How do you deal with dog poop in the yard from tenant's pet

[Richard Benjamin Wilhite]

I'm "house-hacking" a duplex. I allowed the upstairs tenant to have a dog. It's in the lease. She pays modest pet fee per month. Over the last several months, the tenant has been letting the dog poop all over the yard and routinely doesn't clean it up. I text her, and she usually gets right on it, but most of the time she doesn't. And it keeps happening.

There's been several times that I've stepped in it, or my daughter (17 months), who plays in the yard, has almost picked it up before we stopped her.

There's nothing in the least about cleaning up the poop. I'm already not going to renew her lease due to other issues. She has four months left on the lease. 

[Kevin Sobilo]

@Richard Benjamin Wilhite, its unclear whether your expectations are reasonable.

For example, many pet owners allow their pet to run in a fenced yard or on a chain unattended. Then they periodically (perhaps weekly or bi-weekly) walk around the yard to clean up the poop. Unlike when walking a dog, they aren't present to see it happen or where so that is a common and practical approach to handling the issue for most people.

If the yard was to be shared as it sounds like maybe you needed a CLEAR rule to indicate that the dog cannot be left unattended and that any poop needs to be cleaned up as soon as it happens.

This may be more useful if you allow a pet with a future tenant as this tenant is already settled into what they are doing making it harder to change now.