We’re now in our 8th year of working as full time pet sitters, so you can imagine just how many different dog care brands we’ve come across during our 150+ completed house sits. We’ve seen it all – from handy dog walking accessories, to safety items and so many different brands of poo bags we must have tried them all! Here we’re sharing the 6 dog brands that every dog owner, sitter and walker needs to know about – including our highest rated poo bags that never let us down!
Table of Contents
Dicky Bag
First up is the number one brand we recommend to EVERYONE with dogs. If you hate carrying full poo bags for miles on walkies when there are no bins in sight, but would never leave bags behind on a walk, then a Dicky Bag is a must-have item. Dicky Bag is a family-run business from Cornwall and their biggest seller is essentially a portable dog poo bin, with a section for carrying empty poo bags and an odour-proof section for storing full poo bags. Simply clip it onto your dog walking bag or your belt with the handy carabiner and you can store full bags until you reach the next bin – you’ll never have to carry a poo bag in your hands again! We truly don’t know how we got by without our Dicky Bag as it’s completely changed our walkies, especially on long hikes through the countryside where there are no bins around.



The Dicky Bag comes in an array of different styles and, after trying out a few different ones, our favourite is the neoprene bag as it’s water resistant and rain slides right off it – perfect for all weather walkies. Paired with the Dicky Treat Bag, with its useful slot for quick-to-grab rewards on the go, you’re all set for long walkies with your pooch! Plus if your bag needs freshening up, all Dicky products are machine washable so there’s no complicated cleaning involved. For more information about this revolutionary brand, read our full Dicky Bag review.
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Rover
If you need to find someone to care for your dog while you’re on holiday or at work, we highly recommend using Rover. The site connects dog owners with dog sitters, walkers, and doggy day care providers so you can find the perfect match for your needs. You can browse thousands of profiles in seconds by simply entering basic information such as the size of your dog, your budget, or the dates that you require pet care services. Once you’ve found someone you like the look of, you can tap their name to read their full profile which includes photos, details of the care they provide, and their availability calendar.
The best part about Rover is finding someone local to you that you can call on to care for your dogs time and time again, so you know your dog will be comfortable and happy with the same person while you’re away. We’ve had so many wonderful experiences as pet sitters on Rover, and have built strong bonds with dogs who we’ve now cared for dozens of times! In our opinion, it’s the best third party site for finding experienced and dedicated pet care providers in your area. Read our full review of Rover to find out more and once you’re ready to book your sitter or walker, use our code SUZES72456 for £15 off your first booking!
Earth Rated
As full time travelling pet sitters our daily lives look wildly different from week to week, but some day-to-day tasks stay the same – like picking up dog poo! It’s key to be responsible when disposing of dog waste, and we like to do our part by starting at the source – buying high quality bags made from recycled materials. Enter Earth Rated! Their ethos is creating thoughtful products to exceed expectations and make dog owners’ lives easier, with a focus on creating a lasting impact. Their range of poo bags are our go-to bags for every house sit we complete, and the ones we recommend to dog owners! All their dog waste bags are made from 65% certified post-consumer recycled plastic, meaning these bags give a second life to more than 5 million pounds of landfill-bound plastic each year. The bags come in 3 styles; refill rolls, grab and go, and easy-tie handles, and are all made to be extra strong and leak-proof – so there’s no unexpected tears or spills when tidying up after your dog! We favour the refill rolls for their ease of use while out on walkies (and for how well they fit in our Dicky Bag!).

Earth Rated also produce a diverse range of dog grooming products for every type of coat, as well as innovative and ergonomically-designed toys for different needs. Everything Earth Rated makes has been thoughtfully designed to make life with dogs simpler, with items that are friendly to the planet. When you buy from Earth Rated, you know you’re doing your part as a responsible dog owner.
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ChuckIt!
If you’ve ever seen an orange and blue ball in the dog park that’s so bright you can’t possibly miss it, then you’ve seen a ChuckIt! toy. We’ve come across thousands of different dog toys over our years as pet sitters, but ChuckIt! balls are consistently the ball we see the most at house sits with dogs that love to play fetch. Their bright orange colour makes these balls easy to spot in tall grass or on open fields, and they are incredibly bouncy to keep your dog running after them for longer! The Ultra balls are made to last with an extra-thick rubber core, and the smooth surface means we can easily wipe it clean and put it back in our bag so it’s good as new for doggos at our next house sit! As well as the Ultra balls, we recommend the Max Glow style for walkies in low light, and the Squeaker balls if your dog responds to squeaking sounds in their toys.
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As well as the balls, we also recommend an accompanying ChuckIt! ball launcher for saving your arms if your dog just keeps going and going! Like tennis balls and other dog toys, we’ve used a wide variety of ball launchers over the years but NONE compare to the quality of a ChuckIt! ball launcher. The high-quality plastic makes it a durable product, while the ergonomic handle means you can throw ball after ball in comfort. ChuckIt! ball launchers come in a range of lengths depending on how far you want to throw the ball (and how fast your dog can run!) but no matter the size, all of their launchers really send balls flying making ChuckIt! our go-to brand for exercising energetic dogs!

Tractive
It’s every dog owner’s worst nightmare to lose sight of their dog while out on walkies. After experimenting with a range of trackers, the best one we’ve found for ease of use and comfort for your dog, is Tractive. When you use a Tractive tracker, it’s easy to see why they are the market leader in pet trackers! Their range of tracking devices are designed to easily clip onto a dog’s collar or harness without affecting their movements, so your dog can explore happily while you have peace of mind that you’ll always know where they are, no matter how far they roam. Tractive uses cellular coverage to give you real-time GPS tracking so you can see your dog’s exact location on a map on the accompanying app. We’ve only once had to check the app out on walkies when a dog suddenly ran out of sight through heavy woodland while chasing a bird. We looked at the app and instantly saw their location on the map, meaning we could head towards their icon and be reunited within minutes (luckily the bird had flown out of reach!). In these circumstances, when a situation can change in seconds, it’s a huge reassurance to be able to easily and quickly locate your dog.

At home, Tractive allows you to create a custom area so you can receive alerts to your phone if your dog has left a certain range from your house. For example, if your dog has previously escaped through a hole in your fence, you can set the area to end at the boundary so you’ll know when your dog has escaped. You can also use the app to see maps from your walks, recording the distance and time of your walkies to enable you to look back on your adventures. This has been useful for us in the past as we’re able to show our clients the walkies we’ve taken their dogs on while they were away, and recommend new routes for them! The tracker battery is rechargeable with an included cable, and lasts around 10 days (this increases to a battery life of 1 month for the XL version that is suitable for bigger dogs) so you won’t need to constantly recharge the tracker. All Tractive trackers are 100% waterproof too, so you don’t need to worry when walking your dog in the rain, or if your dog suddenly decides to take a dip in a river! For how much peace of mind it gives us, we truly believe Tractive is a no-brainer for keeping your dogs safe.
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Mud Daddy
Along with picking up poo, another unavoidable element of owning dogs is dealing with muddy walkies! We’ve previously written a post about how we tackle muddy dog walks while pet sitting, but our top recommendation for easy post-walk bathing is Mud Daddy. The Mud Daddy is essentially a portable shower – it has a bottle to fill with water and a brush attachment, so you simply fill the bottle with warm water and use the brush to get rid of debris and dirt. This is especially useful if you need to travel in your car to walk your dog, as you can effectively and quickly rinse off muddy pups before they get dirty paws all over the back seats. But it’s not just useful for on-the-go showers – it’s also handy to keep by the door at home so you can use it to wash off mud from your dog (and your shoes!) before you re-enter your home. Compared to using a garden hose, the Mud Daddy uses 90% less water and works by pump action, so it’s a more cost-effective and environmentally friendly option. Plus it’s really useful on cold Winter days if your hosepipe has frozen!
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Mud Daddy produce a range of award-winning dog washing devices, including Shampoo Dispensers and The Mud Mummy with a rechargeable, battery-powered brush head to make a quick shower even quicker. Their designs are rigorously tested for quality control and are available in different litre capacities, so you can carry more or less water depending on the size of your breed or how many dogs you own. The Mud Daddy’s portability, versatility and efficiency is what makes this brand one of our top recommendations for dog grooming, so you can reduce the time you spend washing dirty dogs!

We are Chris+Suze
