Just caught up with this thread and have to say as a "responsible" dog owner it irritates the heck out of me seeing the way some people behave with their dogs.

The woman who walks miles away from her dog, if its a spaniel I know the one you mean. Had a few close encounters walking round the corner with our 2 to be greeted by a leadless dog.

And the ones who "walk" their dogs by just letting them off a lead. If you didnt want to walk a dog, you should not have got one.

There have been 2 occasions when I have been caught out. Once without a bag, all come out of my pocket in my garden without me noticing, and once with a rather liquid deposit. Mortified on both occasions.
Needless to say, on the first occasion I ran to a bin, grabbed a disguarded carrier bag and used that. And on the second, I covered it best I could, went home, got a bucket of water and disinfectant and went and washed the pavement.

On the flip side though, I have also encountered rude NON dog owners. While its ideal for a dog to foul in the gutter, sometimes they are a bit quicker than you. On this occasion the dog pooped on the pavement against a wall. Bags at the ready I was bibbed at then shouted at by a woman asking if I was going to be cleaning it up. Saying yes and getting on with the job was not enough, and she continued to moan at us about how other people behave.
Quite irrate by this point, I asked was my job of cleaning up good enough, to which she responded with "NO" and started talking about her children playing and not wanting them to go blind.

I then asked if I could possibly have some water from her home and I would gladly wash the pavement down, to which she also said "NO" So clearly NOT bothered about her children then.

By the end of it, we did not part company as friends, and I am not ashamed to say I spoke my mind. I know that any trace of dog poop is not nice, but there was NOTHING there at all, but that was still not good enough. OK, some people dont like dogs, but thats no reason to lay into someone doing the right thing.

The funny part was my girlfriend walking back over to me to see and help with the clear up, was apparently her setting the dog on the woman!

*rant mode off lol