This may seem silly for some people, but dog poop and winter and snow are not good friends. It is pretty impossible to follow your dog around waiting for them to poop only for the poop to be swallowed up in a fenced in backyard with 2 feet of snow - not to mention when things melt the poop is still there - but needs the drying time in the spring to scooped up successfully. As previous dog owners my husband and myself and anyone I know, knows that dogs poop in our yards in the winter and we anticipate the predictable big poop pick up in the spring when it dries from the sun and wind. So here is my question…
Should owners expect someone to do this knowing that snow just melted and in two days the big poop pickup would have been a really tough job and not to expect a house sitter to do this? BTW it wasn’t in the manual and nor was it discussed… Looking for opinions…
If you’re asking about a collection of old poop that happened before a sit started, to me, it’s ridiculous to expect the sitter to pick that up. It’s the homeowner’s responsibility. They can do it themselves or hire someone to do it. There are companies that pick up poop, for instance, or you can hire off TaskRabbit or such services.
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I was happy with snow! Before the snow fell, the problem that I had was to find the droppings on dark evenings (that started at 4 pm in Copenhagen) in the brown leaves in the park.
We’ve never had trouble picking up after our dog even during snow. But I’ll give benefit of doubt that there might be places or instances when someone might leave it for later in their own fenced backyard (where presumably no poor person would accidentally step in it).
Even if that were the case, though, how would it suddenly become the sitter’s responsibility to clear out accumulated crap that happened before their sit even started? A host who wants that done is someone I’d consider over asking and potentially entitled and think they’ve hired help when they haven’t.
If a host asked me such, I’d say, fortunately, it’s not with a sitter’s responsibilities to do chores from before a sit. There might be services you can hire for that, or of course, you can wait till your return.
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We have a dog w/ an un-fenced yard… I would never expect a sitter to pick up poop - it can be done anytime… so if you sat for me - no pooper scooper for you 
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@coastalcouplepei could you please clarify your post?