A dirty job

To get to understand what dog owners have to go through, we did some participational research. Here's the report:

Klaroenring, Etten-Leur
Date/Time: 22 February, 10.11h.
Weather: -1 degrees Celcius, misty
Subject: Bas Kock

General observations:  - cleaning up your dog’s feces is a dirty job
                                               - social rules are felt harder than the law
                                               - lack of dustbins is irritating
                                               - could there be more bins, and a means to wash your hands?

For this opportunity we walked a 4 year old Belgian Shepherd called Shep. The dog weighs about 25 kilos and is very well trained. We walk her in the morning because this is her usual pooping time. It is freezing, but the dog doesn’t seem to care. First she sniffs the ground and takes a leak. Then she searches for a nice spot to drop her thing. We are walking for about 15 minutes when that happens. She prefers a green field with not too much other dog feces present. Pooping takes about 10 seconds, during this period subject feels a bit nervous, as being watched. More important than the law social rules are felt. [subject thinks: “What if anyone thinks I won’t clean it up…”]

 The cleaning process starts with searching for the poop bag. [subject thinks: “In what pocket did I hide the damn bag!?!”] After searching the bag in three pockets it is found in the fourth. Scooping up the poop is a very unpleasant experience. First comes the feeling of hotness: the poop is about 38 grades Celcius and in the cold of the morning it feels like it is boiling! Subject realizes that there’s only a thin layer of plastic separating his hand from the feces. Then the smells kicks in. Horrible. The entire process makes subject feel grouse.

No poop bin is found, so where subject wants to get rid of the smelly bag as soon as possible, he has to carry it around. After ten minutes he finds a private dustbin and he desposes of the bag. [subject thinks: “Let me wash my hands now, please.”]