Pack-Out Ethics: Why You Should Never Bury Dog Waste on the Trail

After 30+ years on trails with dogs, I've watched the same well-meaning mistake play out at trailheads from the Colorado high country to Vancouver Island: someone scoops their dog's waste, looks around, and quietly buries it off the side of the path. They think they're doing the right thing. I understand the instinct. But burying dog waste in the backcountry isn't Leave No Trace — it's the opposite of it.

Here's what's actually going on out there, and how to handle it the right way.

DOG WASTE ISN'T THE SAME AS WILD ANIMAL WASTE

The most common thing I hear is, "Wolves and coyotes go out here all the time — what's the difference?"

The difference is diet and density. Wild animals eat from the ecosystem they live in, so what they leave behind cycles back into roughly the same place it came from. Dogs eat rich, processed, protein-dense food that has nothing to do with the local environment. Their waste carries excess nutrients that don't belong in that soil, plus bacteria and parasites — things like giardia, roundworm, and E. coli — that can persist in the ground and wash into water sources.

And then there's the math. One wolf might pass through a valley. On a popular trail, hundreds of dogs walk the same quarter-mile every week. That's not a natural cycle. That's a concentration of waste the landscape was never built to absorb.

BURYING IT DOESN'T SOLVE THE PROBLEM

Backcountry guidance for human waste involves digging a cathole six to eight inches deep, well away from water. People assume the same approach works for their dog. In practice, it doesn't — and most people aren't carrying a trowel or digging that deep for a dog anyway.

A shallow scrape a few inches down doesn't contain anything. Rain moves it. Snowmelt moves it. Animals dig it up. And on the rocky, root-bound, or thin alpine soils where a lot of us actually hike, you can't dig a proper hole even if you wanted to. The waste sits there, breaks down slowly, and leaches into exactly the watershed everyone downstream is drinking from and swimming in.

Burying it just hides it from you. It doesn't remove it from the ecosystem.

THE RULE IS SIMPLE: PACK IT IN, PACK IT OUT

The honest standard is the same one that applies to your granola bar wrappers and your dog's empty treat bag. If you carried it in, you carry it out. That includes the bag.

This is where the second well-meaning mistake comes in — the "I'll grab it on the way back" stash. You bag the waste, set it beside the trail, and plan to collect it when you loop back. Then you take a different fork, or you forget, or it's getting dark. Now there's a knotted plastic bag sitting in the woods, which is worse than the waste alone. I've seen those bags still sitting there weeks later. Don't stash. Carry.

HOW TO ACTUALLY CARRY IT WITHOUT HATING THE WALK

Let's be real about why people bury or stash in the first place: nobody wants to hold a warm bag of poop for the next four miles, and nobody wants their pack smelling like it.

That's a solvable problem, and solving it is the whole reason I built our Waste Wranglers. The Waste Wrangler Pro and Waste Wrangler Mini are sealed, odor-contained pouches made to hold used waste bags so you can pack everything out without smelling it the entire hike. You drop the tied bag in, seal it, and keep moving — the same way you'd carry out any other trash. The Mini is sized for short walks and smaller dogs; the Pro handles longer outings and bigger dogs.

That's the actual point of the gear: it removes the only real excuse people have for leaving waste behind. When carrying it out is easy and doesn't stink, you do it every time.

A FEW PRACTICAL NOTES FROM THE TRAIL

A few things I've learned that make pack-out second nature:

Carry more bags than you think you need — dogs have a way of going twice on a long day, and a spare bag covers you if one tears.

Use a sturdy, fully compostable or quality bag so it doesn't split in your pouch. We make Eco Poop Bags for exactly this, but the rule holds whatever brand you use: a cheap bag that rips defeats the whole purpose.

At the trailhead, dispose of it properly in a waste bin. Pack-out means it ends up in the garbage, not in the bushes near the parking lot.

If you're in a managed park, check the local rules. Many places — including a lot of the spots I hike on Vancouver Island — have specific guidance, and some sensitive areas ask you to pack out everything no matter what.

IT'S ABOUT THE TRAIL STAYING WORTH HIKING

I care about this because I want these places to stay wild for the next person and the next dog. The trails we love stay open, clean, and welcoming to dogs only as long as the people using them act responsibly. Every buried bag and every roadside stash is an argument someone will eventually use to ban dogs from a trail entirely.

Packing it out is a small habit. It's also one of the clearest ways to show you belong out there. Bag it, seal it, carry it, bin it — every single time.

Follow the howl, and leave no trace.