IF there is one subject that gets people’s emotions going it’s dog dirt.

The country seems firmly divided between the dog-lovers and the non dog-lovers but something happened in Lostock the other day that got plenty of people incensed anyway.

Writing on local website Next Door, a resident explained how she had been walking along a pleasant residential road in the area with her dog.

He had just done his business on the pavement and she was in the process of picking it up with a poo bag when a householder, “an older man”, started shouting at her for picking up the dog’s poo.

“He was upset that my dog had done his business near the entrance of his house,” she explained. “I said ‘but you can see me picking it up’ and he said ‘you should make your dog do it in the gutter’!”

As she pointed out: “Well, he’s a pretty good dog but not that skilled.

“A woman actually stopped and praised me for remaining so calm as she had heard the man’s ridiculous suggestion herself and, like me, couldn’t quite believe it. Never have I been shouted at for picking up dog dirt!”

Needless to say, the people who responded to this post were sympathetic to the dog-lover’s plight and couldn’t understand the householder’s point of view.

It does highlight, though, how annoyed some people can get about what they see as a perceived nuisance in their immediate area.

They just don’t want dogs doing their business anywhere near their homes and feel they have the right to stop what sounds like a perfectly reasonable dog-lover alleviating any mess by bagging it up and taking it home.

One respondent told how she had been verbally abused last year after picking up her dog’s poo in a biodegradable bag and then putting it through the water grid.

The complainers felt she should have taken it home, even when she pointed out that the bag was biodegradable.

“Then to cap it off, they also admonished me for my dog weeing ….. really! I just walked away – some people just can’t be reasoned with,” she added.

Unfortunately, it’s true that some dog walkers really don’t care about their dogs’ poo causing a nuisance and don’t see the need to pick it up and take it away.

One of my neighbours had a small patch of garden just outside their hedge on the pathway where they had plants and shrubs and kept it nice.

They had to plant hedges around it in the end to stop dog walkers using it as a dog toilet. Even then, it took a notice from the council to deter it happening.

However, most of the dog owners I’ve ever observed out and about are very responsible, take poo bags with them and use them to take home any mess.

I just hope that local dog walkers don’t take umbrage and make Victor Meldrew’s road a regular route for their daily walkies – definitely fireworks ahead!