Brilliant For Keeping A Bernese Beautiful (John Paul Pet Instant Detangling Spray)

Member Name: FourPaws

Product:	John Paul Pet Instant Detangling Spray
Date:	25/05/09 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great at removing tangles, leaves the coat soft & shiny

Disadvantages: The scent may be a little bit too strong for some dogs

*What is the John Paul Pet Instant Detangling Spray?*
This grooming spray for dogs and puppies is part of a wide range of up market grooming equipment for dogs which includes shampoos made with every coat type in mind, a selection of sprays and conditioners and a variety of multi-purpose grooming wipes.

*The product itself*
We're now nearing the end of May, and before we know it, it'll be summer again- well, if we actually get one this year! It's the time for lots of nice things such as the days getting longer, the weather warming up and plenty of barbeques with family and friends. It is also, as all dog owners will know, the time for dogs to blow their winter coat, moult absolutely everywhere and leave tumbleweeds of hair rolling around your house if you do not vacuum at least twice a day! The 'joys' of dog ownership eh?!

Benson, as I'm sure you will all know by now, is a Bernese Mountain Dog, AKA- huge slobbery beasts with an amazingly thick, long, predominately black coat and whilst they moult a fair bit all year round, they completely 'blow' their coats every six months, once at the beginning of summer, and then again when the weather starts to get quite cold again, which takes an awful lot of work to keep on top of!

Benson, is, well, let's just say- the canine equivalent of the modern man, but he doesn't want to realise this! He is more high maintenance than most women and has more lotions and potions to keep him looking beautiful than what is stocked in the Body Shop. It seems if I am not at work, hovering, or walking the dogs, then I am grooming him as when he goes through one of his 'coat blows' he literally has chunks of loose fur falling off of him and I need to spend a good hour a day working on him to keep him looking at least somewhat presentable- and stopping people calling the RSPCA on me for doggie neglect!

But Benson doesn't like to make this job easy for me, he insists on charging through long grass and brambles on a daily basis, trudging through muddy puddles at every given opportunity, inspecting the local lake every day and lastly, just being a general pain and seemingly just trying to mess his coat up as much as he can purely to create more work for me! The dunce doesn't quite seem to realise however that the longer I have to spend grooming him, the longer he has to sit still for, so it really quite backfires on him.

Anyway, as you can imagine, I have an army of various bits and bobs which I use in a bid to keep his coat looking nice and one item that gets an awful lot of use is his bottle of detangling spray. I've tried many over the years on him, of varying cost, and have came to the conclusion, if I want a decent one, I have to pay a little bit more, hence the recent trial of this John Paul Instant Detangling Spray.

The John Paul Pet range is quite a new addition to the pet care industry, only being released in 2007 and is produced by the co-founder of Paul Mitchell human hair products, which are hugely popular in many hairdressing salons across England! Also, all the products in the Pet range have been tested on humans first!

The Instant Detangling Spray has been specially formulated with a blend of botanical extracts, is pH balanced and claims to provide 'slip' to enable matts and tangles to be gently eased out of your pets coat whilst at the same time, helping to condition your pets fur to leave it soft, shiny, healthy and with less chance of tangling reoccurring.

It claims to be suitable for all coat types, is suitable for use on both cats and dogs and requires no rinsing, you simply spray on to your pets coat, brush gently until all tangles are removed and that's it- no need for washing, bathing, drying or rubbing down with towel, although care should be taken not to get it anywhere your pets eyes.

*Packaging*
The detangling spray comes in a basic, yet professional looking white plastic pump action bottle which gives full details about intended purpose of use, information on how the product works, a couple of warnings (all very simple and common sense stuff) and lastly, contact details for the manufacturers of the product. The entire bottle, including the pump action dispenser and clear protective plastic cap, can be rinsed out and recycled once empty.

*Price & Availability*
I don't know if it is because the John Paul Pet range is classed as 'specialist/professional' grooming aids or because the range is still relatively new, but I have yet to find them stocked in any places, either on or offline, other than on the manufacturers website.

I purchased Benson's bottle from www.jppet.co.uk (the official manufacturers website) where a 236ml bottle will cost you £8.75.

*My opinion*
Every day I am faced with the seemingly never ending task of tackling Benson's coat- don't get me wrong, I love him dearly, but his grooming needs exceed that of any dog I have ever owned before, coupled with the fact he is the largest dog I have ever owned and it takes me an hour a day, if not more, to keep him looking nice. Thirty minutes in the morning before we leave the house for work (him and Grace just accompany me to work, don't worry- I don't send him off to earn his keep!) and then another thirty minutes later on in the day.

Strange as it may sound, he has never in his life had a bath- he goes swimming regulary which removes the majority of heavy dirt from his coat and because he has never been properly bathed, his skin and coat retains enough natural oils to keep his coat clean unaided, and then I just help him along! I have a lot of products in which I use on him and they each have their own special job, but without a doubt, I'd go insane if it wasn't for a detangling spray.

Only in the last couple of months have I heard about the John Paul Pet range, I read about them in a dog magazine and noticed they had a website, so when I got home I logged on to have a look at what they offered. Initially, I thought the items were very costly but I've learnt that where grooming items are concerned, you generally need to pay a bit more for good quality products, so I took the chance and placed an order, which included this Instant Detangling Spray, amongst a couple of other things. I was impressed, but also a little amused to discover they were tested on humans first- I had visions of hundreds of customers in salons up and down the country thinking they were having lovely, expensive Paul Mitchell products used on them when really they were having dog grooming products by their sister company tested on them!

Anyway, when it arrived, I was keen to set about trying it on Benson and called him through so I could test it out on him. I hadn't given him his morning brush yet so his coat was in quite a mess so I had something to give the new spray a bit of a challenge- trust me, his 'bed head' is worse than mine, and that's saying something! The bottle had a nice slim design to it so was easy to hold snugly in the palm of my hand, and the pump action dispenser was smooth and easy to activate.

I started off, as usual, by simply brushing his coat through with a wide toothed comb to remove any loose tangles and then sprayed the detangling spray generously all over his body. It had a very pleasant scent to it- extremely fresh, fruity and a little bit floral but not so much so that I felt guilty about using it on my male dog! The spray was released evenly from the pump action dispenser in a fine mist and only five or six pumps were needed to adequately cover one side of his body, running my hand over him, the spray felt silky on his coat, but not greasy in the slightest, and not at all sticky either. I then got stuck in properly with his slicker brush. Any loose tangles which the earlier going over with the wide tooth comb had missed were effortlessly removed from his coat, with no tugging or pulling whatsoever, the pins of the slicker brush simply ploughed right through them with ease causing no discomfort whatsoever to Benson.

We then got to some slighter tighter tangles deeper in his coat which requited a little more effort. I sprayed some more spray directly onto the tangle, massaged it into the fur with my fingers and then eased it out with firstly a wide tooth comb, and then a finer comb and the matts were easily removed with half the effort and struggle they would have taken without the spray.

Once I was done, his coat was left soft, smooth, shiny, completely detangled and smelling fantastic, I was absolutely chuffed with the product. I took him off to work with me and even some of my clients commented on how nice he was looking and how great he smelt. The effects of the spray were very long lasting too, I gave him a quick brush over at lunch time and his coat was still very smooth and any loose tangles which had started to form, were knocked out effortless with the stroke of the brush. Later, that evening when I came to give him his second proper groom of the day, his coat was still in very good condition, by this time he had been taken out for his second walk, and been swimming in the lake, so normally his coat would be in quite a mess but a couple more squirts of the spray, and his coat was incredibly easy to brush through once again.

All in all, an excellent product and one I will definitely buy again. There is another spray of similar price by a completely different brand which I love just as much so I think from now on I will alternate which spray I use on him and continue to use both. I can't comment on how well it deals with incredibly tight, thick, large matts and tangles but for light, daily use- it's fantastic and copes very well with removing loose and moderately tight tangles whilst leaving Benson's coat looking fantastic. It works on his body, outer ears, tail, paws, underside, chest and legs and does an excellent job where ever I use it.

It works incredibly well on Benson who has a very thick, dense coat and also my best friends little Shih Tzu who has quite fine, fly-a-way hair, the spray tackles fly-a-ways brilliantly without weighing the coat down or making it look limp or greasy and the product is great value for money, as you only need a little bit per use. I have been using the same bottle on Benson daily, with the occasional use by my friend for her dog too, for well over a month now and there is still just under half left.

My one little complaint however, is that is the scent is really quite strong and heavily perfumed, whilst Benson isn't affected by it, I imagine it could cause a few problems with dogs who have a more sensitive coat and need milder, more gently scented products.

Summary: Highly recommended to all owners of hairy beasts!