Dog pooped in the pool

You were out enjoying some time in your pool and your dog pooped, interrupting the fun. What do you do? Find the answers to all your questions about cleaning your pool, and ensure that this doesn’t happen again!

 

Dog Pooped In The Pool

Dog owners know that poop happens! Your water play will be on pause for at least 24 hours while you take the proper cleaning and sanitizing steps. Begin training your dog now to understand that the pool is not a place for pooping to avoid the hassle of sanitizing your pool.

 

What Do I Do If My Dog Poops In A Chlorinated Pool?

1. Immediately get out of the pool. If it is a public pool, get all the people out and close the pool.
2. Remove as much poop as possible from the pool. Use a disposable bucket or net. Be sure to wear disposable gloves for your own safety. Do not vacuum the poop from the pool as it can break it apart, spread pieces around, and dirty the vacuum.
3. Disinfect the items used to clean the poop.
4. Remove your gloves and wash your hands properly.
5. Raise the chlorine levels in the pool immediately and maintain it at 2ppm for an hour. (This timing and chlorine level depends on the bacteria present. See the following section for more information on disinfecting).
6. Maintain the pH level at 7.5 or less for at least 30 mins
7. Ensure the filtration system is working.
8. Do not use the pool for the next 24 hours.

Does Chlorine Kill Poop In Pool

Chlorine can kill the germs from poop in the pool, but it does take some time, and the timing depends on what bacteria, viruses and/or parasites are in the poop.

 

Contaminants in dog feces include many of the common contaminants of human feces, including the E. coli bacterium, the Hepatitis A virus, the Giardia parasite, and the Cryptosporidium parasite. Cryptosporidium is the most chlorine resistant and hardest to kill, and you don’t always know when your dog has it. It would often present itself as diarrhea, but many dogs have the parasite in their feces without any symptoms. So while most pool-owners don’t want to test the pool to find out what contaminants the poop contains, it is best to treat the pool as if it contains Cryptosporidium to be safe, which should kill all likely contaminants. That being said, incidents of Cryptosporidium are rare. In a 1999 study, the CDC collected 300 random fecal samples, and none of them contained Cryptosporidium. If there is diarrhea in your pool, always treat it as Cryptosporidium. For a normal fecal sample, use your best judgement.

 

To disinfect normally, maintain the chlorine at 2ppm for an hour. To disinfect for Cryptosporidium you need to hyper chlorinate the pool. You will increase the free chlorine to either 10 parts per million (ppm) or 20 ppm. At 20 ppm the water should be clean after about 13 hours, and at 10 it should be clean after 24-26 hours. If you leave the pool at it’s normal chlorine levels of 1-2ppm, it will take about 10 days to kill the Cryptosporidium parasite.

Keep in mind that highly chlorinated water is not safe to swim in until it gets back down to at most 5 ppm, preferably 3ppm or less.

What To Do If A Dog Poops In A Salt Water Pool?

The process to disinfect your salt water pool is very similar to that of a normal chlorinated pool if you just use the super-chlorinate feature. A second option, however, is to shock the pool. You can buy many pool-shock products. One good option is calcium hypochlorite.

First, test your pool’s current pH, alkalinity, and calcium hardness levels. Balance to normal levels if necessary. To know how much product to add, read the labels for the proper product to water ratio. Turn on the pool filters, add the product, and then turn down the salt cell system generators for a few days, as the high chlorine levels will last a couple days. Your pool water may turn a cloudy blue color–this is normal. It means the shock may have killed off some algae and will filter it out.

How Long Do You Close A Pool For Dog Poop?

A pool should be closed for a minimum of 24 hours before swimming in it again, depending on your treatment.

Do You Have To Drain A Pool If A Dog Poops In It?

Draining the pool isn’t necessary as long as you follow the proper disinfection steps.

Can You Get Sick From Dog Poop In The Pool?

You can get sick from dog poop in the pool if it isn’t cleaned properly. The contaminants mentioned before, Hepatitis A, E. Coli, Giardia and Cryptosporidium are common contaminants that affect both dogs and humans. However, the strains of these bacteria and parasites are generally very different in dogs and humans, so the transmission is much, much lower than it would be if it were human feces.

There are, however, thousands of other strains of bacteria, parasites, and diseases that can cause intestinal distress if passed from dog stool to humans.

Which Dogs Are Most Likely To Poop In My Pool?

There are not certain breeds of dogs that are more likely to poop in your pool than others. The likelihood of pooping where they shouldn’t all comes down to the extent of their training. A dog that has struggled in the past with pooping where it shouldn’t is much more likely to poop in the pool than a well-trained dog that routinely goes to the bathroom where it should.

Do Dog Diapers Hold Poop?

Dog diapers can be very helpful in containing the mess! A normal dog may feel uncomfortable pooping in a diaper, but it will hold in the mess. It can’t however, be relied on in the pool. Even if a diaper seems to keep in most of the poop when a dog is in the pool, it may not reliably contain the spread of the contaminants in the poop, and the pool ought to be sanitized anyway.

Why Do Some Dogs Love To Poop In Pools?

There are a few reasons your dog may routinely poop in the pool. It may be that your dog is taking in an excess amount of water while playing, which stimulates the digestive system to move things along.

If it seems to be an intentional habit, your dog may have assumed from the beginning that the pool is a place for him to poop. Many dogs develop surface preferences when they are young, and perhaps the water is a surface the dog enjoys. This is a habit that can be trained.

How To Stop Dog From Pooping In The Pool?

To help your dog avoid pooping in the pool, let him in the water only after he has recently relieved himself. You can train him to poop in a certain area, and to poop on cue. Designate an area for pooping, and stop allowing play in that certain area. Put a scoop of your dog’s poop in the area, and allow the dog to sniff around it. Use a simple command like, “Go potty”. When he poops in this area, give him verbal praise and a treat. Avoid reprimanding him when he goes in other areas, especially the pool. Simply ignore him and don’t draw attention to it. Clean it up quickly so he doesn’t sniff around and associate it as another spot to go potty.

If the pooping in the pool continues, simply keep your dog out. It may help to get them their own pool that they can do what they want in.

 

 

References

https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/swimming/residential/cleaning-remediation.html