The eternal damnation of picking up dog poop solved with a “Pupoon”.
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Walking your dog in a public space is a wholesome way to spend your time. Clutching a plastic bag of poop as you meander through the streets, less so.
And while we don’t want to sully your experience of reading the enlightening articles of HerCanberra, we do need to mention the fact that not all plastic bags remain structurally intact for the duration of the walk.
Enter mother of three kids, and mother of three dogs, Rachel Hawes.
The public servant loves nothing more than taking Westie Angus, and Schnauzers Baxter and Milo, out for a breath of fresh air and run in the park.
But after almost 20 years of plastic-bagging dog poop, she is over it.
Four years ago, a niggling entrepreneurial idea began to form in her head.
She had a lightbulb moment walking in the pine forest with the fur-kids.
“I thought why are people still walking around carrying stinky bags of poop, tying them to the lead, or slinking off and leaving the mess behind when there’s such a perfect solution like the Pupoon.”
Of course, she didn’t know then that she was going to conceptualise, invent, manufacture and sell the “Pupoon” but, it’s now an actual thing.
It’s a lightweight, burst-proof, airtight, self-contained, hands-free, all-in-one-container that seamlessly attaches to a dog’s lead, just like a cocoon.
Here, let us show you…
Those blue pupoons contain a multitude, and we mean a multitude, of sins…
Her idea got a major kick-start when the concept won a Canberra Innovation Network Innovation Connect grant.
“That really validated the idea and aside from providing the financial support to help me get it made, people really started to take notice of what I was trying to do without looking at me as if I’d lost my marbles.”
Since then, Rachel has got her head around industrial design processes, computer-aided design software, prototyping, pitching to entrepreneurs, injection and blow molding, production tooling, odour resistance properties in plastics, IP, ecommerce, fulfilment. Lucky designing the website to sell the Pupoon was a walk in the park.
Her daughter came up with the idea for the logo, and the other two kids have all helped out with photography, social media, marketing and business strategy.
Rachel also credits the industrial design team at Formswell in Dickson for helping her refine the concept and bring it to life.
And why should Canberrans be proud of this home-grown invention?
Because dog poop is repulsive. And it really should be avoided at all costs.
Of course, dog owners are encouraged to bag it and carry it home for disposal, but as Rachel points out “you can almost guarantee that shortly after setting out on your daily walk, they’ll take a dump right where you don’t want it … on the footpath, a neighbour’s lawn, or community park.
“Once you’ve picked up the poop, where do you put the stinky bag when you want to continue walking but can’t find a bin? Some people choose to dump the bag, which is arguably worse for the environment than leaving the poop behind.”
Dog faeces may contain microorganisms that cause illness in humans such as Salmonella, E. coli, Giardia and internal parasites. And some of these parasites get into the soil and can survive and infect for months or years to come.
It can also be a potential reservoir for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, meaning humans could develop bacterial infections that are difficult to treat through contact with dog faeces.
A recent Sydney study also identified dog faeces washed into storm water as a significant contributor to water pollution.
“When you think about all the science and understand how disgusting it really is to leave poop lying around in public places, you wonder why you see it so often and why communities put up with it,” says Rachel.
She has found her own studies of dog poop disposal culture to be rewarding in their own strange way.
“Now, I’m always equipped to clean up wherever we go, don’t have to put up with the stench – or the threat of bags exploding – and there’s nothing to carry because it’s all attached to the lead. The Pupoon has become as essential as the collar and lead on my dog walks, I won’t take them without it.”
“I often think dog poop disposal is the problem that nobody else wanted to solve because it is so gross! But if the Pupoon helps another dog walker, prevents someone accidentally stepping in poop, and can help keep our public spaces a bit cleaner, then I’m happy to have been the one to take it on.”
Pupoons retail for $50 with pre-orders open online at pupoon.com and the first deliveries expected in April.
