Photograph: Doggy Bathroom
The setup is straightforward, but with the rails, attaching the four different pads can be time-consuming, and their placement can feel precarious. It took me a while to get the clips on just right. It’s not the end of the world for a pad to slip every now and then, but when it does it defeats the purpose of this system. (Less of an issue for dogs who don’t lift their leg and don’t need that wall-to-wall coverage.)
Watch Your Tail
The Doggy Bathroom is available in two sizes. I tried the standard model, which is 28 inches deep, 20 inches wide, and 16 inches tall. My French bulldog easily fits in the bin, but you’ll want to measure your fur baby to make sure the bin is big enough to hold them (and a potentially lifted leg). The company also offers the Doggy Bathroom Mini, which is better suited for smaller pups. If you go with the standard model, you’ll need to consider placement in your home. I live in a one-bedroom apartment, and I had a hard time finding an appropriate area to place the bin.
Photograph: Haley Sprankle
Photograph: Haley Sprankle
The Doggy Bathroom–branded pee pads aren’t your typical blue-and-white sheets. These have a faint window-pane design and are shaped to fit the dimensions of the Doggy Bathroom. (Instead of the standard 22- by 23-inch size, these are 27 by 13 inches. The design of the pads may be more discreet, but it’s more difficult to replace them with washable pads or third-party Wee-Wee Pads. The good news is they are highly absorbent (turning liquid into gel), have an attractant to lead your pup to pee there, and deodorize the odors.
It wasn’t too difficult to get my dogs to use the bathroom in the bin. They both used pee pads when they were younger, so this must have felt familiar to them. Plus, I found that once my pups pee somewhere once, they’re likely to go back to that spot time and time again.
There’s one big elephant in the room. You need to place four pee pads to cover the entire Doggy Bathroom with the rails installed, which means that, depending on your dog’s aim, you might have to toss out all four at the same time. That’s wasteful compared to the one or two Wee-Wee Pads you might use at a time. It doesn’t quite make up for the waste, but it might be a consolation to know that the pee pads are made of ecofriendly biodegradable materials. The bin is made of 100 percent recycled plastic, and the company says all returned units will be recycled, upcycled, or donated.
The Doggy Bathroom’s pee pads are $44 for a 100-pack, $69 for a 200-pack, or $69 with a monthly subscription (200-pack), though you can choose to have it delivered every one, two, or three months. A 150-count of Wee-Wee Pads cost around $56 on Amazon, so this pricing seems fair. It largely depends on how many pads you’ll regularly go through.
It’s definitely a lot of money for what arguably looks like a spruced-up storage bin. You can probably build your own little system for a fraction of the cost, and there are a few alternatives, but none of them look as attractive as the Doggy Bathroom. If the price isn’t egregious to your wallet, it’s nice having an indoor spot for your pups to go that doesn’t look atrocious. The dog-sized door fits them well, and the rubber base prevents slips. It’s just hard knowing that for the same price, cats get smart litter boxes with internet connectivity.