Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I am a petsitter who keeps other people's pets at my house and disposing of their waste made me research septic waste systems and the Doggie Doo Drain. In just a couple of days, I would literally pick up a half-bucket of poo from my yard. The pet septic systems I don't think could break the waste down fast enough before the next time so I decided to buy the Doo Drain and so far I am a big fan of this product. It is well made from high impact plastic and won't flex and survived several days of below freezing temperatures without any problems. I pick up all the waste in a bucket and go to the Doo Drain to dump the waste in and the funnel shape of it catches everything pretty well. There are some conditions one should follow when disposing of the waste for your sewer line's sake. 1) When picking up the dog waste, try to remove any twigs, sticks and leaves from the waste. The less hard organic material that goes down the pipe the better, who knows if it will break down or not and cause a clog! I use a dust pan and garden shovel to do the separating before I drop the waste in my bucket. I even put in cat poo from a litter box, but only from pine litter. 2) In cold weather like right now, it is best that after you pick up all the waste for the day that you don't drop the waste into the Doo Drain right away. Cold weather turns dog waste into a rock and if you try to dispose of too much waste into it at once it could back up your sewer line. Put water into the bucket and let it soak for the day and then the next day pour the bucket into the Doo Drain. People waste goes into the toilet water and breaks down fairly quickly so we don't have this problem, all I am trying to do is recreate the same conditions for the pet waste. In freezing weather, I just keep the waste in the bucket without water until warmer weather arrives. I live in central Texas so extended freezing weather is fairly uncommon, those in the upper midwest like Chicago I'm not sure what I would do. 3) When you drop the waste into the Doo Drain, I empty only a quarter of the bucket at a time to avoid overflow. Make sure you use a garden hose with a jet spray (but don't stand too close or the backwash will hit you) to break down the waste (even soaking in a bucket of water overnight doesn't entirely dissolve the waste) and make sure you can see the water running downhill in your sewer line. Since I take care of so many pets, I believe it is my responsibility to handle the disposal of their considerable bacteria and waste in a safe manner that does not involve plastic bags, trash cans or water runoff into storm drains. I do use more water to flush the waste and this product isn't that cheap so there are costs involved, but until dogs learn how to use indoor toilets like the rest of us I believe this is the best option for my situation. Those with toy dogs or single dog households may consider this option too much and not convenient, but you would be amazed at the pounds of dog waste a single Lab will create in just a couple of days. Don't want to be too preachy, but dog waste is becoming a considerable problem in the world and concerned consumers should do more research on how it impacts our environment if not processed correctly. "Flush the dog waste, save the world!" Yeah, that's pretty lame - I'm out. Update 1/03/2012 So I have had this product for about two years and it has held up really well. No discoloring of the plastic or deformation of the structure. I did have problems when I pea graveled my yard and was disposing of the waste with various gravel pieces mixed in. Turns out the pea gravel would not wash down so easily even with a garden hose spray gun streaming on high and was causing the sewer line to clog up. Had to use one of those balloon hose-end attachments to flush down the gravel and clear the line. After that, I diligently scraped any gravel from the waste before disposing of it and have not had any problems since. Here is some helpful information that I came across in Dog Fancy's Natural Dog magazine Spring May 2011 edition last year in an article "Reduce Your Dog's Waste Pawprint" by Tom Barthel. It describes the negative effects dog waste has on the environment if left unchecked and states that the EPA estimates that the average dog creates 273 pounds of feces a year. It is a really informative article and discusses various methods for disposal, such as worm composting, biodegradable bags, burying, flushing, etc., but some of the methods did have drawbacks to them which you should read about if you can find the article online. It does say that there is a growing consensus among environmental regulatory agencies and green pet authorities involves flushing waste and the EPA recommendations on dog waste disposal in a July 2001 reports "the most effective way for pet owners to limit their pets contribution to waste water contamination is to simply clean up and dispose of pet waste. As long as the droppings are not mixed in with other materials, they should be flushed down the toilet. This allows the waste to be properly treated by a community sewage treatment plant or septic system." The article does not mention the Doggy Doo drain, but I wish it had. This past Christmas, I decided to do some research and with the daily waste of the seventeen dogs staying at my house, I was curious to see if I could flush it all down my toilet and not use the Doo drain. My "research" was a very messy affair with splashing water from the toilet and multiple clogs resulting in a a quiet state of panic - why did I do this? Oh well, live and learn. I hope you get the chance to read the article as it does provide more background information and confirm how beneficial the Doo drain is concerning this problem. Update 8/2/14 My Doo drain is still in perfect shape after 4 years so that's cool. One of the things I learned over the years was after I picked up a daily bucket (mop bucket size) of poo with enough water to cover it and store the bucket it in a plastic garbage can with the garbage top on it, the methane over a few days will actually liquify the poo. This makes it much easier to pour down the drain. And this is true even in the freezing winter, which I was surprised about. A metal garbage can I believe would not provide a good seal for the methane gases and escape. Also I have the plastic garbage out in the sun, which provides even more heat to break down the feces. And you would think it would stink, but it does not if you have a decent plastic garbage can with a good seal. When you pop the top though, that is pretty rank. After 4-5 days the bucket gets full (even averaging 10-14 dogs per day), time to go pour it down the drain with hose water and my sewer drain never gets clogged because everything was liquified. So a helpful hint if you have had problems with the waste being too solid and creating clogs.