Does it work? The Potty Patch

"No more spots on the carpet, stains on your hardwood..."  that's the claim from The Potty Patch.  It bills itself as a great solution to doggy accidents.

Our search for some testers took us to The Spartanburg Humane Society

Over a period of hours we introduced the patch to Aurora, Sassy and Buddy.  Our main goal... to see if the Potty Patch lived up to this claim:

"The specially scented faux sod has the look and feel of grass that attracts dogs when it's time for them to go."

But unlike the dogs in the commercial, none of our testers seemed to stay on the patch for more than a few seconds, unless we bribed them with food. 

The instructions recommendation you "treat the grass with a pheromone spray."

But we found no mention of it on the website.  And despite repeated attempts to get in touch with the makers over a period of 5 weeks, the company never returned our calls.

The attraction claim in the commercial didn't seem to hold water, pun intended.  We tried it out on a number of dogs over several hours and it didn't work so we decided to leave it for several days.

Meanwhile, it only took minutes for Sassy to point out another potential flaw.

Seeing how easily Sassy kicked off the top layer made Katie Freseman with the Spartanburg Humane Society a bit weary of the patch.

"A lot of times when dogs urinate they will actually kick or scratch the grass where they just excreted so, they would, with a device like this I would be concerned that they would move the whole thing," said Katie.

That could leave you with the very mess you're trying to avoid.

There's also another potential problem.  The directions say the Potty Patch holds up to a gallon of water.

That's false.  We tried it, and you can see the results in the video... water pouring out th sides.

But the ad's claim that it holds a quart of water is true.

Fast forward five days, and we returned to the shelter to find Buddy, our long-term tester had not used the Potty Patch to urinate, despite his close quarters, though the staff says he did poop on it once. 

The conclusion: "Although the manufactures of the potty patch say that dogs are naturally drawn to the potty patch, buddy was not especially drawn to the potty patch so he would need training in order to use this product on a consistent basis," said Freseman.

That doesn't mean you're out of options.  At the same time we tested out a similar product called the Pet Zoom Patch. 

Papi, the dog, took to it.  So it might just be the dog.  But our human testers say there's another reason why they would chose the Pet Zoom over the Potty Patch.

"The Pet Zoom seems like it's a little more secure, it seems like it's staying in there better. But the Potty Patch seems like it will slide out really with the slightest touch," said dog trainer Sarah Hatfield.

The Pet Zoom is a half an inch deeper than the potty patch so the top layer stays on.

And by the way, that makes a difference when you're carrying it to dump out the waste.

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