The 10 Best Pooper Scoopers

Scoop In The Name Of Society

Of course, all of this pain and strife could be avoided if everybody just picked up after their pets.

Methods Of Disposal

I've never met a pooper scooper I would describe as durable. For 15 years I had a fantastic little beagle names Lwpos (a private initialism pronounced like Lupus, the Latin for "wolf"), and he was nothing if not an excrement machine. We burned through an average of two scoopers per year, though, to be honest we didn't take very good care of them.

Without placing a huge emphasis on durability, then, you can make your decision among the pooper scoopers on our top ten list by considering a couple of other variables.

If you live in an area where there is a lot of rain or snow come winter, or a lot of intense shifts in temperature and humidity over the course of a single day, your pooper scoopers may not last as long as you like. I was notorious for leaving our pooper scooper out in the snow and allowing its metal hinges to rust. A modicum of care ought to get you a few more years out of your pooper scooper than I could muster, but don't expect them to last forever.

Without placing a huge emphasis on durability, then, you can make your decision among the pooper scoopers on our top ten list by considering a couple of other variables. First, do you prefer the clamp or the rake? The clamp design works a lot like those reach-and-grab devices you sometimes see the elderly or the vertically challenged using at the grocery store to reach the top shelf. Instead of a C-shaped clamp at the end, though, these devices have two rounded shovels that slide underneath the target, effectively scooping it up.

The rake works more like a push broom with its very own dust pan. Unlike the clamp design, these require two hands to operate, so if you prefer a method that allows you to Instagram your scooping operations, you'll want the clamp.

Next, you should ask yourself if you plan to use bags at all, and if you want a bag directly involved in the scooping. This question really depends on how often you scoop. I was a weekly scooper, so I'd carry a bag with me and load up on the whole week's worth. Daily scoopers, or those of you who work on a walk-by-walk basis could get away without any bags, dropping the goods in a neighbor's trash can instead.

A Pile On The Political Landscape

Before the turn of the 20th century, there wasn't much dog training to speak of in the United States. During the Second World War, the American military trained and employed a significant number of soldiers to teach field animals how to sniff out bombs and mines, as well as how to cohabitate with their fellow soldiers. After the end of the war, these trainers returned home and put their newfound knowledge and skills to work, professionally training dogs to live more sweetly among us.

Before the turn of the 20th century, there wasn't much dog training to speak of in the United States.

Still, despite this increase in training, the general attitude toward anything these dogs might have left behind was one of avoidance. What the dogs did outside was their business, not ours. If there's anybody that can find the value in a pile of you-know-what, however, it's a politician, and in the 1960s, politicians with specific agendas would hide bits of personal legislation in the fine print of bills directed at ridding their municipalities' streets of poop.

The measures were immensely popular among city-dwellers tired of scraping the stuff off of their shoes, and almost nobody looked into the other provisions set forth in the bills. In short order, Brooke Miller of Anaheim California invented the first pooper scooper, a small scooping mechanism much like the rake and pan models on our list. By 1978, curbing laws had taken hold in San Francisco, New York City, and a slew of other cities across America.

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