Quality First

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We spoke to Craig O’ Keefe, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Nano Pet LLC and Dog Gone Smart Pet Products about the company’s amazing product testing, new products and nanotechnology.

Rebekah: Can you tell me a little about the history of Dog Gone Smart?

Craig: Ten years ago, animal behaviorist and canine expert Chris Onthank set out to solve many of the common pet problems we face today. Having worked with dogs his whole life, Chris knows what products work best to keep them healthy, happy and safe. He also understands how cleanliness and odor control are major concerns of every pet owner. Dog Gone Smart Pet Products is dedicated to bringing you the most innovative pet products in today’s market – products that have been tested and really work!

Joined by a team of experts from around the world, Dog Gone Smart is known for introducing nanotechnology to the pet market. The company continues to stand out in the pet industry as a product innovator, using the latest technologies to develop pet products that improve the quality of life for both pets and their owners. Our products offer solutions to pet owners for those everyday pet messes, keeping homes cleaner with products that last longer.

Rebekah: What exactly are stay-clean technologies and how are they used?

Craig: Our stay-clean technologies that we incorporate into our products are unique and proprietary, and utilize the very latest advancements in this field. One of our technologies is our Replelz-It Nano Technology with state of the art bacteriostatic which helps our fabrics that we use for our entire bedding and apparel lines stay clean by repelling dirt, stains, odor, bacteria and fungi. This technology also stops bacteria and fungi from reproducing. It is embedded in the fabric with microfibers that are thinner than a human hair strand. It literally doesn’t allow anything to attach itself to the fabric.

In addition, our beds and crate pads are quite luxurious and soft to the touch, as they are made with high thread count, upholstery-grade cotton, all hand sewn with double basting even stitching. The beds are filled maximum loft high density siliconized poly-fill, which eliminates bunching, and so the bed maintains its fullness and integrity for several years. The two main reasons why most other pet bedding is discarded after a while is it falls apart or starts to smell. Dog Gone Smart beds will not fall apart or smell.

Our biggest selling product line, our Dirty Dog Doormats, Dirty Dog Doormat Runners, Cat Litter Mats and Zip ‘n Dri’s also contain another unique technology that is an advanced wicking technology that is extremely absorbent due to thousands of super soft microfiber strands. These products instantly soak up water, mud and dirt upon contact which keeps floors and homes clean and dry.

They may also be use in cars or any other area outside the home that need to stay clean. Our Mats, unlike any of our competitors, also feature The Gripper backing which is a heavy non-skid backing that keeps the mat firmly in place and a GSM rate of 2800, which is the highest absorption rate on the market.

Rebekah: With Dog Gone Smart being a training, boarding and daycare facility, do you test your products on your canine customers before they are released?

Craig: We have a very strict and vigorous QC process that all of our products adhere to before they go to market. Since we are the originators of the most advanced stay-clean and wicking technologies for pets in the world, we have a stringent test tech pack procedure during the manufacturing process to make sure our products meet and exceed all already high objectives and requirements, which verifies procreant specifications and managing risk. At the end of this “development” phase of the testing project, we establish a criteria for project acceptance into the marketplace, and also determines the length of the warranty period.

Testing is really about verifying that what was specified is what is going to be delivered.
After the product is completed, the final stage is testing them with dogs in our Canine Center. Chris Onthank, our CEO is also the owner and founder of The Dog Smart Canine Center which is a full service, boarding, training, daycare and grooming center. It’s actually one of the premier canine facilities in the greater New York City area. We essentially let all of the dogs use all of products over the course of several months. If any of our products doesn’t achieve a closely monitored and regulated 100 percent success rating after this test process no matter how much we love the product, we simply will not go to market with it. This is how we maintain the very highest of QC standards that we are known for in the pet industry worldwide.

Rebekah: Any new products in the works?

Craig: We have several exciting, innovative and groundbreaking new products being rolled out in early 2016. Due to the property nature of these products, I can’t say what they are right now but we will make these announcements later in the year.

What I can say is they will be functional, solutions and problem solving based just like our other products. We promise they will be products that the pet industry has never seen before. If you stop by our Superzoo Booth #15125, you can catch a sneak peak of what’s coming next from Dog Gone Smart!