The products I loved: Dr. Becker’s Best named
By Dr. Marty Becker
March 27, 2010
Two days of walking around Global Pet Expo here in Orlando, looking at thousands and thousands of great pet care products. I have never had a more difficult time picking my favorites, and the list could be ten times longer, easily!
But I had to make some decisions.
The first “final cut” was a list of more than 50 products from companies as small as a one-person start-up to Fortune 500 mainstays, making the final choice very difficult.
The winner: The TAGNABBIT ($3.99) from Petmate. This company, which we’re proud to have as a sponsor, always brings a strong line-up of top-quality products to the trade shows. The winning product is also one of the show’s least expensive, am innovative clip for dog tags that allows pet-owners to switch collars on their dogs without having to struggle to move ID tags. The Tagnabbit will hit the pet retailers in July.
It’s always awkward to have a sponsor win the top slot, but this is the one product that turned up on every one of our lists, so I had to go with it.
Here’s the rest of my choices, the entire Top 10 of “Dr. Becker’s Best” for Global Pet Expo, 2010.
LOL DOG/WILD HARES
Our Pets
OurPets.com
Retail: $4.99 (LOL Dogs) and $6.99 Wild Hares
“Edgy” is the word with these products. Our team just loved the Wild Hares! The plush squeaker toys are truly hip, and engage a younger audience than many other plush toys. If you like Ugly Dolls for kids, then this is the toy for your dog. With black, red, emo colors and eyes such as x’s instead of a sweet circle … you will want to buy this for your cool 20-year-old son’s dog.
LOL Dog, made by the same company, takes the edge a bit further by incorporating emoticons from texting, chat and email groupes. Round plush squeaker balls with face themes such as caffeinated, zonked, devil, and angry… OMG, a dog toy for every mood. We see these becoming collectibles – get them all!
Kong Wobble
Kong
Kong Company/
Retail: $17.95-$19.95
Red. Big. Really Big. The Wobble is a ‘meal dispenser.’ The weighted base (sand) keeps the Wobble…well, wobbling (think weeble wobble and it won’t fall down.) Kong is known for toys that eliminate boredom and obesity by dispensing treats as the dogs interact with the product. The Wobble has a screw opening mid-way so you can put a meal of kibbles inside, close it back up, and let your dog enjoy working for their meal.
Doggie Doo Drain
DoggieDooDrain.com/home.php
Retail: $44.95
Pick up yard poo and put it in garbage can outside so it can smell and contaminate landfills? Not anymore. Dick Klauber, a former plumber, invented a better way to clean your yard.
This green plastic funnel shaped cylinder connects to your sewer or septic clean out pipe, which is already in your yard. You place the waste into the cylinder, rinse down with a small amount of water and replace the plug.
Done. Go drink your cocktail on your patio with your smell-free yard.
Wingabago
Playful Parrot
PlayfulParrot.com
Retail: $179.95 -$198.95
THE travel system for your bird. This clean plastic travel system is made to house your cockatiels to small Macaw on trip to veterinarian, across the street, or across the country. It looks like they took a medium dog carrier cage, turned it sideways, and made it out of clear sturdy plastic. The stainless steel door opens wide to allow you to interact with the bird. Vets love it because they can see the bird as they reach into the cage.
The best feature is the bird enjoys travel. Why? The cage is clear and the bird can see as they are being transported, riding in the car, or airplane (yes, FAA compatible.)
Cat In Style Butterfly Chase
Hagen
Hagen.com
Retail: $12.99
Finally a corrugated cardboard scratching board that is hip without costing you an arm and a leg. The design is stylish and curvy. One side looks like butterfly wings (cats love to reach up and scratch.) Mod purple sides with abstract floral give it a Miami vibe. The feline style continues with a matching bowl and collar. Play, scratch, and look good. Meowy-WOWY!
BioBubble
Freedom Pet, Inc.
Biobubblepets.com/
Retail: $99.99
Versatile, Versatile, Versatile. Animal habitat with multiple features. The top of the product is a clear half plastic dome. The BioBubble can be used as an aquatic tank (salt or fresh) and comes with an internal filter. The filter pumps 60 gallons an hour. This means more fish can co-habitate per unit of water than a tank with weaker filters.
A simple conversion kit raises the BioBubble and, ta-da, it is now a hamster cage or a reptile cage, or a butterfly garden. The land animal version offers accessories galore such as water bottle, food, cleaning trays, carbon filter system (no more smelly hamster pine shavings). Think of it as a “Have it your way, for any pet, ultimate cage.”
Power Leash
Absolutely New, Inc.
Absolutelynew.com
Retail: $39.99 and $49.99
Work out while exercising your dog. The power leash is a sixteen foot retractable leash with weights on the handle. Leash is controlled using just your index finger (better than the thumb lock), and the weights are balanced for cardio-fitness – yours, of course!
Pet Therapy Jacket
Warm Whiskers
warmwhiskers.com
Retail: $37.99 to $49.99
Veterinarians know how important hot or cold therapy is for an injured pet, and this keeps the packs where they need to be. We really liked this product, which we first noticed at the American Animal Hospital Association conference last week in Southern California. The packs secure with amazingly strong material that is easy to attach – and remove, too! Especially suited for pets with arthritis, hip dysplasia, post-surgical, ligament injuries, spinal disorders and more. And the jacket is reversible, for a softer fit.
AIR CATDITIONER
AirCatditioner
AirCatditioner.com
Retail: $299
Invented by a former New York City building manager, this product really caught our attention. As you can see, it looks like an window unit air conditioner, but it houses a cat litter box – and keeps it ventilated, too with hinged door in front. The hinged front has a small cat door. The box behind (which is actually outside, as a standard air conditioner would be) “stores” the litter box. The vents on the outside housing allows all litter box odors to vent outside, never inside.
The hinged door allows for easy servicing of the litter box. A shelf in front of the facing allows cat to jump up in order to enter the cat door.
These are my picks, but because we want to make sure to mention lots of good products, Gina, David and Ericka will be adding their impressions soon. Keep checking back!
Mikkel and I went through all 10 in a single take:
.
Great picks but I wonder how many are commercially viable.
Comment by bulldog marketing and sales — March 27, 2010 @ 12:35 pm
Love the tag switcher…LOL. Dogs can wear multiple collars this way.
And the kong meal dispenser would be tremendous for some of our more high drive Wirehairs that need this mental stimulation and to work for their food.
Comment by GWP Rescue — March 28, 2010 @ 5:07 am
I loved the tag switcher, too. My dogs have “swimming collars,” “everyday collars” and couple of “fancy collars,” and this little item makes switching tags a snap. I got one product sample, but I’ll be buying three more when they’re out this summer.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — March 28, 2010 @ 5:12 am
I saw the Pet Therapy Jacket the previous week at the convention of the American Animal Hospital Association. My friend Debbie and I were both impressed, and there was a lot of buzz about the product among the veterinarians there.
I really liked the R&D that went into the product, and I was glad to see it make the cut on Dr. Becker’s list from the many, many more products to choose from here at Global Pet Expo.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — March 28, 2010 @ 6:46 am
Love the lineup of products, Marty. Thanks for the digest. I pity you for having to wade through all that stuff, but we appreciate the work!
My favorite is the Warm Whiskers Pet Therapy Jacket - we use a lot of hot and cold therapy for injured and post-op patients, and this seems like a convenient way to do it.
Comment by Dr. Tony Johnson — March 28, 2010 @ 7:33 am
I’ve had my dogs’ tags on clips for years. You can get small clips with lobster clasps at any craft store for about 50 cents.
Love the Pet Therapy jacket. One of my dogs has arthritis, and this would be a huge help.
Comment by Jen — April 1, 2010 @ 10:48 am
I love the Doggie Doo Drain. The waste goes down the sewer where it belongs and my yard is kept clean - no plastic bags!
Comment by rod — April 5, 2010 @ 11:48 am
What happened to the Hyper-Pet Cool Down Doggy? I thought it was the best product at this year’s GPE.
Comment by Jayson Williams — April 6, 2010 @ 1:54 pm
To bulldogmarketing and anyone else interested, I can’t speak for other products, but I can guarantee you the Wingabago definitely is commercially viable. I own 5 and don’t want to even think what life with birds would be without them. Birds don’t enjoy the “den” that dogs and cats do. Most birds need to SEE what’s going on around them. Otherwise, they get extremely stressed. Stress then leads to illness, screaming, plucking - in other words, totally unpleasant situations. And for the few birds that need a cover now and then, the BagoWrap cover is available. Thanks Wingabago people! My birds and I love this product. Kudos.
Comment by birdlady — April 14, 2010 @ 7:07 pm