. We ask that people pick up what they find as well as picking up after their own dog. If everyone did that we should never have a problem.
A quick reminder of what we do to encourage people to pick up:
💩We have two dog poo bins which are emptied and cleaned daily
💩We have about 40 dog poo bag dispensers dotted around the fences
💩We have a bucket of dog poo bag rolls at the entrance for your use
💩We offer money off bookings for those who find and send us proof of finding poos
💩We do a field poo check every night so hopefully the field starts the day clean.
What we won’t do:
🤬Play the blame game.. I am far from perfect and have missed dog poo on way too many occasions to list here so until we are all replaced by bots and AI then
🤖I accept that as humans we have flaws and limitations. So no witch hunts please and no assuming stray poo is somehow a malicious act.
🐶We can’t ever guarantee a dog poo free field, you are hiring a dog exercise area where dogs are running off lead (many for the first time!) it is not a children’s play park nor a sterile environment.
What you as a customer can do:
🧻Pop one of the rolls of dog poo bags in your pocket when you get in the field so you always have a bag with you while in the field
👀 Keep a close eye on your dogs in the first 10 minutes as often this can be when they are likely to go
💩While walking around keep an eye out for any stray poos.. if you see one bag it (with the free bags we provide) and bin it.
💬 If you find silly amounts (I consider anything over 5 a silly amount!) then by all means let me know and I will see if there is someone that was there that day that may need a reminder of our poo policy.
💩Be prepared to find the occasional stray poo.
If everyone picked up what poo they found there will never be more than one or two strays.
Very quick note to those that have messaged me this week about finding poo, this post is in no way aimed at you, it just got me thinking and I wanted to explain why I don’t go on a Facebook meltdown over stray poo.
Picture is for the Facebook algorithm 😊
