Pet Poop Diaries

AUSSIE GIRL IN THE YUKON

Aussie Girl columnist Kylie Campbell-Clarke is an Australian writer and photographer living in the Yukon. She adventures in the Yukon with her Canadian husband, two Yukon dogs Phil and Charlie and cat Howie.

‘POOP HAPPENS’ (AND WHEN IT ISN’T DISCREET, GREY IT’S EVEN FUNNIER) MATTERS

Sometimes dogs don’t get it right - especially when they are young like Charlie, who left a little surprise on the carpet instead of the yard

column with Lillian Nakamura Maguire Susan Clark is a retired family physician who has been living in Whitehorse for the past nine years and has three adult sons and two granddaughters.

COMMUNITY ECOLOGIES

My husband Ryan and I were walking our youngish pup, Phil, behind our condo. It stop laughing, to rescue this pup from his “poop debacle.” Yep, he pooped … all over his ning. Like all puppy parents (and I’m sure all human parents), poop bewas a typical spring day, with a light breeze and snow still caked around the woods. column with Our little pup, Phil, was rather a scaredy-cat dog; with the slightScott Dudiak est breeze, he’d twitch; and he’d run to me to pick him up if another dog came nearby. So he deScott Dudiak is a Whitehorse based biologist and sustainability advocate. Scott hopes to shift narratives veloped some very odd bathroom away from environmental doom towards community agency for change. He is inordinately fond of beetles habits. Pooping is actually the most-vulnerable time for a dog. and other overlooked creatures that sustain our human communities. You will note how they curl up into position and look around to ensure that no predators attack them. with CITIZEN We were walking up a hill and Phil was making his way off the KDFN PROFILEpath for his “poop position.” He nestled his paws around in the snow and rotated … the wrong way. This story was provided by Kwanlin Dün First Nation as part of its series featuring Citizen success stories. If you’re looking to find out more about Kwanlin Dün they invite you to read their His furry long tail was facing award-winning book Kwanlin Dün Da ̌ uphill as he squatted. Because of kwa ̌ ndur ghày ghakwadîndur Our Stories in Our Words. It’s the angle, he was practically sit- available through the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre in Whitehorse. ting where he had targeted his poop position … and we had to furry tail and bottom. The first day we brought Charlie home was super exciting. He was an overweight puppy who had some worm issues and made the weirdest noises, every time he moved, as if moving annoyed him. We had a small crate but he couldn’t quite sit in it, so we put him in the large dog crate we had, instead. He was pretty good (for a 10-week-old puppy) on his bathroom breaks. If he was in his crate, he would whine and immediately go outside to pee. We were so happy because Phil, our first dog, was the worst dog for crying after he peed himself. On our first night, I woke up at 3 a.m. and heard crying. Not surprising. So I went to his aid and opened the crate to find that he had, in fact, pooped himself and then rolled around in it. Yes, this beautiful white, pudgy puppy was now brown at three in the morcomes a normal conversation topic and item to deal with. So I yelled for Ryan to get up. His job was to clean the crate while I took Charlie outside. We needed to ensure “it” was all out of him. He clearly didn’t think pooping himself required whining to go outside, and he peed like he normally would. Once I brought him back inside and his crate was clean, we had to clean this pudgy puppy back to white. We Googled what to do. Everything we found said that the crate was too big, so we put him in the small crate for the rest of the night. It worked. The next night we put him in the big crate and he didn’t poop himself. Success! One of the joys of having a dog is that you often find odd things in their poop—earbuds, parts of toys, long human hair that strings their poop bundles together—and, because of these things, sometimes pooping doesn’t quite go according to plan. I was doing a quick pee-poop walk, right outside our condo door, with Phil. It was winter and because he is part husky, he had a double coat, which made him extra furry. Whilst outside waiting to pick up Phil’s poop, he started to struggle. You could tell by the “tail pump.” His tail pumped up and down like he was trying to jack a car up off the ground. He then started scurrying around, still in the poop position. I went to grab him and saw that he had poop half hanging out but still connected to him with what looked like hair. I screamed for Ryan because, at this point of being a pup parent, I had no idea what to do. I tried to pull the poop out of him but felt tension, which made me hesitate. Ryan came barrelling outside and then Googled what to do. He yelled, “Don’t pull it! It can damage if it’s connected to something. It says to cut it …” He ran back inside. Meanwhile, I was holding Phil by the belly, tail up, and telling him it’s all OK.

Ryan came back with scissors and didn’t want anything to do with the situation. But, unfortunately, it required two people. I said he could hold Phil or cut the poop (he opted to hold Phil). I grabbed the poop and cut, as Ryan gagged. Phil ran free and started scooting his butt on the snow, to clean himself. And the poop went in the garbage. ■ Photo: Kylie Campbell-Clarke

LESSONS FROM THE ROUND

column with Scott Boone

Scott was professionally trained by Safety Services Nova Scotia to be a driving instructor in 2010 and afterteaching for 2 years there, moved back to the Yukon in 2012. In January 2020 he launched Yukon Driving Academy. Scott has a love of driving and takes pride in seeing his students succeed on their journey to becoming safe drivers and wants to see the roads used in a safe and defensive way.

Stick with the WUY brand colours for the minimasts