Anyone walking a dog in the countryside can attest – there’s never a bin when you need one! We’ve carried full poo bags for MILES over the years on our dog walks, because there simply aren’t bins up mountains, deep in forests, or on rolling moorland. Don’t get us wrong – it would be a great shame to spoil these beautiful landscapes with bright red dog waste bins. But what’s worse is that some people choose to leave their dogs’ poo where it is, or tie it up and leave it on the ground as if that’s any better, or hang it in a tree like a bizarre Christmas bauble. (Seriously – what is that about? If you know any reason why this would be a good idea, please let us know!!)

That’s why, at a house sit in 2020, our minds were blown when we came across Dicky Bag for the first time. We’d just arrived at what is now one our our all-time favourite house sits to return to, caring for gorgeous Golden Retriever Bess in a sleepy village in Dartmoor. (As I write this, we’re sitting in their cosy lounge with a roaring fire and a sleepy Bess at our feet – it’s our third time here and we couldn’t be happier!) Chatting with Bess’ owners during that first meeting, they casually mentioned we could use their Dicky Bag for the duration of our stay. Upon seeing our confused faces, they explained how it works, and it quickly shot to the top of our ‘MUST HAVE’ list for our full time pet sitting adventures! We now have own our Dicky Bag (plus a couple of their other products which we’ll go into below) and we’ve been using it for the best part of a couple of months now. It’s now one of our absolute ESSENTIALS to take on walkies.

If you’re like we were back at that first sit in Dartmoor, and you’re scratching your head with no idea what a Dicky Bag is, here’s what you need to know about this revolutionary item:

1- It’s a portable poo bin!

Don’t worry – it’s not as bad as it sounds! The Dicky Bag has two compartments: one for storing empty dog poo bags, and a larger one for holding full poo bags. The top section is designed to accommodate any style of poo bag, whether a flat pack, or up to 2 rolls. (Or just bundles of them if you’re like us, and always seem to have fistfuls of poo bags in every coat pocket).

It’s perfect for taking on walkies as you don’t have to wait to find a bin, you simply pop the full bag into your Dicky Bag and carry on! It’s been a complete game-changer for us as we Go Walkies all over the country, from climbing high mountains in Wales to hiking over rolling moors in Dartmoor where we first used a Dicky Bag. We quickly realised during our daily hikes with Bess what an innovative and practical item it is – we couldn’t be without one now!

2- No odour

Dicky Bags are lightweight and soft with odour-proof seals and seams, so you don’t have to worry about the smell! Dicky Bags have their own Air Freshener Disks to put inside the bottom compartment to keep the Bag smelling fresh. We tend to empty our Bag after walkies and keep it open at home to keep the bag aired, though on a few occasions we’ve forgotten to empty the bag as it’s so odour-proof that you can’t tell it’s full! If that wasn’t enough, the Bags are also machine washable at 30 degrees so there’s no complicated cleaning required.

3- High quality materials

Each Bag is hand-made in Lostwithiel, Cornwall, by skilled workers who have years of experience working with neoprene. The Bags are hard-wearing and meant to be used for years and years of regular use. They’re all made with 4mm thick neoprene and are waterproof, so no water gets in and dirt can be quickly and easily wiped off. This is perfect for us as we’re out on walkies in all weathers, and it’s good to know that our Bag can be wiped clean in seconds (unlike us and our muddy clothes).

Dicky also produce their own bio-degradable poo bags, which say it all really!

4- A range of sizes and colours

Dicky Bags are available in a rainbow of colours, styles and finishes to suit you. We have the Neo-Skin Bag in plain black (of course – our team colours!) and it looks so stylish. There’s also camouflage patterns, rose patterns, dotted finishes and dog print fabrics designed by a local artist, and the list goes on and on.

To tailor the Bag to your needs even more, they are available in a range of sizes: Extra Small, Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large. If you’re unsure which you’ll need for your pooch, Dicky has you covered with their handy size guide, complete with videos. We found the Medium size is a good all-rounder – we used ours at a recent sit caring for three adult Labradors, and found it was the perfect size even if the girls went more than once on our walks.

5- The complete dog-walking kit

Dicky have a diverse range of bags available for different purposes, creating the perfect essentials kit for all your dog-walking needs. As well as our Dicky Bag for dog waste, we also have the matching Neo-Skin treat bag and Barney Bag. The treat bag is a small pouch with a slit in the top, which makes for perfect quick access to give out treats to good dogs! The Barney Bag has come in very handy on sits – we’ve put things like our house keys, dog leads, tissues, anti-bac gel and gloves in there. It’s incredibly spacious!

These three together really are the perfect trio! They’ve now replaced our back pack we used to take on walkies that would have everything bundled inside. You can attach your Bags to any type of lead, dog harness or bag using the carabiner clip. On longer walkies we attach all our Bags together with their carabiner clips and velcro straps, so we have everything we need for walkies in its own dedicated place. The fact that they’re all waterproof, high-quality and easy to use has made them the perfect quick-to-grab-and-go dog walking kit we’ve always needed!

For quick ‘toilet time’ walkies we tend to just take the original Dicky Bag and clip the carabiner to one of our belt loops or a jacket pocket, which makes it easy to grab poo bags when needed.

While we loved using Bess’ Dicky Bag each time we cared for her in Dartmoor, we have now been using our own Dicky Bag for two months and we take it on every single dog walk we do at our house sits. It’s showing absolutely no signs of wear and tear, and is just as fresh as the first day we took it out on walkies! The team at Dicky have done a really incredible job at not only coming up with such a unique solution to a well-known issue, but have created it in such a way that means our range of Dicky Bags will last for many more years of dog-walking to come.