I love dogs to death, but they are disgusting creatures. Poop gets everywhere, pee gets on you, and throw up gets re-eaten. Be warned if you can’t handle the subject of poop I would not suggest reading forward.

One of my first holidays I worked in the kennel I got a wonderful surprise; a dog had decided to paw print paint his kennel with his poop. The smell was absolutely atrocious and this white lab was now covered in brown patches that I had to bathe off him. I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve had to pick poop out of paws and fur. Its especially bad with puppies because they will shamelessly step in their own poop then jump up on you (which is one of my favorite things).

It’s really interesting how dogs react to situations they are stressed about. A good one is when you give a dog a nail trim and it’s like they become a loose noodle and let go of all the bodily fluids inside them, on you of course. One story that makes me laugh is I was giving a huge golden retriever a nail trim once and he was great, he just laid there and let me do it, but after he got up I saw he did a massive poop that was hiding under his body. Its very common for dogs to poop when stressed or scared and that equals lots of clean up.

I am also amazed at how some dogs will eat anything including poop and throw up. I have a dog at home who will actually wait until the other two have gone out, so he can go out and eat their feces. I feel for the puppies who come in skinny so they think they have eat anything they get in their mouth (including rocks), but I do not want their nasty breath or kisses on my face. And for some dogs its not “oh its been there a while I’m gonna go eat it,” it’s a I have to sprint with the poop scoop before they can get it because they are running to eat it.

I could probably go on, but I think you get the picture. My job is a whole lot of poop and dogs who really don’t care about having their own fecal matter on, around, or in them. It really doesn’t bother me much, except there are some smelly days I will never forget.