Description
Looks like the BarkBath is about to make bathing your dog at home way easier on you. Hehheh, but judging by the I-damn-well-better-be-getting-paid-for-this look on the face of that golden retriever in the demo video, the portable, system might not equate bath time with a trip to the dog park for Bonzo. Still, when you can set up the BarkBath system anywhere, and get through a major scrub down without destroying your tub, or ending up needing a major scrub down yourself, it will speed up the process, and ultimately make one of the chores of dog ownership and owned dogship easier on both of you.
The self-contained BarkBath looks, and pretty much sounds* and acts like a dog vacuum. It has a central unit with 2 tanks, one for clean, outgoing water, and one from dirty, incoming water. An 11′ hose extends from the tank, connecting to a shampoo reservoir along the way, and culminating in a nozzle attachment that shoots out bathing solution, slurps it back up through the fur, and then sucks away residual moisture.
The nozzle has a button that you press and hold to release water or a shampoo-water mixture as you guide it along your dog’s fur. When the reservoir is set to “Shampoo” the BarkBath sends soapy water directly to the dog’s skin while simultaneously pulling it–and dirt and residue–back up through the fur, and sending it into the dirty tank. When you release the nozzle’s button, only the vacuum portion continues, pulling out excess moisture.
BarkBath comes with a bottle of “no-rinse” shampoo, but the reservoir also has a “Rinse” setting you can use to be sure there’s no residual gunk left in your dog’s coat.
The BarkBath needs about 48 ounces of water to wash an 80-pound dog. The company compares this to the approximate 19 gallons you’d use in a tub.
BarkBath is a Bissell product, so even though it’s yet another idea seeking crowdfunding, it is almost certain to be manufactured and delivered to backers as promised. Whether or not it will meet its May 2017 estimated delivery date, or work as well as it says it does, remains to be seen. If you want to give BarkBath a shot, click here and pledge for one on IndieGoGo.
*If your dog is afraid of or regularly tries to attack vacuums, this may not be the product for him.
