Here at Fresh Design, we sometimes get asked to give our opinion on products that fit in with our philosophy of a contemporary, modern home. We also like anything that’s a new take on a traditional idea, or that contributes to a home that’s clean and efficient to run. Recently, we embarked on what may be one of our quirkiest product reviews ever – the Clean Green Dog Loo.
Yes, that’s right – a dog loo! It’s from Armitage Pet Care, and offers a safe and environmentally friendly way to get rid of pet waste. The Good Boy Clean Green Dog Loo can be positioned in the ground in your garden and naturally flushes away waste instead of contributing to landfill.
The Clean Green Dog Loo has an RRP of £24.99 and is available from a wide range of high-street grocery outlets and pet retailers, such as Tesco, Amazon and Vet UK. The pet loo comes with everything you need, including five bio-activator capsules (roughly the amount you’ll need for one month). You can buy additional bio-activator capsules in packs of 15, RRP£4.99.
If you’re a pet owner, there’s nothing worse than having areas of the garden where you have to take care putting your feet, so the idea of this dog loo disposal unit appealed.
The package contains the unit itself, which consists of a bucket with a drainage unit that sits on top, a ‘poop scoop’ and a pack of bio-activator liquid capsules. The idea is that you bury the bucket in the ground and fill it with water. The drainage unit, also buried, sits on top of the bucket to stop debris falling in.
You add the dog waste to the bucket, and pour in a regular supply of the bio-activator, which breaks down the waste. When the bucket is full, you flush the whole thing out with water and the diluted waste is washed away through the drainage holes into the ground.
Then you add more liquid, and start again. According to the manufacturers, there’s no smell and the waste is safely disposed of.
We started by digging a hole of the requisite size – 24″ across by 27″ deep. We’re lucky enough to have an area of the garden against a back wall which is completely hidden, so we chose this for a site. The dog loo unit won’t work well on heavy, clay soil as it won’t drain properly, but fortunately this wasn’t a problem for us.
After digging the hole, the next instruction was to fill the bottom of the hole with rubble, stones and half bricks to provide good drainage.
Ah. Well, that’s not the sort of thing we have lying around the garden, so we grabbed a bucket and set off to beg some rubble from next door’s builders, who were rebuilding a wall.
After filling the bucket, they kindly offered to carry it back for us. “Erm,no, that’s OK, thank you,” we said.
“What do you want it for, anyway?” they asked.
“Gonnastalldogloothanks!” we muttered, grabbing the bucket and scuttling off amongst the bemused stares.
Once safely back in the garden, we completed the installation of the dog loo easily by tipping in the rubble, adding in the bucket and drainage unit and pouring in the water and the bio-activator liquid.
The Fresh Design verdict on the Clean Green Dog Loo
So, what did we think of the Clean Green Dog Loo? Was the pet loo worth it and woof-tastic?
The bad bits
The scoop that came with the green dog loo package was a bit flimsy and we ended up sticking with our own trowel, and the bio-activator liquid is an ongoing expense as you have to add one capsule a week.
The pet loo can’t be used on heavy clay soil, and wouldn’t be suitable if you had several dogs as the bucket is fairly small, and would probably fill up before the waste had a chance to decompose.
The good bits
After it had been in use for several days, the unit didn’t smell at all and showed no signs of filling up.
It was discreet, as the top sits only two inches above the ground and there was no way of telling what it was if you didn’t know.
It was great to have a ‘proper’ place to dispose of waste where it wouldn’t do any harm, and it’s much more eco-friendly than bagging waste and sending it to landfill.
Overall, it gets a big woof from us – it’s a great idea, at an accessible price.
Reviewed by Sara Walker, with special assistance from Monty the dog
More posts you might like if you love dogs:
- Delightful dog mugs
- Clever typographic dog prints
- Cute dachshund ring holder
- How to make money from dog walking
(Disclosure: The product was gifted for the purposes of the review, but all views and opinions are honest and our own).
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