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Dog Shite


Wendy
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Okay, Im being polite here but as an Australian I like to call it like it is. Tomorrow Im fronting up at the local Mairie to inform them about the chronic situation in the village regarding the dogs and their owners total lack of responsibilty as to where, and what, they let their mutts use as a toilet. Today, on a Sunday, my 4 yr old was taken to the local playground and the area was covered in dog crap. The area is gated in and with a sign saying 'chiens interdit'. He trod in it and subsequently trod it into the car and on the seat. Im furious. At the best  I object to sidestepping it everywhere in the mornings but to have to watch my kids feet in the infants playspace is beyond the joke. The local mairie are going to be presented with a cleaning bill toute suite!. What is it with these people?!!
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Go for it and let us know how you get on. Bemused indifference probably, but we can but try to influence...

TOH and I are viewed as odd (hmmm... possibly even more odd) as we set off each morning with a supply of plastic bags (hand sized) and carrier bags (crotte sized). But why? we've been asked, you are in the country...

Yeah, and the dogs get walked at least twice a day, they are very productive at least twice each per walk and they're labradors... the verges within the first 500 metres of the house would soon be a no go zone... well, for human feet anyway.

Of course, then follows the problem of disposing of all those plastic bags... as SB would say... buerk!

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Hi Catalpa!!,

Having just returned from Quillan, I can confirm that it is the "dog shite" capital of France - so much so that a local inhabitant has set up a campaign to draw people's attention to the problem with some very interesting and varied photographs in his shop window.  In fact I find it difficult to report on the state of Quillan these days as my eyes were permanently focused on "merde spotting"!  My son managed to tread in some twice - which I had the great pleasure of having to scrape off with a stick etc., and it was most unpleasant.  However (as you know Catalpa) at our house in the Normandie countryside I seem to have double standards and allow my dog to crap wholeheartedly on the verges - but if on the road I move it off.  I suppose it is mainly a question of amount and the problems it causes.  In Normandie there is also plenty of fox, sanglier, cow, pig and undiagnosed (possibly badger or stone marten) crap to avoid on our travels and so I reason a little more dog shite won't make much difference.  On the pavement in the middle of the town I would have no qualms about picking up the "crottes" in a bag and taking them home.  Isn't it just that we all hate treading in it - me as much as the next personne?

What do you think "Quillan"?


Valerie

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I was browsing my son's Actu today (an excellent paper, highly recommend it for your children).   There's a tiny section called, I think, "Va voir ailleurs", a little snippet of how strange life is in other, non-France countries.

This one was England.  Did you know...... that in many public parks in England there are signs saying Dog owners are expected to clean up after their dogs.

I would never have thought it worth commenting on, but clearly it's very strange to French people.  Shock horror, ils sont fous ces Anglais!  Imagine having to clean up after your dog!  [:O]

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I have never understood dog lovers that say their dog is, oh so

clever..........................well alright, why then, can they not be

trained to go on the lavatory indoors, it's warmer and more humanistic

than making the poor mutt go for cold walks, just to go to do-do's ?

Kids can be trained at an early age, so why not les chiens ? OK, I see

the difficulty with the paper episode but hey, forget that, it is the

first part that counts surely ?

As for going to see the Mairie, good luck...take some XXXX (not

something from Hunter Valley, no need to antagonise the Maire) and I

sincerely wish you all the best. Ask if you can have the post of chien master

in the commune, get a siret number courtesy of the Commune and then

Franchise the whole thing all over France, one damned rich ocker in no

time................ g'day wen !

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[quote user="Miki"]Ask if you can have the post of chien master in the commune, [/quote]

But don't get too excited if they say yes - your tools of the trade will be a scabby broom and a bin on wheels.  You can wander round the village picking up doggy doos to your heart's content!   Payment will be the SMIC (minimum wage).

But think of the points you'll gain for your Brownie Integration Badge!   

 

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The very very worst was the night I collected our son from Roller Hockey. He rolled out onto the street, we got to the car and as he lifted his booted feet into the car, the stench. If shoes are bad enough to clean, then roller blades are a nightmare.

 

There are many places I have heard of that merit being the capitol of dog crap in France.

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"........our tools of the trade will be a scabby broom....."

And ye shall be known in ye olde commune as Trigger.

 And don't take the SMIC,  make 'em sweat go for a euro a

do-do and let the Maires secretary count them at night.....[:D]

In what style does the badge come in SB? Can it be swapped for other pins in the market place ?

With its rarity, I bet you could 4 Johnny in Las Vegas Pins for just one Brownie Integration Badge [;)]

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[quote user="Teamedup"]

The very very worst was the night I collected

our son from Roller Hockey. He rolled out onto the street, we got to

the car and as he lifted his booted feet into the car, the stench. If

shoes are bad enough to clean, then roller blades are a nightmare.

 

There are many places I have heard of that merit being the capitol of dog crap in France.

[/quote]

TU,

Couldn't he have held on to the bumper, with good speed it would have quickly flown off the roller blades[:D]

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About two years ago I saw a huge advert (one of these moving ones)  in Cherbourg which said (not sure about the spelling??): "Dis merde à la crotte!" It showed a women picking up a "burned croissant" in a "shovellike" thing. So obviously these adverts did no good at all!!
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PixieTS,

We live a few miles down-river of Quillan in Limoux. For years the two towns were competing for the Aude Crap-Cap title. Limoux was in the lead. We were slip-slidin' all over town. One slide could carry you two hundred metres. The Limouxins were jettée-ing and pirouetting like the best corp de ballet.  We were ankle-deep in shit and surely the crap accolade was in our grasp.  Then........MADNESS!

Last year, some crazy fonctionaire in the Mairie initiated a clean-up campaign. Little  "TouTou-net" sites were set up throughout town. Grandes Dames were seen stooping to retrieve les cadeaux that MouMou / FrouFrou / ChouChou had deposited. INCROYABLE!!

Now Limoux, though not crap-free, is much cleaner and will have to rely on other claims to fame - Fricasee de Limoux, Blanquette (Le Brut Original du Monde), the worlds longest running carnival (12 weeks and well-creepy), magnificent countryside,  and its history as the centre of Le Pays Cathare. Ah well...........

How did you get on at the mairie, Wen?

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Re Miki's thoughts on dogs and toilet paper, in Italy I once saw a little old lady let her tiny lap dog do its thing by a very scenic, much-frequented  river bank. When it had finished she produced a couple of tissues from her handbag and carefully wiped the dog's behind. Then she equally carefully placed said tissues by the dog's deposit and strolled off, leaving the latter for the next unwary foot.

As for disposal, here in England I once saw one fine upstanding citizen ostentatiously pick up his (very large) dog's mess from the pavement in a plastic bag which he carefully tied up and carried away. An example to us all until, a little further along, he furtively chucked the bag over the wall into someone's front garden.

Some people, eh? And they're not all French.

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Here in England dog loos are spouting up all over the place. I've never seen a dog using one, though!

I once had a cat which would use a wc - if the door was open. How she learned to do it, I have no idea - but three decades of living with cats has convinced me that they are a superior species!

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Cats do sometimes train themselves to use a loo... or you can train them...

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1357769.htm

One of ours is obsessed with the loo. If you're sitting there for... a minute or two... you get a furry lumbar support that vibrates as he purrs affectionately. If you're only there for a moment or two, it's impossible to get bum off seat before cat is up there peering (p e e r ing) in. I'm sure he's a candiate for potty training.

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My Aunty M in Blackpool (well someone has to live there!) used to have a woman, with a small dog, walk past her gate every day. The dog would stop directly outside her gate each time and do a 'pony' on the path. Well Aunt M cleared it up a few times and then got quite angry. Not a thing she normally does. The next day the woman walked by, dog stopped, left 'pony', Aunty M shot out of the door with a fire side shovel and scooped the 'pony' up. She called to the woman, who stopped, and told her she had dropped something and calmly slipped the contents of the shovel into the woman's shopping bag. She then said a friendly 'good day' and went back inside. The funny thing was that the dog NEVER did a 'pony' out side the gate again! Can't think why really?  [8-)]

For the non-English --- 'pony' or the full Cockney rhyming slang 'pony and trap'

John.

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Not sure how 'productive'(sorry) was the trip to the mairie. 'The Boss' wouldn't let me go at them for the cleaning job in case I got too hotheaded and caused undue offence. I think I still caused some offence anyway. Apparently we were very wrong for asking 3 kids to remove their mutts from the childrens playground as because the kids were allowed in then so were the dogs...despite the 'chiens interdit' sign!. Secondly, they consider scooping the poop from the pavements, etc, into numerous large heaps and leaving them directly outside shop entrances to be an effective form of maintenance. Try walking into your boulangerie each morning past a pile of sh..beside the door so large you could fall over it ! certainly takes the appetite for breakfast away!. Lastly, when asked did I have any suggestions to solve the problem, I replied that the stinking heaps could always be transferred to outside the mairie (which remains poop-free by the way) to remind everyone about one of the many things that makes this country great! Nope, made no friends but came away feeling much better. What can you expect though when the head of the gendarme in the village is one of the more notorious offenders with his dog.
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One thing I certainly am not is popular and I dont give a hoot. We use the services of this village all the time as it is so much closer than the village with 'our' mairie. The shopkeepers are wonderful people and I know that several of them object bitterly to having excrement swept up to their shop fronts every morning. Actually, Ive just remembered a wonderful incident from last year where I was sitting in my car waiting for the bank to open and was watching an elderly lady busily washing down the pavement outside her front door. Along strode very smartly dressed madam with small shaggy dog and she stopped while the dog made a deposit...on the exact same spot the elderly lady had just cleaned! Quick as a flash she reappeared with a bucket of water and threw it with great dexterity at the back of the dog, and, the back of madam's stockinged legs! Some of it hit the poop. The ensuing argument was entertainment plus...it made my day. Obviously the old girl believes actions speak louder than words. :) Thanks for advice about where to go next though.
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[quote user="Miki"]Kids can be trained at an early age, so why not les chiens ? OK, I see the difficulty with the paper episode but hey, forget that, it is the first part that counts surely ?
[/quote]

They can be trained!  Though not perhaps to climb up on a loo - but I successfully trained a Springer Spaniel I had when my kids were little to only do his business in a special place in the garden which was fenced off so the kids couldn't get near it.  He only ever did anything in this small enclosure of a couple of yards square (much easier to clean up) and never in the rest of the half acre garden.  That was in the UK and everyone who noticed thought I was crazy (despite the obvious disadvantages of having kids crawling or running about in a garden full of random piles of dog poo, or alternatively having to follow the dog around with a pooper scooper), so what chance in France?!

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