Bath Time…woo hoo!!!
photo courtesy of WEtv

Dirty dogs, muddy dogs, city dogs, country dogs…listen up! Are you tired of your moms, dads or friends of your mom or dad turning away ever so slightly when you get close? Maybe feigning a yawn to strategically place hand over nose? Are you just sick of overhearing conversations that start like, “Sorry if my dog smells. I bathed him last week but he just can’t seem to stay clean!” Quick, get your moms and dads; help has arrived! And in a gorgeous package, too.  (deeper issues of diet, dental problems or illness should be checked out with your vet)

My Experience

Sophie & her new
favorite skin lotion

Dog Fashion Spa entered into my universe when Sophie really needed help. I couldn’t find a product I liked to help with her dry skin and pads. She was taking fish oil and I brushed her every night to distribute her natural oils on the skin. But she’d still get some flaking and her pads were rough and dry. I didn’t like the waxy-based paw products. They are good to protect pads as much as possible from snow melting salts and hot pavements. But as an everyday paw conditioner, they were greasy, messy and not very effective. Elena Volnova, one of the co-founders of Dog Fashion Spa, was kind enough to send me some samples of her products, among them, their roll-on, that’s right…roll-on! nose & paw conditioner. It contains essential oils infused with vitamins and isn’t at all greasy. And the roll-on applicator is pure genius! After using that for a week, lo’ and behold,  her pads were smooth.  First product to do that for us.

They also offer skin lotion in two scents,  which we tried on Sophie’s chest and belly – rilassante and semplice. I personally loved the rilassante scent, but I’m told it’s about a 50/50 preference between the two. Again, non-greasy. I tried it on Sophie about 2x/week for a couple of weeks and the flaking went away. And when I tried it on my own hands, it worked like a charm! At this point, I was two for two, so I wanted to learn more about this company.  I set up a call with Elena and her partner, Domenico Ponti, and discovered a great story.

Elena & Domenico’s Story

Elena and Domenico are living the American Dream. Elena was born in Moscow and Domenico, in Sicily. They met working in corporate America at a large fashion company. She is a marketing, retail, finance and e-commerce expert. He is a branding and visual design artist. He’s a neat freak. She couldn’t care less. She is passionate about marketing. He is all about design. Together, it clicked, and over a glass of wine and some cocktail napkins, the germ of  the idea for Dog Fashion Spa was born.

Why Dog Fashion Spa? Elena and Domenico are both dog lovers. Frustrated with the quality of grooming products on the market and experiences with friends’ smelly dogs compelled them to find a fashionable solution.  But just putting grooming products out there wasn’t what they envisioned. They wanted to create something very special, to promote treating your dogs as well as you’d treat yourself (for some of us, that translates into “even better”). 🙂 The company motto is Quality Life For Dogs, and that says it all. They spent a lot of time experimenting with the right formulations and the right packaging. And it’s paying off. Dog Fashion Spa is rapidly becoming a company people want to be involved with. Professional groomers, dog fashion events, retailers globally and individual customers, like us. There’s nothing too good for our little princes and princesses.

Their initial collection provides a complete grooming hygiene routine for dogs:

* a shampoo and conditioner that are sulfate, paraben, synthetic dyes and GMO free. What they do have are all organic ingredients, vitamins, herbs and essential oils, which promote a healthy, shiny coat and have a calming effect on dogs at bath time.

* the skin lotions I mentioned, also containing essential oils and nutrients, which alleviate dryness and smell great, helping you stretch the period between baths

* the nose/paw moisturizer I mentioned, although I would recommend using one for just the nose and one for just the paw pads. Don’t think you’d want to pass germs from the feet to the dog’s nose.

* eye pads, especially great for dogs who tear and who collect what I like to call gunk in the corners. Not healthy. Not pretty.

* male (maschio) and  female (femmina) perfume scents. We tried the femmina and, while Sophie is not really a perfume kind of gal, it smelled nice.

* everything you’d need for a completely toxic-free dog mani/pedi, including nail files, base coat, top coat,  very cool polish colors, nail brush & polish remover

They even have adorable I ♥ My Dog wrapping paper!

But, How/Where Are the Products Made, Why is Proper Grooming So Important & What Does Elena Having a Masters Degree in Positive Psychology Have to Do With Any of This? Read on to the interview!

BaS: Elena, how/where were the products formulated?

EV: We partnered with talented chemists and people who’ve been developing dog products for years. We wanted to take it to the next level so we told them, ‘Don’t think about the price.’  We weren’t looking for a $1 jar. If something costs $1, I just walk away, because if I want natural ingredients, if I want the best quality ingredients and it’s not coming from China, it’s impossible to make it for $1. Our products are made in California, where I think the best products of this type come from. Organic and natural ingredient products, likes ours.”

BaS: Talk to me about the packaging. I’m sure you hear all the time how it looks like a human luxury item you’d find at Bergdorf’s or Neiman’s. Wow! Domenico, did you design it?

DP: I started with a vision and refined it, but after a while, you become tunnel visioned,  so I asked Elena what she thought. I came up with multiple choices and we poured over them, slept on it, came back the next day, taped it on the walls, on the bathroom mirror until you come out with the right product.

EV: At some point, it just felt right. Sometimes it hurts us because people don’t believe it’s for dogs. But it goes back to our philosophy about Quality Life for Dogs.

BaS: Why is proper grooming so important for our dogs?

EV: As dog parents, we shouldn’t compromise the quality of our lives and we should extend that to our family members. Washing them, cleaning around their eyes, making sure their paws and nose aren’t dry or cracked, that’s an important part of being a good dog parent, a responsible dog parent. It’s not hard to put together that if you don’t clean your dog’s paws after walking and they sleep in bed with you, that you will have more germs in your bed and around your house.

Bonding with your baby

DP: Let’s add, ‘Do you have a dog? Do you have children? Do you have elderly people in the house? Just think about that. What’s around your dog’s eyes? Yeast. You don’t think the baby is going to touch your dog’s face and then touch her own or put her fingers in her mouth? Of course, she is!

EV: Also psychologically, it’s a great way to bond with your dog. When you bathe them, you can spend time massaging the dog and connecting with him or her. It reduces stress and it’s good for us and for them.

BaS: On a much lighter note, mani/pedi kits for dogs?

EV:  This is one of our fun products! You’d be surprised, but it took us a year to find a formula that was non-toxic for dogs. I was obsessed with matching the dog’s nails with my nails. So, I wanted something that was good for me and good for the dog. The existing polishes we found were water-based and you couldn’t really paint your own nails with them and look fashionable. We found a formula that worked well being used on European runways with the colors we wanted. It’s great for holidays, Halloween and, these days, a lot of dog parents choose to color their dog’s nails and put a smile on other’s faces when they see them.”

BaS: To me, I think it requires a certain kind of dog to carry something like this off, but on those dogs, it looks great. But, are we going too far?

DP: I think you’re right. You may not want to put nail color on a Pitbull, but if you desire that,  that’s ok, too.  I do want to add that when dogs are dressed up or have their nails painted and people stop them on the street and give them lots of positive attention, they know what’s happening and love the attention. They feel good about it and we help give that to them.

BaS: How many colors are you offering at this point?

DP: We have six colors and a base and top coat.

BaS: Domenic, us girls know you have to have a base coat and a top coat!

DP: (Laughs) That’s right, if you’re going to go, go all the way, and we went all out!

BaS: Tell us about your fragrances.

EV: We put a lot of thought into our fragrances. We wanted them to be special and affordable. I believe if I spend close to $100 on my own fragrance, and my dog is important to me, I want to spend something for a quality fragrance for them, too. Our fragrances are $55.00, they’re made in the U.S. and we spent time developing a unique smell for her and a unique smell for him. The bottle comes from Italy. Our fragrance is luxury wrapped and it looks like a human fragrance. People are constantly making that mistake.

BaS: A lot of professional groomers use Dog Fashion Spa in their shops. What are the most frequent comments you get from them regarding what makes your products so good?

EV: They love the smell of the products, the results they are getting with the shampoos and conditioners on their clients. And they love the packaging. They also love the glass nail files we have. They’re imported from Europe, where the best files are made. You can actually see how much of the dog’s nails you’re taking off, they last forever, you can even put them in the dishwasher; you just can’t drop them.

BaS: Elena, you have a master’s degree in positive psychology. What is that and how does it fit into Dog Fashion Spa?

EV: In positive psychology, as opposed to traditional psychology, we believe that the past is overrated. It concentrates on the present and on the future. It’s about how we react to things that happen to us, how we handle them, and how we build resilience.

I believe in the bond between dogs and humans. And I believe dogs contribute immensely to our wellbeing. But it’s important to develop that kind of a relationship with them, because if you build a negative relationship, I can’t imagine being one of these people who abandon dogs but, look at how many shelters we have. Positive psychology has all kinds of applications in the corporate world, in education, in healthcare, you name it. But I apply positive psychology to educating dog parents about better, healthier and happier living with their dogs through our philosophy – Quality Life for Dogs – and our products.

You can find more information on Dog Fashion Spa here.

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Until next time…

(Disclosure:  If you choose to purchase any of the suggested items in this post, I will receive a small compensation from the company, which goes towards keeping Bark and Swagger up and running and towards the monthly donations I make to animal rights and rescue organizations. Thank you for helping out!)