Natural Grooming Products—the Safe Choice for Your Dog

Throw out those chemical-laden pet soaps and shampoos. Natural grooming products that use only gentle, non-toxic ingredients are much safer and better for your dog’s coat and skin.

Regularly bathing your dog helps keep his skin and coat healthy and clean. But if you’re using commercial soaps and shampoos, you may be doing him more harm than good. Their ingredients can cause skin irritation, itching and even rashes, all of which get worse when the dog starts scratching, licking, or even biting the area in an effort to find relief. It’s time to toss these products and turn to something safe and natural.

“Mother Nature has created all the necessary ingredients to keep your dog’s skin healthy and clean,” says Louise Knight, who owns WashBar with her husband, Andy. “When I looked at some of the pet products on the market for our dog, Badger, I realized I had no idea what was actually in them. When I dug a little deeper I found they contained synthetic fragrances, fillers and other cheap artificial ingredients that I wouldn’t choose for myself, so why would I choose them for Badger? I wanted to know what ingredients were being used in my dog’s hygiene products, and I wanted them to have a real reason for being included. And that’s what we did with WashBar.”

From Bar Soaps to Sprays

WashBar offers a range of natural pet grooming products produced in New Zealand, including bar soaps, paw balm, shampoos, and a grooming spray. “Very few companies are dedicated to solid bar soaps for dogs,” says Louise. “There are pet grooming manufacturers that include a bar in their range, but it’s not their main focus. And there are soap makers that include a soap for dogs, but the companies are not dog-focused.”

Manuka and Kanuka Oils

Along with keeping your dog clean and healthy, WashBar products provide relief from scratching and care for minor wounds, thanks to their powerhouse ingredients, Manuka and Kanuka oils.

Manuka oil is known for its antibacterial, antiseptic and antifungal properties, while Kanuka oil is anti-inflammatory as well as antibacterial and antifungal. Both are steam-distilled from plants indigenous to New Zealand, and sourced from the remote East Cape where the plants contain the highest levels of triketones in the world. The more triketones, the higher the oil’s antimicrobial benefits.

Helping the Environment

Another part of WashBar’s mission is to help care for the natural environment. “It’s better for our dogs and better for ourselves, and that’s why we sell solid soap bars,” says Louise. “They’re packed in environmentally-friendly compostable cardboard boxes. I believe that every plastic shampoo bottle saved is a small step in the right direction, and makes a huge difference. To date, WashBar customers have saved just short of one million plastic bottles from landfill. And that’s just the start. Throughout 2022, we aim to save another quarter of a million bottles, and this goal will grow exponentially every year thereafter.”