Natalie Ellis, 41, invented a travel dog bowl which reduces splashes and slobber by 90 per cent.
But her dreams of cracking the American market were left in tatters when she was turned down for £120,000 of investment by the dragons and told she did not have a chance of being successful in the US.
Not to be deterred the mother-of-one from Leigh-on-Sea in Essex has made more than £1 million from selling her invention in America and has been asked now been asked supply the White House's first dog with.
"They contacted me and said can we have one for President Obama and I was taken aback," said Mrs Ellis,
