Patent Application
20200079577
Pet animals may be housetrained or potty-trained in many different ways. For example, pet owners may utilize litter boxes, training crates, urine pads, pet potties, and other potty-training equipment for use indoors.
Examples of urine-absorbing sheets and dispensing devices for said sheets are disclosed. One example provides a continuous urine-absorbing sheet separable into individual sheet sections and positioned in a layered arrangement, the urine-absorbing sheet being separable at predefined locations in the sheet, and the urine-absorbing sheet comprising an absorbent layer and a liner layer.
Another example provides a dispensing container comprising an enclosure configured to house a layered arrangement of a continuous, urine-absorbing sheet, the enclosure having an aperture through which the sheet may be pulled, and one or more support structures for mounting the container to an inside of a kennel to position the aperture in a generally vertical orientation.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any or all disadvantages noted in any part of this disclosure.
For some pet owners, it may be challenging to housetrain their pets. Some pet owners may purchase urine pads or other absorbent equipment to place around the house at locations of likely urination. However, conventional urine pads are designed to be placed horizontally flat, such as on the floor, and may not effectively address the problem of spraying. Other potty-training structures, such as indoor litter boxes, may be prone to buildup of odors, may be a hassle to clean, and may not effectively attract certain animals to use them, such as dogs. Such training equipment also fails to address the problem of accidents, as they cannot protect other areas and household items not within the vicinity of the pad/litter box. Urine pads, litter boxes, and other existing potty-training equipment may also be easily damaged or destroyed by pet animals.
Accordingly, examples are disclosed herein that relate to urine-absorbing pads or sheets configured to address such problems, and to containing dispensing devices that may help pet owners to more easily protect and guard their home and furniture from urine damage. The disclosed example dispensing devices may house and protect urine-absorbing sheets inside of an enclosure, which may help prevent pets from tearing or otherwise damaging the sheets, while having an opening in the enclosure through which the sheets may be pulled out. Such a dispensing device may have a base to allow the device to be placed as a standalone object without being easily knocked over, and/or may have support structures configured to secure the device to a structure, such as to the side of a cage/kennel. Further, the urine-absorbing sheets may include an adhesive backing that allow the sheets to be attached to objects in various orientations. Thus, the dispensing devices may allow urine-absorbing sheets to be easily dispensed and attached onto or around desired structures, such as cages/kennels, pet carriers, furniture, walls, etc. to protect those items in case of accidents. As such, the dispensing devices and urine-absorbing sheets may be especially helpful for pet owners who have not yet potty-trained their dogs or have been unsuccessful in potty-training their dogs.
Dispensing device 300 further includes a cylindrical removable covering 304 that may be attached to the base 302 to form an enclosure. The removable covering 304 may be formed from a sufficiently hard material that may prevent an animal from puncturing, scratching, denting, or otherwise damaging the removable covering 304. The removable covering 304 may be formed from a material that is lighter in weight than the base 302. For example, if the base 302 is made from a metal material, the removable covering 304 may be made from a plastic material. In other examples, the removable covering 304 may be formed from a same material as the base 302, in which case the base 302 may be of a sufficiently large size to outweigh the rest of the body, or may be suitably weighted as mentioned above. The removable covering 304 has an aperture 306 through which a contained urine-absorbing sheet may be pulled. Although shown here as a slit-shaped aperture running along a length of the removable covering 304, the aperture may take any other suitable shape. In some examples, the aperture may take an L-shape, to facilitate pulling out urine-absorbing sheet sections vertically as well as horizontally.
The removable covering 304 may be configured to attach to the base 302 via locking features 312 on the base 302. The dispensing device 300 shown has three such locking features 312, as an example. The locking features 312 include a notch 314 and a protruding structure 316 configured to receive corresponding features on the removable covering 304 to secure the removable covering 304 to the base 302. Any other suitable securing locking mechanism may be utilized, such as latches, magnets, slots, snapping structures, etc. The removable covering 304 may protect the urine-absorbing sheet, while still allowing a user to remove the removable covering 304 to access the interior, replace the urine-absorbing sheet, and clean the dispensing device.
The dispensing device 300 further includes a center rod 308 configured to support a roll of a continuous, urine-absorbing sheet. This allows the sheet roll to rotate as the sheet is dispensed, in this case along a rotational axis aligned generally in a vertical direction. In some examples, the center rod 308 may be omitted.
The dispensing device 300 further includes support structures 310a and 310b configured to suspend the container, e.g. from the wall of a kennel or cage. Although shown here as hooks, any other attachment or support structure may be utilized, such as clips, magnets, ties, locks, suction cups, etc. Further, the dispensing device 300 may be configured to be hung in a generally vertical direction or a generally horizontal direction. The support structures 310a, 310b may allow the dispensing device 300 to easily transition between standing upright on the floor or being suspended.
As mentioned above, for each of roll 400 and stack 500, the continuous urine-absorbing sheet may be perforated at predefined locations regularly along the length of the sheet, such that the sheet is separable into individual sheet sections. In other examples, the sheet may be partitioned in any other suitable manner, or the sheet may not have perforations but may be able to be torn or cut however desired. Alternatively, rather than a continuous urine-absorbing sheet, a dispensing device may house preformed sheet sections.
It is to be understood that the configurations described herein are exemplary in nature, and that these specific embodiments or examples are not to be considered in a limiting sense, because numerous variations are possible. The subject matter of the present disclosure includes all novel and non-obvious combinations and sub-combinations of the various devices and configurations, and other features, functions, and/or properties disclosed herein, as well as any and all equivalents thereof.
