How to compost dog poo

The unfortunate reality of owning a giant breed dog is that they 1) eat a lot and 2) poop a lot.  Gus is no exception.  We have a small yard for the dogs to keep them confined while we are away from home during the day, and they are free to run around while we are home, with a couple of acres of house yard, however they do tend to poo in the small dog yard and that can get a bit smelly.  

While I spend considerable time collecting other types of poo for my garden (mostly cow and chicken), dog poo is not recommended, so how to deal with it?  I don't want to just put it in the bin (we don't even have bin collection here, so we have to drive to the tip with all our rubbish, which is extra encouragement not to make any).  

Composting dog poo away from your edible garden compost is a good option and EnsoPet dog poo composter from Biome (affiliate link) is a product that can help you do just that (of course you can also DYI something similar, but this is a nice looking system).  The EnsoPet dog poo composter kit comes with a robust plastic composter which is a bottomless cylinder (it comes in four parts and is very easy to assemble).  All you have to do is dig a hole, insert the cylinder, back fill around it and fill it up with dog poo!  

The kit also comes with tongs (with green tips so you don't mix them up with other tongs in your kitchen!!) and a special "starter" of microbes that like to convert dog poo.  All you have to do is keep adding more poo and more starter and keep it moist.  The fertility from the compost can be accessed by the lawn or garden surrounding the composter (non-edible plants of course).  I am just starting to develop this garden, so its the perfect time to add more fertility.  If this composter fills up too quickly I will have to add more.

You can also add other organic waste like leaves, bark, shredded paper etc to the composter, so if you don't think you have enough compost to have a worm farm or normal compost, you could just use this small system to avoid putting organic waste in your rubbish bin.

I really like the design of this system.  It has a removable lid and is blends into the garden nicely.  I have seen DIY systems using white buckets, but they look kind of ugly.  I don't mind having this one in my garden and it was very easy to assemble and install.

Do you have a big dog?  Or a dog poo problem?  Ever tried composting dog poo?

 ** Biome sent me the EnsoPet composter to try and I have shared my honest opinion of the product.  Thank you for supporting this blog by using affiliate links**