Dicky Bags & Accessories

Dicky Bags were invented by Mandy  Davies and her husband Barry. Along with their children, they are just your average family who originate from a sleepy village in Essex, sold theirsouls to the devil when they worked in London but then woke up to the problem and decided to up sticks and move to Cornwall with no job to find a better life for their children and themselves.

Part of this new life involved getting a dog for a family pet. As dog owners,you will know that along with all the good things a dog can bring to a family they also bring a lot of crap  (literally).

As responsible owners we always pick up our dog's poo but are often then left with the problem of what to do with it then. There's never a bin when you need one, so you are either forced to continue the walk swinging a bag of poo, leave in a discreet place and retrace your steps to collect it at the end of your walk, put it in your pocket (yuk!) or in your bag if you're carrying one to potentially forget about for a few days until the smell become particularly rancid.

Mandy realised this wasn't a problem only she suffered with, when one day sitting in car after walking her dog she saw 4 other people go through the almost identical ritual she had done1 hour earlier. The dog poos, the owner picks up then does a 360 degree turn scouting for a bin. Upon the realisation that there isn't one close by continue on there walk but now they have the joy of carrying a smelly bag of poo too. This alone is bad enough but add in to the equation a small child and a dog that likes to chase a ball; you have entered dog walking hell! Do you: Hold the poo in the same hand as you hold the small child's hand or Hold the poo in the hand you throw the ball with running the risk of a poo spillage (don't even think about it). This is when she thought there must be something out there that can solve the problem, but after much searching by her husband and her they found nothing. They wanted a lightweight, soft but fairly rigid receptacle that would mean they could carry the poo that they had so conscientiously picked up and be able to continue their walk with both hands free. Welcome to Dog walking heaven! and welcome to the Dicky Bag!

As responsible owners we always pick up our dog's poo but are often then left with the problem of what to do with it then. There's never a bin when you need one, so you are either forced to continue the walk swinging a bag of poo, leave in a discreet place and retrace your steps to collect it at the end of your walk, put it in your pocket (yuk!) or in your bag if you're carrying one to potentially forget about for a few days until the smell become particularly rancid.

Mandy realised this wasn't a problem only she suffered with, when one day sitting in car after walking her dog she saw 4 other people go through the almost identical ritual she had done1 hour earlier.

The dog poos, the owner picks up then does a 360 degree turn scouting for a bin. Upon the realisation that there isn't one close by continue on there walk but now they have the joy of carrying a smelly bag of poo too.

This alone is bad enough but add in to the equation a small child and a dog that likes to chase a ball; you have entered dog walking hell! Do you:

1. Hold the poo in the same hand as you hold the small child's hand or
   
2. Hold the poo in the hand you throw the ball with running the risk of a poo spillage (don't even think about it).

This is when she thought there must be something out there that can solve the problem, but after much searching by her husband and her they found nothing. They wanted a lightweight, soft but fairly rigid receptacle that would mean they could carry the poo that they had so conscientiously picked up and be able to continue their walk with both hands free. Welcome to Dog walking heaven! and welcome to the Dicky Bag!

Although they had had successful careers in London, Barry as an advertising account director and Mandy as a theatrical agent and later running her own dance school and theatre school, neither had the knowledge or expertise to manufacture a product.

Living in Newquay, the surf capital, and being surrounded be wetsuit shops their first thought was to use neoprene. It's lightweight, semi rigid and the rubber can form an airtight seal. So they sought advice and took their ideas to a local neoprene factory and were greeted with a sideways glance and a chuckle. Never-the-less they came up with a prototype and although some small changes have been made even from day one you can appreciated the qualities of the bag and all the doubters have been made to think about the problem that exists either from personal experience or from talking to friends and agree that the Dicky Bag is amazing and is becoming very successful.

Its lovely fabrics, it's amazing the variety of neoprene you can get, so the dicky bag can be a fashion statement as much as a practical solution. Friends that don't have dogs still want to buy one because they look so good!

The Xtra Dog team have been trialing the bag for more than a year, and we all agree that this is a winner. It is inconceivable to us to take the dogs for a walk with out the Dicky Bag. Because of the clever storage system in the lid we know we always have clean bags no matter how many poos we have to clear up. We also choose to store the dog's ball in the bag so it's just pick up the lead and bag and off you go (not forgetting the dog of course!).

Dicky Bag is proud to be partnering anti-litter charity Keep Britain Tidy in their new campaign targeting irresponsible dog owners.

Dog Poo Fairy

Fortunately they have the help of a ‘Dog Poo Fairy’ to spread the message to educating pet owners to pick up after their dog and a lesser known fact that you can use any bin to throw away this mess, not just dog fouling bins.

Keep an eye out for the fun Posters and Stickers reminding everyone what they need to do with their dogs number two's!

Poo is no longer an issue with a Dicky Bag.