Belly Dog Test

We were asked by Belly Dog if we’d test some of their products for you. After reading their website and asking one or two questions we agreed. I think I told you that the postie was confused when a package came addressed to Wilma vom Rickental. They sent us some free products on the basis we would give our honest opinion on what we think.

We like the fact these are natural, plant based remedies and so very much in keeping with Ari’s aim in growing all his herbs. Although I’m going to write up most of the results, I’ve been testing some of the things out on Aristotle as he has the greatest need and so that meant we’d be able to see more of a difference.

The other important thing to note is that although Belly Dog is based in Germany, the products are sent out within the UK and so there are no problems of import duties or odd costs you weren’t expecting.

Clean Ears

The Belly Dog Clean Ears product has witch hazel and chamomile. It is designed to both soothe and clean the ears and leaves an anti-bacterial film to help protect them from any problems developing.

Ari gets water in his ears when he’s swimming sometimes and tends to find his ears are a bit irritated by it. His ears are also more waxy than mine, so benefit from being cleaned. Mum sprayed some of the Clean Ears onto some cotton wool and then gently wiped Ari’s ears. He didn’t mind and found it quite comfortable. It certainly helped to remove the wax that needed cleaning. Mum did mine too, with a new piece of cotton wool, just so I could feel what it was like and it was very soothing.

Activated Charcoal Miracle

We tried some biscuits with activated charcoal and alfafa. They are to help with digestion issues. Ari tasted his first one and said it was definitely ok. He liked it enough not to share it with me, which was annoying. It’s hard to say if this worked for him, but in principle taking activated charcoal would certainly help if you had eaten something you shouldn’t and it’s a nice way to have it. He then queued up asking for another, which is always a good sign.

Dental Care

The Dental Care is a rosemary and peppermint spray. The instructions are to spray it into the corners of the mouth under the lips. Mum read it to me and I said, ‘You’ll never get anywhere near Aristotle with that.’ Well, then a funny thing happened. As Mum was taking it out of its wrapping, the lid wasn’t on quite tight and she spilt a little on the floor. Ari licked it up and loved it. After that there was no problem at all. I think that might be a good tip for future. We don’t tend to like things when we don’t understand what’s happening, but if we know we already like the taste we cooperate much more.

Mum used it with him over several days. He didn’t mind having it on his teeth, but he wasn’t keen on the whole spray idea. I was laughing at him, but then Mum used it on me too and I saw what he meant. Mum put some on her finger and put it into the side of our mouth instead.

Golden Oat sensitive shampoo

Now while we aren’t overly sensitive, Mum is. She has great difficulty with lots of chemicals and lots of scents. This shampoo really is good if you are sensitive and we used it on Aristotle without Mum having any problem at all. That’s as important to a dog as our own reaction as on one occasion poor Shadow had to have two baths, one that she needed and another to get rid of the smell of the shampoo that was affecting Mum.

After using the Belly Dog shampoo, Ari’s coat was nice and shiny, which isn’t bad going at his age. What was more impressive was that Dad noticed just how good Ari’s coat was looking, without any prompting, and that never happens. Mum even wondered about using it on her own hair!

Still to try

There are two products we still have to test. No Stress is a spray you can use to help keep your dog calm. The scent comes from lavender and chamomile, both of which are really good calming smells, so it should work a treat.

Then finally there is High Five which is a paw and nose cream. It has arnica and shea butter so should be very soothing. I’ve asked Mum if I can have a little pedicure with her to try it, but as I don’t actually have any dry skin it may be hard for me to tell you how well it works, but it would be lovely having it massaged into my paws anyway.

We like this range. It is completely consistent with Ari’s gardening approach so he was quite excited about it all. Definitely worth a try. They have lots more products too so why not take a look at the Belly Dog website?

Love Wilma