The purpose of dog walking can vary. For our two, I mainly want to get them out for the extra exercise, true, but I also like that it gives them some mental stimulation. Within reason, it’s their walk. If they want to stop and sniff every 15 feet, I am mostly okay with that.
We do have rules, like walking politely and listening (challenging with one 10 year old dog who never got taught basic commands and has some hearing loss), but mostly I am ok with what they want to do/where they want to go, as long as it’s not obviously or potentially dangerous. E.g., snake season is here so we stay away from places that snakes might like to hang out.
That said, I am very mindful of people’s yards. Zoey won’t poop on a leash, and she pees before we even make it out of our own yard. The other dog is an intact male, so yeah, he requires a bit more monitoring. He generally poops in the street and I do pick it up. We do a lot of our walking in the unlandscaped areas at the high school across the street, and I am not so concerned about a bit of pee there.
My last house was a townhome, and we did have That One Neighbor who was anal as hell about everything including her yard. I steered clear of her, but confess I did get a bit petty after I caught her helping herself to a wheelbarrow load of river rock I’d had delivered a few days prior but hadn’t had time to spread. For several months after that incident, for which she was unrepentant (“but you weren’t doing anything with it!”), any time her trash cans were out by the street I would toss my bags of dog poo in them.
