never having been a dog owner before, i had no prior understanding of how much poop a 9 lb. puppy can generate. while we were preparing to bring home our little bundle of fur and teeth, we did a 2 week stint of dog sitting for the boyfriend’s parent’s evil scotty dog, but she never produced more than 2 poops a day. maybe it’s just our dog, or maybe it’s a puppy thing, but puppyface here is generating on average 4-6 piles of fun every day. needless to say, we tore through the stash of newspaper bags i had been hoarding from work in about a week. then we figured we could downgrade to plastic shopping bags, but were quick to find out (don’t ask-too horrific to recount) that they we not structurally sound, and too often came with holes already in them. so this weekend, we broke down and decided that we needed to go to the pet store and actually buy poop bags.
i’ll probably do some long winded post someday about how dogs are fucking expensive ($16 for flea drops! $20 for a bag of food! $90 vet visit!), but for today, i’m keeping the subject to poop only. doggie waste removal is an expensive proposition. we didn’t even go to the fancy pet store! we went to petco, and bought a package of 8 rolls (120 bags total) of petco brand pet waste disposal bags. $11.99!! it hurt, but we felt like we didn’t have a choice.
and then, we went to marden’s. sure, i talked shit about the new marden’s last time. and the women’s clothing still blows, and all the shoes are still made out of leather… but then i spied them from across the room- 4 packs of “bags on board” brand poop bags in fashion colors FOR $1.19 for 4 rolls. i bought 10, and have been plotting to go back and buy up the rest. that’s 600 bags for less than the price of 120! i felt a little guilty going back to the petco to return my purchase (it hadn’t even been an hour), but i gave the sad eyes to the cashier and told her that my boyfriend had given me a hard time about spending the money and not using shopping bags (sorry to throw you under the bus boyfriend!). but i’m trying to to feel too bad about it, because chances are those few rolls of bags they do have left at marden’s won’t last long, and the ones i just bought are not likely to even last a full year. petco will have my waste bag dollars soon enough, because if that dog knows anything (and it certainly isn’t how to stop biting my achilles tendons), it’s how to poop.
broke 207 
I took care of my sister’s dog for awhile at the beginning of summer– There is often a complimentary roll of dog-poop specific bags hanging on the fence down by the east end beach…we just included that part of the path in our walk (along with the garbage can at the top of the prom so we didn’t have poop-smelling garbage) and snagged a couple of bags to get us through the day… maybe it isn’t a long-term solution, but it could certainly help you stretch your stash to snag a couple every now and then.
apparently, there are no freebie poop bags in my area 😦 although i will be loading up at remote locations when i find them. i’ve also strongly considered jacking produce bags from the grocery store. is that totally wrong?
typically the poops do calm down after the first few months.
do you read dooce?
http://dooce.com/2010/07/12/wherein-i-return-my-roots
5 foot pools of diarrhea!! oh my! i’ve read dooce off and on, but never regularly. always brilliant though. god i hope the poops calm down soon! we’re pooping upwards of 6 times a day here. also, it’s all i talk about. is this why people get so boring when they have kids?
I spied a huge bin of these bags at Christmas Tree Shop this weekend (not the one in Portland but they usually carry the same stuff). I’m not a dog-owner so I didn’t notice the price but most likely cheaper than Petco and you can avoid giving your money to the dreadful Marden’s chain (I’ve fallen out of love too).
thanks for the tip! i definitely can’t see myself paying $12 for 8 rolls of bags. it was a foolish misstep. i never would have even thought about the xmas tree shop- i bet you a dollar they’re cheaper there than they are at petco. what a rip! why are you hating on marden’s these days? is the the lame contents of the new south portland store, or the affiliation with paul lepage?
Our Marden’s in Waterville has gone severally downhill since they moved into the old Wal-Mart building (I assume the lingering evil of Wally World left a curse on the building). You used to be able to find decent department store brands and the occasional designer gem (hello $5 Badgley Mishka sandals) but now it is all QVC and Target rejects marked higher than in the actual stores. I am not paying $15 for a dirty Mossimo shirt from last year. I also can’t stand Paul LePage and shutter at the idea of supporting anything remotely associated with him.
yeah, i definitely don’t feel good about supporting lepage in any way shape or form. but then there i go and cave to cheap poop bags! what is up with them moving into all the vacant wal-marts? the new south portland one still reeks of undercompensated employees and chinese child labor. that said, they do have a really killer selection of high end shoes right now. i don’t wear leather, so i had to leave them behind, but if you’re in the p-land area- you’re in for a treat. 🙂
i forget you city people have to actually leash your dog up, walk it, and pick up behind it. 33 acres + invisible fencing = win for lazy people like me. plus she kindly poops in the woods most of the time, so no shovel and fling involved.
thanks for stopping by to rub it in! we do have 2 really great parks & a dog beach within a block or two, but it’s still totally different than the country. there’s garbage everywhere, and i’m constantly having to pull cigarette butts and used tissues out of his mouth. UNSANITARY! i can’t believe that you have 33 acres! that’s pretty incredible. i love my city life, but i’m feeling a touch jealous right now.
“I excel in the field of poop generation” made me snort Vitaminwater.
a fine compliment indeed! i considered doing it “lol cats” style, but he’s just so damn dignified. i sort of picture him doing my taxes someday. he can’t possibly be worse at math than i am.
i reject your concept of a dignified puppy. there is no such thing!
i’ve always used shopping bags…sometimes i’ve got to double them (due to the holes you write of), but never has it crossed my mind to buy bags in which to put poop. (i’ve stolen a bunch from parks that provide mutt mitts, though). are the bags you gotbiodegradable? scented? they should be for any kind of cash…
it seems like robbing the free bag stash is the way to go. i know that buying bags is foolish and wasteful, bu they’re so convenient and sturdy! *shame*
we use grocery bags for cat poop disposal. but, because we are so very eco-conscious and take our own bags a lot, we tend to run low. luckily, one of the grocery stores we frequent has a big bin to recycle your bags, so we just swing by and grab a few bags full of bags on occasion. there is the occasional need to double them, but yes, they’re free.
When I run out of newspaper and grocery bags for my two dogs I buy the small 4 gallon trash bags – the scented ones that come in a roll. Costs a lot less than poop scoop bags especially if you can get them at a dollar store. Also, the higher quality dog food you feed, usually less poop because there is much less “filler” added to the food.
i think i could fit my whole dog in a 4 gallon trash bag! and apparently, we feed him the fanciest/best quality dog food on the market, so your theory about higher quality food= less poopin is BUSTED! at least in this dog’s case. he’s intestinally exceptional!