Chris Christensen

Chris Christensen was the American entrepreneur, formulator and dog show fancier who built Chris Christensen Systems, the grooming products company whose shampoos, conditioners and brushes became a fixture in show rings and professional pet salons around the world. Generations of groomers and show handlers came to know his products by name, from White on White and Ice on Ice to tools like the Big G slicker brush and the Mark X Tiny comb, and for many in the dog fancy world he was simply the person behind the bottle in their tack box.

Before starting his own company, Christensen spent decades working as a sales representative in the beauty industry. According to Christies Direct, during his first thirty five years in the working world he was a successful rep for beauty products, selling premium shampoos and hairsprays. That grounding in human cosmetics, paired with his own experience around dog shows, led him in 1996 to found what became Chris Christensen Systems. The company has described how it all started in 1996 with White on White, when, with chemistry and perseverance, he developed the first true color correcting shampoo for canines and felines.

The business grew over the following decades into one of the most recognized names in competitive dog and cat grooming, selling shampoos, conditioners, sprays, brushes, combs and dryers to handlers preparing animals for the show ring as well as to everyday pet owners. By 2011, Inc. magazine profiled him as the builder of a multi million dollar and growing business out of making and selling beauty products for show dogs, a trade he once summed up by noting that the dog show industry can make a person a pretty good living. Admirers in the trade press nicknamed him the Paul Mitchell of Poodles, a nod to how thoroughly his products had come to define professional dog grooming.

Christensen was also known within the dog show community as an artist and as a devoted fancier in his own right, keeping and showing his own Papillons. He was married to his wife, Lisa, whom his own public biography described him as a loving husband to.

Chris Christensen died at the age of 87. His death was reported by the trade publication Canine Chronicle, which wrote in its Table Talk column that the sport had lost a great entrepreneur, artist and loving fancier, and that he was known for his dedication to his dogs, his love of his art, and his dedication to his wife. The exact date, location and cause of his death have not been made public. Tributes from groomers, handlers and judges described a man whose products had quietly become part of daily routine across the profession, with the Canine Chronicle noting that most people in the sport have at least one, if not more, grooming products from Chris Christensen in their tack box.