Limnology (and Common Sense) Agree w/Peggy
One of the first "lessons" in my graduate school limnology class was that it's probably safe to drink the water 5 miles downstream from where a turd was dropped in.........but not if 250,000 were dropped in! Concentration and volume do make a difference! (Sorry, but in most cases one "solution to pollution is dilution".) So on one hand, limiting the amount of dog poop (or any other poop) in the water is just plain smart.Then there's the other hand......Lots of animal waste is deposited in the water naturally, and lots more un-naturally. Limit it when you can and when you can't, don't lose sleep about it.As for training a mutt where to go, I had a girlfriend who's Yorkie came sailing with us, so I kept it in the cockpit until it finally urinated then I washed it out the scuppers. When the time came for it to poop - same process. The dog had imprinted the cockpit as being the place to go, and I had no compunction with washing it overboard. (Didn't happend often, anyway!)Eventually, I solved the problem completely - broke up with her, and now don't have to take a Yorkie sailing!Michael O'