User Guide

Welcome to PottyTime — the easiest way to track your dog's potty habits. This guide covers everything you need to know.

Getting Started

When you first open PottyTime, you'll walk through a quick setup:

1. Pick a color theme — Choose from 6 accent color palettes. You can change this anytime in Settings.
2. Sign in (optional) — Sign in with Apple to unlock household sharing later. You can skip this and sign in from Settings anytime.
3. Allow permissions — Location and notifications help PottyTime remind you when it's potty time and track where your dog goes.
4. Set your home location — Used for automatic reminders when you leave or arrive home. You can skip this and set it up later in Settings.
5. Add your dog — Enter your dog's name, breed, and photo. You can also skip this if you're joining someone else's household.

Logging a Potty Event

Quick Log

Tap the + button on the Dashboard to open the quick log sheet. Tap one of the types to log instantly:

• Pee — A regular pee
• Poop — A regular poop
• Both — Pee and poop together
• Accident — An indoor accident

A confirmation animation plays and the sheet closes automatically.

Detailed Log

Long-press any potty type button to open the detailed log view, where you can:

• Add a note (e.g., "loose stool", "marking behavior")
• Change the time to any past time (useful if you forgot to log earlier)

Logging from the Map

Long-press anywhere on the Map tab to log an event at that specific location. This is useful if you want to record exactly where your dog went on a walk.

Logging from Notifications

When you receive a potty reminder or home alert notification, long-press the notification to reveal action buttons (Pee, Poop, Both, Nothing), then tap one to log directly without opening the app.

Dashboard

The Dashboard is your home screen. It shows:

• Dog Switcher — Scroll through your dogs at the top. Tap a dog to switch. Tap the + to add a new dog.
• Last Potty — How long since the last successful potty event.
• Next Break Prediction — Based on the average time between successful outings over the last 2 weeks, when your dog might need to go next.
• Today's Activity — A breakdown of today's pees, poops, and accidents.
• Pull down to refresh data if you're syncing with a household.

History

The History tab shows all logged events in a scrollable list, organized by date.

• Calendar view — Tap the calendar icon to toggle between week and month views. Days with events are highlighted.
• Tap an event to edit it — change the type, time, or note.
• Swipe left on an event to delete it (with confirmation).
• Insights — Scroll down for pattern analysis: busiest times, average frequency, and more.

Exporting a PDF Report

Tap the export icon in the History toolbar to generate a branded PDF report. Pick a date range (last 7 days, 30 days, or all time), preview the summary, then share it with your vet, pet sitter, or anyone else.

Map

The Map tab shows where your dog's potty events happened.

• Pin mode — Each event appears as a colored pin. Tap a cluster to see individual events.
• Heatmap mode — Toggle to see a heat overlay of high-activity areas.
• Filters — Use dog filter chips to show events for specific dogs, date filter chips to narrow by time range, and the Walks chip to browse past walks.
• Home radius — If you've set a home location, a circle shows your home radius.
• Long-press anywhere on the map to log a new event at that location.

Walk Tracking

Start a timed walk by tapping the walk button (figure.walk icon) floating on the map. While walking, the app tracks your GPS route in real time and displays elapsed time and distance in a status bar at the top.

When you're done, tap Stop to save the walk. To browse past walks, tap the Walks chip on the map — this opens a list of your saved walks. Tap any walk to view its route drawn on the map with a green marker (start) and red marker (end).

Settings

Your Dogs

• Tap a dog to edit their name, breed, birth date, or photo.
• Swipe left to delete a dog (disabled when you only have one).
• Tap Add Dog to add another (up to 20).

Notifications

• Potty Check — Get notified when you leave or arrive home, asking if your dog needs to go.
• Quiet Hours — Set a time range when notifications are silenced (e.g., overnight).

Potty Reminders

• Enable scheduled reminders that fire a set number of hours after your dog's last successful potty event.
• The app suggests an interval based on your dog's patterns — tap Use Suggested to apply it.

Home Location

• Set or update your home address for home radius-based notifications.
• Adjust the home radius (how far from home triggers alerts).

GPS Location Logging

• Toggle whether GPS coordinates are saved with each event.

Appearance

• Theme — Light, Dark, or System.
• Accent Color — 6 palettes to choose from. The app icon updates to match.

Household Sharing

Share your dog's potty tracking with family members in real time.

How It Works

1. Purchase Family Sharing ($19.99 one-time) from Settings > Household.
2. Sign in with Apple if you haven't already.
3. Create a Household — You'll get a 6-character invite code.
4. Share the code with your partner or family.
5. They enter the code in their app (free to join) and instantly see all your dogs and events.

What Syncs

• Dogs and their profiles
• All potty events (with "logged by" attribution)
• Real-time updates — when one person logs an event, everyone sees it immediately and gets a notification.

Managing Your Household

• Invite code — Find it in Settings > Household. Tap to copy or share.
• Members — See who's in your household.
• Leave — You can leave a household anytime. If you're the owner, ownership transfers to another member.

Widgets & Apple Watch

Home Screen Widget

Add a PottyTime widget to your home screen for at-a-glance info.

1. Long-press your home screen and tap + in the top corner.
2. Search for PottyTime.
3. Choose small (last event + time since) or medium (last event + daily stats).

The widget updates automatically when you log events and matches your chosen accent color.

Lock Screen Widget

Add a PottyTime widget directly to your lock screen.

1. Long-press your lock screen and tap Customize.
2. Select the widget area.
3. Search for PottyTime.
4. Choose circular (paw print with time since last potty) or rectangular (dog name, last potty time, and today's stats).

Apple Watch

The Apple Watch companion app shows your dog's dashboard at a glance and lets you log potty events with a quick tap from your wrist. Your watch syncs automatically with the iPhone app.

Siri Shortcuts

Log potty events and check your dog's last potty hands-free with Siri. Shortcuts are available immediately with no setup required.

Voice commands:

• "Log pee in PottyTime" or "Log a pee in PottyTime"
• "Log poop in PottyTime" or "Log a poop in PottyTime"
• "Log both in PottyTime"
• "Log an accident in PottyTime"
• "Log a potty in PottyTime" (quick log, defaults to pee)
• "When was the last potty in PottyTime"
• "Check last potty in PottyTime"

Events logged via Siri sync to your household and update widgets automatically. You can also find and customize these shortcuts in the Shortcuts app.

Tips & Tricks

• Long-press a potty type to add notes and adjust the time before saving.
• Pull down on the Dashboard to refresh synced data.
• Swipe left on a history event to quickly delete it.
• Long-press the map to log an event at a specific location.
• Enable GPS logging in Settings to see all your events on the map.
• Set up Potty Reminders to get nudged when it's been too long since the last break.
• Use Quiet Hours to silence notifications overnight.
• Export a PDF from the History tab to share with your vet.
• The widget shows your dog's last potty time right on your home screen.

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