Company History

This is the story of a prophetic West Highland Terrier called Lucy, a brilliant formula created in England by a man with the unlikely name of Mr Grimes, which was almost lost forever, a patient pharmaceutical company, and the steely determination of a passionate dog lover called Becky Rao.

Isle of Dogs™ was born from the passion of a dog breeder/dog handler team with a mission to provide proper grooming care for their animals.

Becky Rao has had a love of dogs and horses since she can remember. As a child, she was involved in the 4-H program for dog handling, and earned her first horse with baby sitting money. Yet, through college and her early married years, Becky and her husband, computer entrepreneur Kailas Rao, remained dog-less. That is, until the mid 1980s, when Becky decided to follow her dream and find a dog of show quality. After an extensive search, she came across a Brittany out of a litter that a friend and co-worker was getting from his second Brittany. Thus, Becky's first Brittany, Buffy, became the beginning of her Brittany obsession. After some success in obedience, conformation, and hunt tests, Becky got serious about working with a well-established winning tradition.

Lucy's Story

Lucy is a seven-year old West Highland white terrier owned by Mr. Amblin of Reading, UK. She was referred by a veterinarian practice after 18 months of unsuccessful treatment. The dog had lost 90% of her hair due to a skin disorder of unknown origin. The poor dog scratched and nibbled itself continuously causing minor sores over its body and between the toes. It was recommended Mr Grimes' Evening Primrose Oil Shampoo be used. Bathed three times a week this regime was augmented with three daily applications of Groomers Finishing Spray. In just five weeks the results were remarkable. Lucy had stopped biting and scratching herself. Hair growth had almost returned to normal and as an ongoing precaution she had been placed on a course of Evening Primrose Oil supplement and a Royal Jelly shampoo to encourage rapid, continued hair growth.

Becky had known of Andrea Jordan Lane and her top-winning Jordean Brittanys, but didn't get to really know her until 1998 when she purchased her first Jordean puppy. The two immediately became friends. When the Rao's built their farm in Richfield, Wisconsin, they asked Andrea to manage the Rao Farm's Brittany kennel leveraging Andrea's original breeding program of top-winning and -producing dogs as the kennel's foundation.

As they built their breeding practice of show dogs, Becky and Andrea found a challenge in providing their dogs with proper grooming care. Finding a product that would cleanse their dogs' coat without damaging it, and to enhance their breed's unique coat qualities proved to be quite a task. For months they researched grooming products from around the world, until they eventually found their answer in the UK. There, they discovered a product developed by a UK chemist named Mr. David Grimes, who had developed a formula unique in many ways, from the quality and purity of the raw materials he used to the procedure he created to formulate it.

Mr. Grimes had developed an Evening Primrose Oil shampoo some two decades back at the request of a pharmaceutical company in the UK. Their researchers suspected that Evening Primrose Oil could be used to treat dogs with chronic dermatitis. However, they were unable to develop a shampoo that would keep the oil suspended or emulsified. As a last resort, the pharmaceutical company approached Mr. Grimes who had experience with emulsifiers. Mr. Grimes successfully developed the product, and gave the sample to the pharmaceutical company. He waited eight months to hear back from them about the product's efficacy. Eventually, he called them and learned they loved the product and they asked whether he could produce it in large quantities.

Unfortunately, and quite unbelievably, Mr. Grimes literally lost the formula as it was scribbled down on a notepad. Mr. Grimes went his own way and tried to recreate the formula. After three years of hard work, he finally developed the shampoo again.

The shampoo was truly a breakthrough in treatment for dogs. Pure, cold-pressed Evening Primrose Oil is believed to not only treat chronic skin conditions, but it actually leaves a dog's hair silky and luxurious. Unlike other shampoos, shampoos based on cold-pressed EPO could be used as often as an owner is willing, without removing essential oils from the dog's coat. Mr. Grimes realized he had an excellent product in his hands and started bottling it for the canine population in the UK.

Becky and Andrea came across Mr. Grimes' product when a fellow Brittany fancier from Australia told them they just “had to try that product; it's like nothing you've ever tried before.”  Since none of the shampoos they had ever used made much of an impression, they ordered just some samples. After bathing just one Brittany in this shampoo they were ready to place a large order, paying almost as much for shipping as for the product itself.

They later took that original order of shampoos to the Brittany National Championship, where they introduced it to others, by allowing them to bathe their dogs in it. By the end of the show, every major winner with the exception of one had been bathed in this product. This included Becky and Andrea's very own CH Jordean Your Wildest Dreams, or Brad, who later went on to become the Best in National Specialty Show Winner in 2004 and 2005, as well as the AKC Eukanuba Classic Best in Breed Winner in 2005 and 2006.

Becky and Andrea were soon getting calls from people wondering how they could get their hands on the product all the Brittany people were talking about. It was then that Becky, Andrea, and Becky's entrepreneurial husband Kailas saw an opportunity to extend their mission beyond their breeding farm and bring it to all dogs.

To most people, dogs have become family members. We care for them, spoil them, almost treat them like our children. We feed them properly, take them to doggy day care, travel with them, walk them, and take them to the park. Yet, most people fail to take proper grooming care of their dogs. Most people seem to think fleas, itching, and scratching are common conditions for dogs, and they need not be. The ISLE OF DOGS™ mission is to change that, to encourage proper dog grooming care, to foster best dog grooming practices, and to provide a top-quality dog grooming product line that enables all dog owners to take proper care of their dogs.

The team decided to acquire the rights to Mr. Grimes' product and launched a canine grooming system that would best treat each dog's individual coat needs. The grooming system, a complete coat and skin system based on two natural raw materials—Evening Primrose Oil and Royal Jelly—would provide dogs with a comprehensive coat and skin care offering.

Thus was born ISLE OF DOGS™. A company devoted to improving the health, beauty, and well-being of dogs.