Try this ID key

http://icwdm.org/inspection/scat.aspx

Perhaps raccoon?

http://www.harpercollege.edu/ls-hs/bio/dept/guide/gallery/evidence/scat/thumb.html

Racoons have been using our front yard for their potty.We couldn't figure it out at first either,but knew it wasn't a dog.Then the next door neighbor told me he saw a big animal on our fence,but he didn't know what it was called in english,so i asked him what it looked like,and he started telling me then said it looked like a bandito,so then i figured out racoon.When i told dh what we thought it was,he set up a small security camera we have just for this type of thing and sure enough,right there on the screen a big racoon.Now to get rid of it,don't know how we'll do that.

Kathi

Thanks, those are useful links. I guess it was a gift from a raccoon but a) doesn't really look like any of the photos of coon poop, and b) it seemed far too much stuff to be from even a large raccoon. The photos don't show scale well but it was at least twice, three times what my 30 pound dog can poop out on her best day. probably was a pound or more with ~20 of those pecan-sized palm nuts in it. Whatever it was I hope the dog doesn't get into a tangle with it!

Raccoons can easily kill a dog. They have long claws on their back feet and are extremely smart.

Coyotes will put out scat full of seeds. Here they will eat the Toyon berries in the winter, one reason Toyon is also called "Coyote Berry". Supervise your dog at night when she needs to go out, for her safety. 30 lbs is not a big dog. Not wanting to scare, but it's wise to be careful. Many pets in my neighborhood vanish in unfortunate circumstances. :(

Yes indeed, my neighborhood often has "lost little pet" signs on the phone poles and I always assume a bigger critter got them (one friend watched an owl fly away with her small dog!). I always supervise my dog when out at night, and usually she only gets to go into the pool enclosure, not the whole big yard. That's partly to keep her out of a tangle with a bigger critter and partly to keep her for rousting too many bunnies, twice she's gotten the better of a bunny and I _really_ hate having to deal with that. I guess the scat was a big coon, maybe a coyote although it didn't resemble coyote poo very much. We must have a new critter around, last night something stole a large bone that the dog had left in the ivy near the house.