Born from a Dog Dad's Standards

It started the way most great things do. With love, a little stubbornness, and a dog who deserved better.

I grew up right here in Jersey City. I spent nearly 20 years in manufacturing, earned degrees in Chemical Engineering and an MBA, and filled whatever time was left cooking, drawing, and tinkering with AI and tech. They were all separate worlds until I met my wife and we brought home a tiny, opinionated miniature Australian Shepherd named Hazel.

The first time I read the back of a dog treat bag, the engineer in me couldn't unsee it. Fillers. Preservatives. Ingredient lists that read like chemistry experiments, and not the good kind. I looked at Hazel. I looked at the bag. And I thought, I can do better than this.

So I did.

Every bag of Hazel & Co. Treats is made in small batches right here in Hudson County, NJ. I designed the logo. I built the website. I wrote every word you're reading right now. I source the ingredients, control the dehydration temperatures down to the degree, hand-package every bag, and print every label. Twenty years in manufacturing taught me one thing: when you care about the outcome, you control the process. Every step. No exceptions.

There are no shortcuts here. No fillers. No outsourced anything. Just one ingredient per treat, made with the same obsessive attention I'd give to anything I'd put in front of my own family. Because that's exactly what Hazel is.

And speaking of Hazel, no batch leaves this kitchen without her sign-off. She is our Chief Eating Officer (CEO), Chief Taste Tester, head of Quality Assurance, and the most brutally honest food critic in New Jersey. If she walks away, we start over. If she comes back for more, it ships.

We're not a factory. We're a dog dad with an engineering degree, a kitchen full of love, and a very demanding quality control department with four legs and zero patience for mediocrity.