Peta Lee meets the brains behind a local-is-lekker and incredibly successful range of pet shampoos.
I love doggy people. In fact any animal people. So I was fascinated by Kloof’s Joanne Taylor.
She’s an astonishingly clever woman. After a decade in the corporate world – an investment bank, nogal! – she’s now the brains behind a range of pet products, specifically: Posh Pooch. It all came about because of a little mutt she found on the side of the road.
“Senzi was just six weeks old, weighed half a kilo and was covered in bald spots and mange. He stayed at the vet for a week because it was suspected he had parvo virus . . . and then we were asked if we wanted to adopt him.
“We’d just moved to this new complex which has a no animal rule, but which had allowed us to move in with Zoe, our ten-year-old pooch, but anyway, we asked for permission to take on Senzi and it was granted. We actually knew that if we didn’t adopt him no one else would, because he wasn’t very pretty . . .”
Joanne’s family’s background was in the pharmaceutical industry. “They produce a cow dip for the dairy industry, which is specially designed for udder care. Cows are always dipped before milking, but the product must be gentle enough to not cause any harm, and must be water soluble and biodegradable. I bathed Senzi in the product every second day because his skin was so bad, and it worked like a charm. When I took him for puppy classes, everyone kept asking what I washed him with.”
The kernel had been planted. Joanne and her aunt, a chemist, got together and remodified the ingredients of the cow dip, took out the colour and fragrance and added sheer butter and aloe vera oil. “We gave samples to the guys at puppy classes, and they all loved it. Then we took it to Onderstepoort University in Pretoria, which is renowned for veterinary science, to make sure it was 100% safe for dogs. They ran a battery of tests, and proved that not only does it kill a range of bacteria and viruses, it also doesn’t dry out the skin and leaves the fur incredibly soft.”
She pointed out that if you use human shampoo on dogs, they itch horribly. In fact, she added: “If you knew what went into some of the commercial shampoos you’d never use them . . . and into some pet shampoos.”
A dog’s pH balance is different from a human’s, apparently. It’s more alkali, so she and her aunt worked with the scientists to meet the 6.5 pH requirement. Horses are 7 to 7.5, so she also produces a horse shampoo perfectly balanced for equine needs.
Her biggest challenge was getting people to take her and her products seriously. But tenacity paid off. Posh Pooch products are now SABS approved, and she’s just signed a deal to supply a national company with a range of pet products countrywide.
“The Highway area has been my biggest supporter,” she said. “Pet lovers here have been so encouraging, and have been the catalyst for us growing as we have. We’ve worked very hard on the brand, and with this new business deal we’re recreating a new range of five shampoos, including one for puppies, a hypoallergenic one and also one for problem skins … at the moment we’re producing 4,000 litres a month.” Did I mention she has a full-on factory with five staff?
She laughs when she recalls starting out. “I drove to every pet shop and vet in the province, and went to Gold Circle and offered to wash the race horses. There I was in gumboots and overalls, and I can’t tell you how many race horses I washed. The groomsmen explained that the hardest area to wash on a horse is at the top of the tail, where it gets hot and sweaty and they can’t scratch. The skin here is just like soft baby skin, so when they use normal shampoo the horses go nuts because it burns this sensitive area. With Posh Pooch’s aloe vera and sheer butter and the neutrality of the pH balance, these great big stallions just loved it.”
She’s still working on her Posh Pony range, she said, but the Pooch side is a cinch. “It’s been a case of trial and error for me, because my own dogs have been bathed in every single fragrance you can think of, as have my parents’ and friend’s dogs.”
Dog shampoo, she explained, kills the fleas that are on the dogs at the time, but the only way to eradicate them is a lifecycle killing programme with products like Frontline, etc. “A flea can jump on and lay 300 eggs in ten minutes, and then lie dormant until next summer. Unless you’re washing your dog every day, shampoo won’t be a permanent solution. Many people don’t realise that. I found all this out once I started doing research, but what was also scary was the pesticides contained in so many pet shampoos. In small print on the bottle is a warning to keep the product away from animals and children because it’s poisonous.”
She said all the ladies who walk their dogs in Memorial Park use Posh Pooch, including the chairman of the Afghan Association. “I’ve been blown away by their feedback and support.”
And just by the way, she gave me some Posh Pooch to take home. I washed my three dogs with it, and cannot, absolutely cannot, believe how soft their fur is and how they haven’t once scratched since been bathed. And they smell like angels . .
