As a pet owner you’ve likely noticed that no matter how sweet the shampoo smells, or how frequently you bathe your pet, it never gets truly clean. All of that soapy lather is having a hard time penetrating the fur and getting to the source of the odour, dander, and dirt, which is the skin.

David Hachey knew only too well how ineffective a traditional bath was, as the owner of a big, stinky Newfoundlander with a skin problem. Frequent baths didn’t make a difference. One day while cleaning the upholstery on his couch with a carpet cleaner, he tried the machine out on the dog’s coat. The dog didn’t mind but it didn’t smell any better either because the cleaning solution didn’t penetrate through the thick fur.

He doggedly pursued the idea, creating a cleaning head that acted like a comb that delivered the cleaning liquid through the fur and onto the skin. His prototype used basketball inflator nozzles and although they didn’t stand up well, they proved his theory. The Anivac system was born.

“Once these nozzles are sitting on the skin, they actually spray and wash the skin first and they push the dirt off the skin and up into the vacuum. So instead of cleaning from the top down like every single bathing system today, our system cleans from the skin up,” explains Hachey. He adds that the nozzles adjust to ensure the liquid reaches the skin, no matter the length of the animal’s hair.

It utilizes 90 per cent less water than a regular bath, delivering the liquid directly to the skin and then vacuuming 80 per cent of the dirty water away in the process. According to the inventor, bathing animals requires millions of gallons of water each year.

Anivac Vacuum Bathing Systems units can be purchased in two sizes, depending on the desired use. Veterinarians, the equestrian community, commercial kennels and stables, cattle owners and breeders who need to primp their animals for shows are among Anivac customers. The vacuum animal cleaning system makes it possible to bathe large animals year-round. The animal is left only damp, so even if the weather is cold, the animal won’t be chilled as it would if it were being left soaked with water.

“You can bath animals anywhere. You don’t have to have a special wash stall because there is no mess,” says Hachey

Today the president of Anivac Vacuum Bathing Systems owns and operates three Animazing 15 Minute Pet Bath Center locations (484 Plains Rd East - Burlington, 1024 Upper Wentworth - Unit #8 Hamilton, and 700 Strasburg Rd - Unit #26 Kitchener). Here, pet owners can bring their fury friends to get bathed using this amazing tool. A bath at Animazing takes only 15 minutes and pets seem to enjoy the treatment.

It’s not only the machine that’s revolutionary; the cleaning fluid is superior as well. The accelerated hydrogen peroxide, branded as Pure Oxygen, is a powerful disinfectant that can relieve skin irritations and kill odour-causing bacteria. No rinsing is necessary with this oxygen bath, which turns into water vapour and oxygen as it dries. Any no-rinse cleaning solution can be used but it will not have the same benefits. The Pure Oxygen solution Hachey recommends is extremely effective in eliminating skin fungus that can plague horses and even eliminates skunk odour.

To find out about Anivac you can visit the website at www.anivacfirst.com. If you are interested in Animazing 15 Minute Pet Bath Center, you can visit www.animazing.701.com.