An upcoming software companion for those tricky puppy months
A web application for puppy house training
The problem
Pupster was created out of personal need. My partner (a software developer), and I had just got an eight-week puppy, Duncan. We were determined to do puppy training right and decided to track his toilet trips.
Training a puppy is hard… and frustrating at times! When they first arrive home they need to be taken out once every hour to do the toilet.
Our first attempt at tracking his house training was through Trello. This worked but it wasn’t quick to bring up when outside while keeping an eye on Duncan.
A minimal viable product
We created exactly what we needed in the span of a few days. It had a limited set of features and very basic interface.
You could log three different events - a pee, a poo and a meal. A pee was the first option selected on launch as this was the most frequent event!
The app also shows when Duncan last pooped, peed or ate a meal. This helped with knowing exactly when the next time he’d need out was. It also includes a count for each event - this was especially useful when Duncan was unwell.
The future
The result of Pupster was a fully housetrained dog! We’ve barely used Pupster recently as Duncan is now a year old and fully house trained.
We’re now looking into evolving the app. Right now it’s all default Bootstrap components. I’m looking to evolve the look-and-feel by bringing in colour and a bit of personality. I’m even thinking we could use Duncan as a mascot!
We’re going to improve the current user experience. Right now it takes a lot of clicks just to log an event. We’re going to look into one-touch events. Since the most common action is to log a pee at the current time that’s what we’re going to prioritise.
Additionally, we’re going to add more features, including trends and reminders tailored to your puppy’s age. Check out my Dribbble for any sneak peeks.
