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petLights® Press |
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Lighting up the dog
petLights collars gather fans across the country
By SUSAN BAILEY
Wood River Journal - Sun Valley
People come and go from Sun Valley, taking ideas around the world with them, and that's proven to be an advantage for countless local business owners who find their market effortlessly expanded by the nature of the resort area.
"That's the great thing about marketing them here," said Lynn Poydenis, inventor of petLights, a lighted dog collar sold in local pet stores, by a toll-free telephone number and through a web site. "Someone said they saw one in England at a pub. The guy next to him in the bar had a dog and the dog had a petLights collar on which was very cool."
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| SAFETY COLLAR: Sam and his master Lynn Poydenis, inventor of a lighted dog collar called petLights, providing light on dark winter nights. Photo: Andy Hawley. |
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SAFETY COLLAR: Sam and his master Lynn Poydenis, inventor of a lighted dog collar called petLights, providing light on dark winter nights. Photo: Andy Hawley.
The family stops in Sun Valley, picks up a lighted dog collar and shows it to a few friends back home, and pretty soon, Poydenis has new clients.
"I get a call from New Orleans or someplace," said Poydenis. "They say, 'A friend got a collar in Sun Valley, how can I get one?' and I've shipped theirs in hours. Business is good."
Poydenis constantly hears from petLights owners about their dogs and why they bought a collar to make the dog visible at night. Police officers in Seattle have them on working dogs, Texas oil millionaires buy petLights, and Florida beach-combers stroll poodles by the red LED lights on their collars.
"People send me pictures of their dogs," said Poydenis, a Sun Valley resident. "They tell me their dog stories. It's fun, really rewarding. Last year I sold a lot of collars to people in the East when they had all that snow up to the fence tops and dogs were getting out. I heard all about how useful they were."
A resident off and on since 1983, Poydenis moved to the area from Essex Fells, N.J., the hometown of former Sun Valley Mayor Ruth Lieder.
"I grew up with Ruth's nieces, so when I moved, I got a call from Ruth saying, 'You Okay, you need anything?'" said Poydenis. A real estate broker for many years, Poydenis lives with two dogs, Sam and Abby, and her daughter Kristina, 3 1/2 years old.
Sam was the inspiration for the device. Mangled by a car at night, he has spent much of his life hopping on a bad foot. Although it took Poydenis eight frustrating years to create a working collar that might prevent such an accident for a dog owner, she has been happy with the results.
"I'm just starting to see it snowball," said Poydenis. "It was very frustrating in the beginning. I thought I should give up but I couldn't. I was too stubborn."
With help from Fred Grabos at AT Designs in Ketchum, she worked to perfect LED lights set into nylon webbing. Dog owners activate a series of red lights by a battery box switch to make them visible up to one-quarter mile away. Inside the box, one coin cell or watch batter, style #2450, lasts more than 150 hours. The original design sold in 2000 was operated by two AAA batteries, Poydenis said.
Since then, petLights have been made small enough for a large cat with nylon webbing measuring three-quarters of an inch wide in the smallest size instead of the 1 inch used in medium, large and extra large collars.
Poydenis likes to help animal shelters and veterinarians assisting abused animals. For the cause, she recently donated 150 petLights to the Alliance for NYC Animals, an organization working to increase adoptions of sheltered animals. She also donated collars to search and rescue dogs at the World Trade Center after 9-11.
In the Wood River Valley, petLights are sold at St. Francis Pet Clinic and Basics Plus on State Highway 75 north of Ketchum, and at Silver Creek Outfitters, Chateau Drug, and Country Cousin. Across the country, more than 20 shops from Alaska to Cape Cod have discovered the benefits of lighting up the dog.
For more information about the pet safety collars, visit www.petLights.com or call toll-free, 877-622-1777. |
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