Most dog waste removal companies make you fill out a form before they will tell you a price. We think that is a bad way to treat someone who just wants to know if this fits their budget.
So here is the number, up front, no email required.
$16 per visit. Weekly service, one dog, a yard up to a quarter acre. That is the most common plan we run in Madison, and it works out to $64 a month.
Everything below is what moves that number up or down, and why.
The full price list
| Frequency | Base price | Each extra dog | Each extra 1/4 acre | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | $16.00/visit | +$4.00 | +$5.00 | $64.00 |
| Bi-weekly | $28.00/visit | +$8.00 | +$5.00 | $56.00 |
| Monthly | $75.00/visit | 1 dog only | +$5.00 | $75.00 |
| One-time | from $120 | see below | — | — |
Base price covers one dog and a yard up to a quarter acre. Monthly pricing counts four weekly pickups, two bi-weekly, or one monthly.
Look at that right-hand column for a second, because it surprises people: bi-weekly is the cheapest plan per month, and monthly is the most expensive. More on that in a moment.
Why bi-weekly costs more per visit than weekly
This is the single most common question we get, and it deserves a straight answer instead of a shrug.
A week of waste from one dog takes a technician a predictable amount of time to clear. Two weeks of waste takes roughly twice as long — the piles are more spread out, they are harder to spot in grass that has grown since the last pickup, and there is simply more of it. We are pricing the pickup, not the calendar.
So $28 for a bi-weekly pickup is not a penalty for choosing less service. It is close to two weekly pickups' worth of work, done in one trip. You still come out ahead on the month, because you are paying for two trips instead of four.
Monthly is the same logic taken further. One pickup a month means four weeks of accumulation, in a yard where the waste has had time to break down into the grass and get harder to remove cleanly. At $75 it is our most expensive plan per month and our least popular, and we will tell you honestly that most dog owners are happier on bi-weekly.
Two restrictions come out of the same math, and you should know them before you get attached to a plan:
- Bi-weekly is available for up to 2 dogs.
- Monthly is available for 1 dog only.
Three dogs on a bi-weekly schedule produces more waste than a single pickup can clear to our standard. We would rather tell you that now than show up and do a mediocre job.
The fee people forget to ask about
If your yard has not been cleaned recently, your first invoice includes a one-time initial cleanup fee of $25 to $80.
Here is exactly how it works, because the vague version of this sentence is the reason people brace for a surprise:
- It is charged once, on your first invoice only. It never recurs.
- It applies when that first visit takes 25 minutes or longer — which is what happens when there is a backlog to clear before we can get you onto a normal routine.
- It is calculated at $1 per minute, and it is capped at $80. Even if your first visit takes two hours, the fee stops at $80.
- If your yard is already in reasonable shape and the first pickup runs short, you are not charged it at all.
That cap is the part worth underlining. There is no scenario where the initial cleanup fee runs away from you.
Add-ons, and which one actually recurs
| Add-on | Price | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Yard deodorizer | $20 | First visit only |
| Yard sanitizer | $40 | First visit only |
| Fly trap bags | $10 per bag | Per month, swapped every 4 weeks |
Deodorizer is an eco-safe enzyme spray. Sanitizer is a hospital-grade treatment for higher-traffic yards. They are mutually exclusive — you pick one — and both are first-visit only by policy. No one at Reporting For Doody can put them on a recurring schedule, so they cannot quietly become a monthly line item.
Fly trap bags are the only add-on that recurs. We swap them every four weeks and bill monthly.
Pet waste stations (the bucket plan)
If you have a waste station rather than a yard to clear — common for small multi-unit buildings and some HOA common areas — that is priced separately:
| Frequency | Price |
|---|---|
| Weekly | $8.50/visit |
| Bi-weekly | $10.00/visit |
| Monthly | $25.00/visit |
We sanitize the bucket, replace the bag, and haul the waste off-site on every visit. Larger properties should read our commercial and HOA services page instead — those are quoted individually.
What a real first month looks like
Let us do an actual household rather than a base-price fantasy. Two dogs, a yard around a third of an acre, weekly pickups, yard has not been touched in a while.
- Base weekly: $16.00
- Second dog: +$4.00
- A third of an acre falls into the up-to-1/2-acre bracket: +$5.00
- Per visit: $25.00
- Four pickups: $100.00
- Initial cleanup, first invoice only: $25.00 to $80.00
First month: $125 to $180. Every month after that: $100.
That is the whole number. There is no fuel surcharge, no per-gate fee, no seasonal adjustment, no minimum-term buyout.
What is included at no extra charge
Every plan, every price above:
- Fully insured, background-checked technicians in marked trucks and uniforms
- Eco-friendly off-site disposal — the waste leaves with us, it does not go in your bin
- The Doody-Free Guarantee: if we miss a spot, we come back and re-clean it
- A text notification when your pickup is done
- No long-term contracts. Cancel any time
- Local Madison-area dispatch, not a national call centre
The questions we get after the price
Do I pay per dog or per yard? Both, a little. There is one base price covering one dog and a quarter acre, then $4 per additional dog on weekly ($8 on bi-weekly) and $5 per additional quarter acre. A three-dog household on a half-acre yard, weekly, is $16 + $8 + $5 = $29 per visit.
What if I only use part of my yard? You are quoted on the area we actually service, not your lot size. If the dogs only use the fenced back third, tell us when you request the quote and that is what gets priced.
Do I get charged for a visit you could not complete? No. If severe weather stops us, we reschedule within the same week where possible, and you are never charged for a visit we could not complete. If you want to skip a week yourself, give us 24 hours' notice and there is no charge for that either.
Do prices go up in winter? No. The rate is the rate in February. We work through snow, slush and January cold — the whole point is that waste does not pile up and thaw out all at once in spring.
Do I have to be home? No. Most of our customers are not. We need gate access, and you get a text when the pickup is done.
What about a yard I share, or a duplex? If it is a small multi-unit building, the waste-station plan above is usually the better fit. Anything larger belongs on the commercial side.
One honest note on comparing quotes
Madison has a handful of dog waste removal companies and the weekly rates are genuinely close to each other. If you are collecting quotes, the per-visit number is rarely where the difference is. Ask about the initial fee, whether disposal is included, whether there is a minimum term, and who is actually walking into your yard. We wrote a list of nine questions worth asking any company you are considering, including us.
You can see the plans side by side on our pricing page, or the full breakdown with every bracket on the services page. If you are not sure whether routine service is worth it at all yet, we made the case with real numbers here.
Get your exact price
The table above will get you within a couple of dollars. For the real number — your yard, your dogs, your street — the quote takes about two minutes and does not ask for a credit card.
We service 27 cities across South Central Wisconsin. You can check whether we cover your street before you start.