This might shock some of you, but Lloyd poops a lot.  It’s hard to imagine, I know, but he does.  That’s not even the interesting part (and dog poop is FASCINATING to everyone, I know).  The interesting part is that Lloyd is deeply convinced that he can only poop in a new spot every time, to the point where he prefers to stick his head into a thornbush just to destroy a fresh patch of the landscape previously unsullied.  As far as he is concerned, he will continue to poop in a constantly expanding radius of devastation with our house at the centre, eventually covering the entire Carp River watershed with steaming St. Bernard poop.

Kind of gross to think about.

His plan would work too, except that Lloyd doesn’t know one thing:  his poop never hits the ground.  Unbeknownst to him (because I’m pretty sure he has never noticed) when I take him out for a poop I take a long handled scoop and hold it under his butt as he goes.  He poops right into it and is never the wiser.  As near as I can tell he is oblivious to the poop-knapping.  I dump it into a compost hole dug for this purpose alone, and we are both happy. 

The weird part is, if he’s so dumb, how does he keep track of where he has pooped if there is no evidence?  Even in the winter, a fresh 30 centimeters of wind-blown snow is no match for his mental map.

What kind of marker is left when a spot has been used that is invisible to my senses?  Some kind of radioactive marker, or permanent GPS tag that only his brain can keep track of?

I’m sure there is some kind of science at play here.  Any dogpoop doctorates out there who can help me to understand this?