It is easy to think you stumbled into Kickstarter’s version of the Upside Down when you hear about Piqapoo, a hands-free device for picking up dog poop.
In fact, as unusual a concept as it is, for canine owners — or anyone who has ever had the misfortune of stepping in dog mess — it’s likely to be one of the most potentially useful crowdfunding campaigns.
“When I was first introduced to the Piqapoo product, I was really skeptical about it,” Gideon Hazan, the company’s CEO and a retail and consumer product guru with 25 years of experience, told Digital Trends. “It just didn’t look like it would work, but I agreed to try it on my dog. We went for a walk and when it finally came time for the dog to do its business, I couldn’t believe it: it was a dog pooping in a bag. I thought it was a fluke. It was only after trying it for a few times that I became convinced this was real. At that point, I agreed to take the [chief executive] job.”
Let’s not be coy — Piqapoo is a soft clip which attaches to your dog’s tail. When they poop, the excrement gets caught in a bag, which you can then throw away with a minimum of fuss.
Its creator talk endlessly about its wondrous ability to catch a variety of, err, consistencies of poop, and the quality of its leakage-free bags, but all you really need to know is that it is (apparently) a beautifully-engineered product which means you will never again have to go near a poop scooper.
“It looks like a simple solution, but it was anything but simple to develop,” Hazan continued. “Development started in 2008 and it was only in 2013 that they finally applied for a patent. From then until now, the team was testing and testing it on around 150-200 dogs. They wanted to get it right.”
Fortunately, you don’t have to carry out that kind of extensive testing yourself. (And here we were thinking being a designer was a glamorous job!) Instead, you can pre-order a unit for yourself over on Piqapoo’s Kickstarter page, where the silicone clip and 60 bags will set you back $29.
Shipping will take place in April — if your dog can hold on until then!
