The “Doggie Dooley” is a “miniature septic tank” for your dog’s special presents. A galvanized steel bucket with a plastic top, the Doogie Dooley is placed in a hole in your yard, filled with waste, water, and a packet of enzymes and bacteria known as the “Digester Powder.” The treated liquid will seep out of the Doggie Dooley and into your yard, which it will presumably help, not hinder, the growth of grass.
You have to add another packet of the Digester Powder every six months, but besides that it pretty much takes care of itself. Way more environmentally friendly than wrapping it up in plastic bags and tossing it in the trash. Not bad for thirty-three bucks.
I have a competitor’s product that uses the same principle to operate and thought I’d warn people seeing this for the first time. While these will work beautifully in many yards, buyers should try testing for water absorption before installing these if your soil has a high clay content. Dig a deep-ish hole that will hold about 4 gallons of water and fill it. If it hasn’t drained in 12 hours, do NOT get a pet waste digestor. You can imagine how excited I am to contemplate having to dig mine up now….
Temperature has a large effect on the rate of ‘digestion’. I bought one a few years ago and it worked fairly well during the summer in NJ. But once fall (and lower temperatures) came, nothing would get ‘digested’. Don’t even think about using it in the winter. I went bag to reusing plastic shopping bags.
This product has been around for decades – I remember seeing this in the pages of my Mom’s seed catalogs in the ’70s. Gurney’s, Burpee’s and others had this for sale way back when.
Ah, cool! Well, sounds like it’s proven technology, at least. (Unless it’s cold!)
I’d love one of these, but our yard access is through our downstairs neighbors’ apartment, so the only way we could get Porter’s (our bulldog) mess into a bucket would be to fling it over the balcony.
Wouldn’t it be just as effective to add the droppings to your compost bin? Anyone who would buy one of these would buy a compost bin, right?
#1 here again to add to new comments.
-Temperature matters, but clay/drainage matters more. I’m in Georgia, so temperature is definitely not the problem.
-Do NOT use compost that contains ANY animal (inc. human) waste on edible crops. Composting does not reach temperatures sufficient to kill E. coli and other harmful bacteria frequently present in such waste. Remember the E. coli in spinach recently? Very similar vector.
DON’T DO IT !!!!!!
i have used one of these. it A) dosnt work that well and B) is the most heinous smelling thing ever. it is worse than an open sewer in your yard. the idea of helpful compost is a great idea, but compost is not what you get. what you do get is a hole in you yard with a metal cap that you never EVER EVER want to open again. trust me.
TRUST ME !!!! dooley is BAAAAAAAAAD…
what’s with the claim that this fertilizes grass.
grass have shallow roots. it’s like dumping a bunch of fertilizer at one spot and hosing that down. it’s not going to spread far and would just go down. I would be surprise if any one bought this B.S.. it doesn’t even pass the smell test (pun intended)