Some women collect shoes. I collect bags. Not purses. Bags. I like utilitarian carry-alls and enjoy critiquing designs to figure out the most efficient way to keep my items close at hand in every situation–including keeping dog treats and poop bags at the ready.
My go-to for walks and outings has always been a basic crossbody treat bag/poop bag dispenser. For short training sessions, I have a small silicone pouch that attaches to my belt loop.
After a few years of dealing with foodstuff getting embedded into the fabric of the crossbody bag, I combined the two items: Shoving the silicone treat pouch into the crossbody bag to keep the bag clean. But the treats always made their way out of the pouch, or the pouch collapsed inside and I couldn’t get my hand in and out quickly.
When used on its own, the silicone treat pouch (which is no longer available for sale) didn’t hold many treats and it often fell off when clipped to my belt. It came with magnets to keep it closed, but they reduced functionality to the point that I took out the magnets, letting it flop open.
It made it more functional inside the crossbody bag, but it still wasn’t ideal.
Finding the perfect bag for walks and training is an ongoing hunt for me, but in January it became an urgent matter.
Pawista Pal: Dog Treat Pouch with Silicone Liner
It’s All About Volume
After a month of training my foster dog Skip on my own, it was time to level up to group training. His remaining hurdle was staying focused while around other dogs, which can only be worked on around other dogs.
Skip has what I term “anticipatory enthusiasm.” He becomes wildly excited when seeing a dog from afar, which he expresses by whining and eventually crescendoes into all-out puppy bark. However, being a 50lb dog and not a puppy, his large chest cavity projects it into a high-pitched scream that can be heard from five city blocks away.
He really needed to turn down the volume.
The first day I took Skip to class, I used the small silicone treat pouch on my belt. That was fine for short training sessions in the yard. However, part of the LARPBO training method is to pay your dog for desired behavior throughout the class, and Skip’s success of constant quietude meant I was running through treats at an extraordinary pace.
I had to step out of class and restock the pouch multiple times during the 45 minute class because the treat pouch didn’t have enough volume. I needed a bigger — and better —bag. My fingernails were full of treat crumbs and I couldn’t get in and out of the pouch fast enough.
Skip needed to decrease his vocal volume, and I needed to increase my treat bag volume.
Checking All the Boxes
Volume wasn’t all I was looking for. I needed a bag that was big enough to hold enough treats for a 45 minute training class, but also to be cleanable, to be secure on my body (I prefer crossbody over the waist fanny pack style), and to be easily accessible while also not dumping treats if I bent over.
Scrolling through Amazon I found a likely contender: The Pawista Pal Dog Treat Pouch.
The design checked all the boxes: It contained a removable box-bottom silicone pouch; it could be worn crossbody or on the waist; it held significantly more than my current bag while not being much larger on the outside (a TARDIS treat pouch?); and both the silicone pouch and the fabric bag could be closed to keep treats from falling out.
Specifications
- Bag Size: 5.9 x 2.76 x 6.9 inches.
- Strap Length: 30-56 inches.
- Treat Pouch Capacity: 2 cups.
- Available Colors: Black, Blue, Green, Grey, Pink.
First Impressions
First and foremost, this bag holds a lot of treats. Using Carna4 Duck as Skip’s main currency, I got a good two cups into the pouch. We certainly don’t need that much for our daily walkabouts, but for class it worked wonders! I did not need to refill even once.
The downside to utilizing the treat bag’s full volume is that the poop bag dispenser gets hung up. It’s a tight squeeze to get a roll in there to begin with.
The MyEcoWorld Poop Bags don’t have a core, yet a full roll barely fit. When the treat bag was at capacity, the poop bags couldn’t roll out due to being compressed from the pouch on the inside.
Had they adjusted the treat pouch a little or made the bag wider, it would have worked significantly better.
The crossbody strap and waist strap are the same accessory and attach in the same place. Rather than the cross-body attaching to the sides of the bag, it goes through the back as it does when on the waist, which makes the bag sit high above the waist, even when extending the strap as long as it can go.
The clip at the top of the fabric loop on the back gives you the option of using that instead of the strap.
There is a little zippered pocket in the front for incidentals, but I didn’t have a use for it.
Overall, I had high hopes for this bag and began using it daily, not just for training classes.
Out and About
The capacity was truly astounding. Using it for walks, I only refilled once every few days. Due to how high it rode when using the crossbody strap, I switched to the waist strap, securing the clip on a belt loop of my pants and using the waist strap as a safety.
I had never used the fanny pack style treat bags because I never found one that fit. This one has a strap long enough to get around my waist. I found that the strap did slide a bit, but since I had the clip, they acted as safety for each other and the bag never dropped.
Having it on the waist, it was easier for me to grab treats to throw at Skip. The fastest way to stop Skip from escalating in volume from a frustrated whine to an all out high pitch siren is to either get him to catch a treat in the air or throw a treat in front of him on the sidewalk to chase. I needed to be able to grab and throw quickly, and this bag was perfect for that.
I find that most magnets are either too strong or too weak, but this passed the Goldilocks test: It was just right. It easily snapped shut and stayed closed when I bent down to pick up poop, but I could quickly pop it open with just one finger to grab treats and it stayed open.
A Surprise Twist
It’s not a perfect bag overall, but I planned on recommending it … until last week when I saw that the stitching that kept the strap on was starting to come undone.
Skip hadn’t grabbed the bag or jumped on it. I hadn’t been rough with it. I just think that while the capacity of the bag was fantastic, they didn’t think about how much that would weigh.
The stitching just wasn’t strong enough to secure that much weight hanging off it for long periods of time.
At first I thought I would just lose the waist strap, but as I continued using it, it became evident that it was just one line of stitching holding both clip and strap loop on, which meant once it got past the clip, the bag would be useless.
Pros
- Large capacity for treats in a compact bag.
- Removable silicone pouch keeps messy treats out of the fabric.
- Light colored interior pouch makes it easy to see treats inside the bag.
- Box-bottom silicone pouch can be removed and used on its own.
- Waist strap is long enough to fit above-average waistlines.
- Has a clip for additional security to keep on the waist or for securing elsewhere.
- Has a poop bag dispenser.
- Magnetic closure has just the right amount of pull to keep it closed while easily opening.
- Interior pouch can be closed without closing top of bag.
Cons
- Bag sits a little too high above the waist when using the crossbody strap.
- Poop bag holder is a tight squeeze when the roll is full.
- Poop bag dispenser gets hung up and doesn't roll our bags if treat bag is full.
- The seam holding the clip and strap didn’t last.
Final Bark
I really wanted this to be the last treat pouch/poop bag dispenser I ever bought. The light-colored silicone insert makes it easy to see the treats and keeps the interior of the bag clean; the insert’s closure and magnets on the bag keep it closed when you want it closed and easily opens and stays open with you want access; and the waist strap is long enough for those of us with above average circumferences.
The poop bags getting stuck when the pouch was full was something I could live with by either loading fewer poop bags or fewer treats. But when the stitching snapped, my admiration for the bag died.
It’s not a big loss at $20, and if you need it for one event or one day, it might work for you. To be fair, it’s not a complete loss as the silicone insert is a great reusable container.
Skip recommends it because it’s able to hold a large volume of easily dispensable treats, and the odds of it snapping and him experiencing a windfall become greater by the day. But as a human, I cannot recommend the Pawista Pal Treat Bag for long term use.
And thus my search for a better bag continues.
