IndiaAIFounders — Dog poop not picked up? Blame people staring at their phones.

Anyone who regularly walks a dog has likely felt the heavy pull of their smartphone to break up the monotony. Though the hustle and bustle of modern life makes multitasking more appealing than ever, distracted dog walking can put the pooch and its owner in dangerous spots. It may also contribute to piles of abandoned, unscooped poop.

That last point comes from a new study published in the journal Society & Natural Resources by researchers at the University of Surrey in England. The team spent 40 hours observing dog walkers across several sites in the Surrey Hills National Landscape southwest of London, to see how they actually behaved on walks. On 11 different occasions, they spotted owners so absorbed in their phone’s enticing glow or tuned out with headphones that they apparently didn’t notice their dog had relieved itself.

This abandoned dog poop, which the team artfully calls “pet fouling,” wasn’t the result of particularly ill-intentioned owners. Instead, the researchers say it was mostly a matter of distraction from the dirty task at hand. And poop wasn’t the only issue. Distracted dog walkers were also less likely to catch their dogs entering undergrowth or disturbing nearby wildlife and livestock. Unchecked smartphone use, in other words, inadvertently made walkers crappier neighbors.

“Dog walkers are often portrayed as either responsible or irresponsible, but our research shows that the reality is far more complicated,” Tom Roberts, a study co-author and University of Surrey Senior Lecturer in Environmental Sociology, said in a statement. “Most people care deeply about their dogs and the countryside. Problems frequently arise because their attention is divided or because facilities do not match how dog walking actually happens.”

Dog walking: a moral conundrum

Observing dog-walker habits gave the researchers a glimpse into how people morally negotiate the responsibility of shared spaces in their daily lives. Walking dogs in the protected region, that also includes farmland, means balancing the interests of the dog walkers, the dogs, farmers, and the natural landscape itself. Overall, the team says the majority of dog walkers they observed were responsible stewards. Most consistently picked up after their pets, with some even collecting waste left behind by other animals. They also tended to adhere to other polite conventions, like keeping their dogs on a leash and on specified trails.

But issues arose when digital devices got involved. Unscooped poop tended to happen early in walks, concentrated near parking lots and along busy paths. Dogs weren’t sneakily waiting to poop in unsuspecting bushes or flower beds. They were more or less dutifully doing their business on a schedule. It was their owners who were shirking the job, temporarily blinded by the pull of social media and emails. A researcher describes the scene in the following field note included in the study.

“Many wore headphones or were on calls,” they wrote. “Some paced a short loop while talking; others stayed by the gate scrolling on their phones as their dogs ran around the field with little supervision.”

The team also interviewed 15 farmers, land managers, and countryside business owners to get their thoughts on how best to share the space with dog walkers. Broadly, the recommendations were to try and work with the walkers, rather than aggressively enforce new rules or restrictions. The study recommends placing plastic waste bins near areas where dogs often poop to make cleanup easier. They also suggested adding dedicated off-leash areas where dogs can run freely without disturbing the environment, as well as friendly signage explaining why fouling the area can be harmful.

“While dogs can deepen human engagement with nature, they also shape how landscapes are encountered and used,” the researchers write in the paper.

Distracted walks aren’t great for dogs, or their owners

This study took place in the calm, rural English countryside, and even there, some walkers were still drawn to devices. It may be even more likely in urban and suburban areas, where dog walking can often feel less like leisure and more like an obligation to push through. But distracted walking can cause problems for dogs, both physically and mentally.

On the physical side, owners staring at their phones are more likely to miss their dogs gobbling a sharp bone or other dangerous litter that could wreak havoc on their guts. They also might not see or hear the signals their dog is sending, like if they are getting tired, which could lead to injury. Dogs communicate with us mostly using body language, so when they look up only to see their owners far away in cyberspace, it can make them frustrated. Distracted walkers also might not notice another reactive dog nearby until they are so close that a scuffle breaks out. Listening to music, especially with noise-canceling headphones, can also drown out the subtle sounds of quickly approaching cyclists or, more frequently these days, e-scooter riders.

“When an owner is more attentive to their surroundings, they can be proactive versus reactive to these things,” University of California Davis Veterinary Medicine Professor of Clinical Animal Behavior Science Melissa Bain said in a recent interview with HuffPost.

Mentally, distracted walkers give more attention to their devices than to their pets, leaving the dog confused. Dogs have evolved to look to our eyes for information, including feedback that reinforces whether they did something good or bad. When they check in and there’s no connection, wires can get crossed. They can also get anxious if they don’t have enough time to sniff around on their walk, something that can be exacerbated by a distracted owner hurrying them along. Some Animal behaviorists liken dogs sniffing things on their walks to reading the newspaper or, perhaps more fitting in this case, checking social media.

And though the University of Surrey researchers have recommended more cooperative ways of dealing with unscooped dog poop, others are taking more assertive action. Apartment complexes around the United States are increasingly using services that collect discarded dog poop, take DNA samples from it, and trace it back to its owners to issue fines. In some cases, companies that act as the “Poo Police” have even appeared in eviction court.

That’s all a lot of trouble that could potentially be avoided by taking a brief break from screens and being present. Past research has even shown that dog walking and seeing your dog have fun can improve the dog walker’s mood.

So, put down the phone and pick up some poop.