tazlab

Tasman's pre-school lessons

2006-09-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

We have a little niblet just shy of two. Upon his arrival into our dogcentric household we were all unknowing of the education we would be receiving. Taz had been the shop dog at our climbing shop in Pasadena and it was his temple. Unfortunately, we found that not all children or their parents view dogs in the same way. He had his loyal following of half-pints sure and sadly was the recipient of some less than kind kids too. One little 8 month old pulled out all his whiskers with two little fistfuls of squealing glee and another in panic bounced his Tonka Truck of Taz's head. He decided he'd be wary of the little ones after a couple of these experiences. So now we were to have our own and i'll admit we were a little nervous (and not just for Taz). Taz, himself was unsure of this change and pleaded the desperate "TAKE IT BACK FROM WHENCE IT CAME" plea for quite sometime. As they both have adapted to this new life, we have begun to realize that they each are educating the other and us too. Meal time is perhaps the most joyful, second only to snack time. Corbin has learned the rules of the open land- leave no snack unguarded and when in doubt clutch and run. Tasman on the other hand has learned patience and compassion and the golden rule- camp out under the high chair. Every nap time you can find the two curled up on the bed or floor as the case may be, each a comfort to the other. I think sometimes with kids you focus so much on their growth and development it may be easy to miss how it changes everyone else to. We are happy to report they have become friends and partners in crime. Taz is very aware of how different his little charge is from the rest of his posse and takes his brother role seriously. It is easy to forget that change takes time and that we all grow through experience and kindness. Even the furry ones....

Another life saved

2006-07-26T23:38:00.000-07:00

My brother-in-law recently brought to his home in Oregon two beautiful Nebolish/English Mastiffs - aptly named Panda and Bear, a brother and sister pair. Panda and Bear are 4 months old, and are 50 lbs of rambunctiousness all rolled into a dark coat and a lot of slobber.

When he got home, he realized that he needed collars as soon as possible, and quick, as this pair of adventurers are everywhere these days, roaming his property in search of things to eat and holes to plunder. In the past he has been a big supporter of our efforts, and called us to see if we could send him collars for the puppies as soon as possible, which we did. In fact, Rick set him up with 4 sets of collars each so that they could grow into them, as they are doing by the minute.

As soon as the collars arrived, he immediately outfitted the dogs with them. The next day, he noticed that Bear wandered up to him without a collar on. He thought it was odd, so he started looking around for the collar. Sure enough, he found it - hanging on a fence post. The collar worked exactly as designed - Bear was able to slip free when he needed to.

Had Bear not been wearing one of our collars, my brother's not-so-little puppy might have been in some life-threatening trouble, and we might not be able to tell this story with a positive ending. But thanks to the collar, everything has turned out fine.

We hear this kind of report over and over again, and each time it reaffirms that we are doing the right thing by creating products that save lives.

"Can't we all just get along?"...even at a dog park?

2006-05-17T09:58:00.000-07:00

On Sunday morning, I had an unfortunate difference of opinion with one of my neighbors over, of all ridiculously pedestrian things, trash cans. After "exchanging" our opinions, I eventually went to their house and made peace with them, and barring the unnecessary stress, all was fine once we saw how silly it was. Well as trivial as that might be, it got me thinking about my dogs. I love my dogs. As dogs will do, they at times get into altercations with other dogs, but in the end they're content just to go about the business of passionately barking at the mailman and luxuriously lounging in the sun. They want very little from me other than the occasional meal (well, twice a day), some decent attention in the form of a walk or a frisbee, and a comfortable spot to circle a couple of times before laying their head. Would that we all could be content with such simple things.

For example, we recently participated in the grand opening of a new dog park in our area. Now bearing in mind that our dogs rarely go to dog parks - they are more trail and neighborhood dogs when it comes to exercise - we were a little nervous about bringing them into a confined area with two hundred other dogs, all off leash, all excited about this great new space. We have confidence in our dogs, but ya know, sometimes someone is just going to rub you the wrong way, and we give our dogs that benefit of the doubt too. They have never harmed anyone or anything else (other than an unfortunate round of over-playfulness by Cleo with our finch Miha when we weren't home, may she rest in peace), so we are confident that they are peaceful, predictable dogs, but as an owner you have that fear that maybe they'll completely lose their minds for a day and get crazy with the other seemingly friendly dogs.

So how did they do, Sparticus and Cleopatra? They did INCREDIBLY well. We were so proud of them (not to mention that they were proudly showing off their tazlab collars to the otherwise conventional collar wearers that day)- we were like glowing parents at their children's first track meet. They got along with all of the other dogs that passed their way, and made a couple of friends in the process. As it turns out, we were worried for nothing. Sparticus, our Lab/Hound/Something mix is never a worry for us, but Cleo (our Shepherd/? mix) is extremely intelligent, athletic, and protective of us, not to mention a little provoking of other dogs at times. She is our non-lethal protector, and she does her job well. But as it happened, she was a model of diplomacy that day, without so much as a bark or a nip. She chased other dog's toys a little, but always yielded if it didn't belong to her. She got to know the smells of her new friends, but never got out of hand. She is a good, good dog, and we couldn't have been happier.

So, to answer the question, "Can't we all just get along?", I would say without question, YES. Live simply, live passionately, and live honestly, and that positive energy will be returned in many forms, including peaceful days at the park. Our dogs are living proof of that, and as funny as it sounds, they seem to sometimes set a better example in this than so many of their human counterparts, myself included at times, especially around garbage cans.

They are reflections of us.

2006-04-28T21:05:00.000-07:00

Have you ever caught yourself saying something to the effect of "Wow, is my dog out of shape," or "Yea, i know that he is a little chunky but its because he gets to eat all the baby's food?” Well i would be lying if i said that was never me. As a person who would often rather be outside i have found the transition to ... well, the working world, a bit of a transition. Tasman is a working dog. He went to work the day after he came home with us and has worked ever since. He grew up mt. biking, hiking, going on climbing trips and generally busy. Lately he has put on a few pounds. It worries me. Life was different before my dog got out of shape. Back then i had no excuse not to go for that ride, or my wife for that run, or the daily family hike. But now i am not sure that it would be fair to him, i mean...shouldn’t we just take it easy on him? He will start getting in shape.... next week.

They are reflections of us. No matter who i choose to blame, he is suffering for my lack of motivation. We are, however, on the upswing. We are all back at it and i have the proof. Last week we went for our favorite ride with Tasman's friend Gooseberry. i am not sure who was happier. Please don't make excuses like i did, we all need to cut loose and Tasman is better for it. (p.s. that is me bringing up the rear.)

rick & tasman

Tasman at work

2006-04-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

Many people have asked us about the impetus to start Tazlab. The simple answer is that it was our dog. Tasman has worked with us since the day he joined our family and has proven to be limited only by our efforts. He understands too many words to type here and has a quiver of tricks that prove useful when he is trying to impress the young pups. Among other things he begs, bows, stands up, brings us pens from our office and cold beverages from the fridge. If anyone is interested in how he learned these "useful" behaviors let us know and we will be happy to tell you what worked for us. As well we are always interested in hearing about new tricks to work on with him as we all know a busy Tasman makes for a productive Tazlab.

Never forget to laugh

2006-04-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

As Tazlab has grown from a concern, to an idea, to a product we have learned many things along the way. Not the least of which is the importance of our values. And, ironically enough, we find that one of our shared, non-negotiables (to use the term that the HR departments around the world will either applaud or wag a finger at) is humor. We have found that when we agree to laugh, everything falls into place and usually with a lot less stress. We realize that business is serious, that our livelyhood depends on the continuity of our products, vision, and communication. And we fail, likely at all three on any given day. But should we chose to take ourselves too seriously we would only diminish our ability to imagine and create the innovation that we bring to you on a daily basis. We will not be the same. We will innovate. We will laugh. It has been a pleasure and we know that people will appreciate the honesty with which we reach out to them and their pets. Thanks for reading and to all a Ha Ha.

first time blogger, life long laugher

rick

tazlab photo shoot today

2006-04-08T21:19:00.000-07:00

We had another photo shoot of the dog collars today, as well a batch of instructional, how-to-use photos to try to build our image catalog. We are definitely hoping to diversify our list of dogs that we feature on the site, but so far the photos don't seem to be too redundant.

This is a product shot of our gunk's green collar - the green is pretty easy to shoot, but a few of the other colors are a real challenge at times, particularly the blue and purple. For some reason the camera being used has a hard time picking up completely accurate blues and purples. Get some artifacting, and some odd color shifts. But with a little adjusting, they have been coming out well.

tazlab joins the blogosphere

2006-04-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

We've decided to enter the world of blogging with something that we are all working feverishly on - safety for our best friends with a splash of style. here is a brief bio of what tazlab is all about. More to come. We are listed in a number of places, but one spot of note is here: technorati under pet product.