Innovative Pet Products Brands
There is a story behind each of our brands. Our brands were born under the influence of our vets and their desire to improve oral hygiene for both cats and dogs. The evolved over time to encompass exquisite design and functionality for the benefit of the pet as well as the owner. The products in our branded family continue to evolve in response to consumer demand.
OH Bowl® for Dogs
Our journey started with the OH Bowl®. We were working with two vets trying to design a product to improve the Oral Hygiene (hence OH) of our dog. The portion of vet costs associated with dental work had been increasing for lots of reasons and was a serious health issue that needed to be addressed. We worked on two principles: stimulating the tongue to produce more saliva that in turn leads to healthier teeth and gums; and scraping the tongue to reduce odor-causing bacteria. The solution is the similar humans when your dentist tells you to scrape your tongue using the back of your toothbrush or with a tongue scraper, but you forget to do so most of the time. No forgetting with OH Bowl® as the tongue is naturally scraped at the end of every meal.
Our idea was to integrate the tongue scraping and increased saliva production into a daily routine without requiring extra effort from the pet guardian. We settled on some designs to make a feeding bowl using rubber and a directional flow to get the desired outcome. We overcame the problem of getting the dog’s tongue to travel over the scraping faces correctly by using raised guides that force the tongue to travel in one direction. Testing using a transparent OH Bowl® shows how far the tongue will stretch at the end of a meal across the bowl. The first prototypes of the OH Bowl® were a big success and we launched into production with a medium and large size for dogs. We designed the product to be dishwasher safe and easy to manage. Over time, we added a small size and added more colours. We have OH Bowl®s that have lasted more than 3 years of daily use, although we note that the rubber scrapers will wear down with use, which is what you want to see.
The most popular OH Bowl® for dogs are made in Medium and Large sizes and come in five different colours to suit any home's colour scheme. Our latest addition, small OH Bowl® for dogs, is currently only available in green.
OH Bowl® for Cats
The OH Bowl® journey did not stop there. After receiving requests from cat owners to make an OH Bowl® for cats, we re-designed every aspect of the product to cater for cat preferences, starting with changing the shape of the bowl – very low at the front and higher at the back, to take away whisker stress and stop the cat’s whiskers from touching the sides of the feeding bowl. We also enlarged the scraping pad to provide greater stroking of the tongue resulting in increased stimulation and saliva production for the cat. As an added bonus, the much thinner, shorter angled bristles on the pad may help in removing some of the hair accumulating on the cat’s tongue although the results vary greatly by each cat.
The OH Bowl® for cats is available in one size and five different colours to suit any home's colour scheme.
Throbizz®
ThroBizz® was created when we tried to throw our dog’s favourite ball with a standard ball thrower and found that the ball would not fit into the throw cup.
Like many other dogs, Mackie the West Highland Terrier, had several different balls of different sizes, shapes and textures. We started working on a thrower that could throw pretty much anything, and that started us on the long journey to perfect the ThroBizz®. After numerous prototypes, re-engineering and robust discussions with the US Patent Office, we finally broke through. The revolutionary design incorporates unbreakable stainless steel springs that flex backwards and through 180 degrees, giving us a design that could pick up and throw virtually anything. We added a longer handle to get greater throwing distance that outperforms most other throwers. Our job was done, and our dog was happy.
But we didn’t stop there. We designed rubber balls and rubber objects that would bounce at random angles, replicating the experience dogs had of chasing smaller animals that don’t just run in a straight line, but jink and dart from time to time, requiring the dog to hone its sense of balance in changing direction as well as mental focus and engagement in being prepared to change direction.
ThroBizz® is available in three colours to complement any dog owner's colour scheme.
Slodog®
slodog® is the best no-gulp slow feeder on the market. Most slow feeders work by putting obstructions or maze-like structures to make it difficult for the dog to get to the food. The dog actually has to chase the food around the bowl in order to eat. This can be extremely frustrating to the dog and can cause unnecessary stress and anxiety.
slodog® is a unique approach to slow feeding or anti-gulping. By changing from a bowl to a plate, a much larger surface area becomes available to the feeding dog. All the food is in plain sight and does not have to be chased, this avoiding frustration. We designed a simple and elegant device that splits the meal into multi mini meals by spreading the measure into lots of small shallow pockets. The dog simply eats one mini meal at a time. If the dog tries to eat from two pockets at a time the food just falls from the dog’s open mouth.
slodog® is a logical and simple invention. It is specially designed for a relaxed no-stress feed time. Our testing has shown that slodog® can slow the dog’s feeding down from a few seconds to many minutes!
Specifications
- Suitable for all up to 2 cups/ 500ml. Best with dry food
- Size 35 x 26 cm/ 14" x 10"
- Made from food grade PP
- Currently going through patent application
Colours
slodog® is available in five colours:
- Green
- Orange
- Blue
- Pink
- Black
See our video on how it works:
LickiMat®
Our third product was the now world-famous LickiMat®. By now, the third generation OH Bowl®s were being designed with an increasing focus on oral hygiene, and we were keenly looking at other applications to improve oral hygiene and well-being. Our vets kept talking about how much cats soothe themselves by constant licking, and we noticed Rubi, our Great Dane, coming back from Doggie Hotel with blisters on her feet from excessive licking caused by separation anxiety. We put 2 and 2 together and started to test whether dogs could be tempted into licking something else to reduce their anxiety and couldn’t go past peanut butter and yogurt for dogs and tuna oil for cats. A regular bowl wouldn’t work, as it would take no time to empty, so our wonderful chief designer did her magic and we started with a few prototypes and they were all successful from the get go!
As we started our product testing with friends and family, we started getting feedback that the best time to use a LickiMat® was just before leaving home. This way the dog (the original testing was mainly with dogs) was kept busy whilst the owner left but more importantly in some ways, the owner felt less anxious leaving the dog behind knowing it was having a healthy treat and would be busy for quite a while. By magic, we discovered that a less anxious dog means a less anxious parent or owner! This was definitely a lightbulb moment.
We focussed on the mission to train the pet’s brain that your leaving home was a time for fun and pleasure, not stress and unhappiness. For the pet - and the owner!
As more friends started trying the LickiMat® we started getting feedback that cats were enjoying not just their treats but also their meals on the LickiMat® - no whisker stress with an easy to clean surface. It turned out that cats loved the LickiMat® just as much as dogs!