Copyright © Françoise Herrmann
It was impossible to resist this pet dryer patent invented by Marissa Streng, a young 10-year-old inventor, found at the USPTO Kids!!
This invention was designed to fully dry your pooch after a bath, without fear of the process, or confinement before and after drying. The invention is even purported to have a “calming effect” on your pet due the pleasure of warm circulating air and, as a result, it will also give your pet a fluffier coat!
If you have ever used, or seen, a vintage (1960s) portable hairdryer with cap and flex hose attached, this invention is somewhat reminiscent!
The patent US8371246 titled Device for drying pets, was awarded in 2013 to Marissa Streng. Her project started as a third-grade science project and it won the USF Young Innovator Competition, which saw the project to market as the Puff-N-Fluff® pet dryer.
The idea of this pet dryer arises out of observation of the prior art of pooch drying, which appears very loud and frightening, and often confining for the animals being groomed. The invention thus seeks to resolve this situation by providing a device that consistently meets no resistance on the part of pets and strikes no fear, while fully drying and even fluffing the pooch’s coat. The term “consistently" is highlighted because the patent recites the problem of pets never wanting to experience drying a second time after a loud and confining first time.
The invention consists of a garment with an attached flex hose which, once velcroed and secured with drawstrings and connected to a blow dryer via the flex hose, inflates with warm circulating air to dry the pet.
Below appear the abstract for US8371246 titled Device for drying pets, and a patent drawing of the invention inflated with a blow dryer, and worn by a pet. Above, also appears an image of the marketed Puff-N-Fluff®.
For your pooch-loving friends, your own beloved pooch, or the young inventors at your residence!A pet-drying device including a flexible sheet material having four openings formed therein for receiving the legs of a four-legged animal. Each opening seals around the perimeter of a pet's leg. The sheet material includes first and second longitudinally disposed edges and first and second transversely disposed edges. A first hem in the first longitudinally disposed edge receives a first drawstring for loosely tightening the sheet material around the neck and a second hem in the second longitudinally disposed edge receives a second drawstring that tightens around the tail. The first and second transversely disposed edges are secured to one another with a releasable fastener when the device is wrapped into a tubular configuration around the trunk of a pet. Warm air from a hair dryer is delivered to the inside of the sheet material through an elongate hose that engages a large diameter opening formed in the sheet material. Abstract US8371246
References
PuffNFluff
https://thedogdryer.com/
USF Magazine – Summer 2011 – Entrepeneurs – Inventive kids
http://magazine.usf.edu/2011-summer/entrepreneurs/inventive-kids.aspx
USPTO Kids!
http://www.uspto.gov/kids/index.html
USPTO Kids! Young Innovators
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