If there’s one thing that bugs me about living in a dog-friendly city, it’s all the negligent dog owners.

You know who you are.

A dog dropping blog is not glamorous, I know. But it needs to be addressed. When I go over to a house that has dogs, I am loathe to step foot anywhere that is not pavement, decking or stone. I just can’t trust that the owners have cleaned up after Fido.

And jogging off the sidewalks? Forget about. Even worse, sometimes the sidewalks have little land mines that must be dodged. It’s getting so that one cannot pick up one’s head to enjoy the sites and sounds for fear of stepping in some labrador’s leavings.

What’s the problem here, folks? You don’t like using a plastic bag?

This home, neighborhood and town/city issue came up the other day when I caught wind of this new stylized paperboard dog pooh picker-upper called the iScoopy Pal.

I’m no dog owner, but I once dated a girl who was, which meant I was, too, for a short time. I did the plastic bag thing. It was gross.

I’ve never used the iScoopy Pal, but right off I can see the advantage. First of all, it’s paperboard, so it can biodegrade. It’s not see-through, so you don’t need to look at the waste once it’s collected. Since the paperboard has some thickness to it, you don’t have that sense of touching the waste that you get with a plastic bag. Once collected, the iScoopy Pal closes up and can be carried without a grossness factor. It can also actually clip onto the leash for complete hands-free transportation. As the company says: Zero Touch, Zero Mess.

Here’s the only real downside that I see: A pack of 30 sells for $14.99. Yeah, $.50 per Scoopy. Let’s say Fido has to go three times a day. That’s $14.99 for ten days’ worth of doggie doo-doo. Or $45 for the month.

But then again, no one ever said owning a dog was cheap.

Check out the iScoopy Pal (good name? bad name? I can’t decide) YouTube videos to see how the product works. Don’t worry, they aren’t using real waste.

What’s your take on iScoopy Pal? Would you use the product to keep your yard and neighborhood clean?

iScoopy Pal