Tail Blazers – Our Research and Screening Process – Part 1 of 2

Our Beginnings

Tamara Low and Brent Hauberg (with Skyla) in front of the 1st Tail Blazers in Inglewood in Calgary (2000).

Health and wellness is of utmost importance to us (as well as a healthy planet), and this naturally extends to all beings, including our animal companions. Our background, amongst many things, was in the human health food industry. In 2000, for numerous reasons, I set out to create a Health Food Store for Dogs and Cats.

It was so much fun and exciting to research products and create our first store! No one else that I knew of was doing what we were doing at that time. Our message and offerings were so out of the ordinary that people deeply wondered what we were doing, and why. I assure you, there were so few truly healthy, species appropriate foods for dogs and cats on the market in the year 2000. I searched high and low. So as you can imagine, the store, was a little bit sparse right at the beginning. We laugh about that now. How things have changed. This certainly is not the case, 18 years later….the stores are absolutely bursting at the seams with amazing, vibrant, life enhancing, creative and innovative products for dogs and cats!

“Health food for pets” is quickly becoming the norm in the pet industry, instead of the exception and we are still happy to be leading the way.

It came to my attention recently that those customers that are newer to our stores may not fully know about our history and what we are all about. In this blog, I would like to take the time to explain, or re- introduce, a little bit more about Tail Blazers; our roots, and our mission, who we are, and about carefully detailed and rigorous screening processes resulting in what we decide to put on our shelves.

Our Roots/Our Mission

The precise reason and intention behind the creation of Tail Blazers remains exactly the same as 18 years ago (20 years in 2020!), but perhaps even deeper and stronger. We set out to provide a safe and sacred place, a sanctuary, if you will, where our fellow pet lovers and fellow pet health advocates know that we are doing our absolute BEST, in every capacity to offer superior, healthy, safe and clean products for our pet companions. Products that we would feed our own pets. Our mission, commitment and our promise to our customers is and will always be to be out in front, diligently doing the research, screening and legwork for you on healthy, safe products and companies, so that you do not have to. Your unwavering trust and faith in us is our utmost priority! This is our passion, our mission and commitment.

Who Are We?

We are about health, knowledge, forward thinking, education and creating awareness. We are about exposing the shady side of the pet food industry through highlighting and supporting healthy, species appropriate, clean and safe foods. We believe that when people are truly aware, we can make smart, wise, educated decisions and choices. There is a HUGE difference between pet foods and treats on the market. We want to create that conversation, to highlight certain practices and ways of doing things that are NOT in the best interest of our beloved pets.

Screening Process- Our Defining Factor  

Did you know that nothing (not one thing) comes into the stores unless it is researched and approved by our head office team? Nothing. At the very heart and core of what we do involves safety, safety for your pets and peace of mind for you. This is who we are at our very core. We require complete transparency from the companies that we have relationships with. We deeply research each product, we ask them a lot of questions and “dig up the facts” about exactly what is in the food or treat, where the ingredients are from, manufacturing processes, to name a few. This level of “digging up facts”, fact finding or questioning may be unusual or annoying to some suppliers. We are not deterred by that. If suppliers are not willing to be completely transparent with us and know the fine details of their products, we do not carry their products. It’s very simple. We ask a lot from these companies. We ask for and expect the truth, honesty, and integrity. Your pets are part of our family. Your unwavering TRUST and faith in us is what drives us and is most important to us. That is what we strive for and it is why we do what we do.

The approval process can take quite a while, it can be time consuming. We know fine details about our companies and their processes. We know their values, and how they produce the safest possible products. So basically, their values MUST be in line with our values. We work as a partnership, a team, to bring you the safest, most high quality products.

We, at Tail Blazers, are concerned about and committed to ALL aspects of your pets’ health and wellbeing – not just diet, but also advocating for a clean, non-toxic environment for them, inside and outside the home.

We would like to sincerely thank every one of you for deeply supporting and embracing our shared mission and for being right alongside us all of these years!

~by Tamara Low, co-founder of Tail Blazers