Traveling with your dog safely. The story of Tartufo Rosa

Thanks to Pets & Innovation we had the opportunity to meet a couple of young designers, Andre and Alice, who share a passion for design and a deep knowledge and sensitivity for animals. With their startup, Tartufo Rosa, they create products for the safety of dogs.
How does an armadillo protect a dog? Andre and Alice explain in this interview.

How was Tartufo Rosa born?
Andrew
The idea was born in 2015 while I was taking a course to become a dog trainer. During the meetings we always traveled by car with our dogs and very often the discussions focused on road accidents. From there I realized that, when we get into the car, we humans have all the protections we need, while the dog is in limbo. And I came up with the idea of ​​creating something that would protect both dogs and other passengers during car transport. At that time, however, I did not yet have the skills to bring this project to life.
When I met Alice in 2016 at SID – Scuola Italiana Design in Padua, where we trained as product designers, I shared this idea with her and we decided to undertake this project together.

Alice
We drew the first drawings and immediately came up against reality both in terms of feasibility and technological limitations. We then completely redesigned our product and, since it is a new product that did not exist on the market, we began the patenting process.

What does your product consist of?
Alice
It is a carrier – called Armadillo – inside which are installed two tubes of airbags designed not to explode. The two tubes are inflated by the owner with a simple bicycle pump before putting the dog in the car and remain inflated for several months. We recommend checking if they are inflated and inflating them every month and a half.
They are designed to deflate slowly like a lung, so there is no risk of them bursting. If the dog bites the airbag tubes or crashes into them due to sudden braking, there is no risk of injury.
The tubes are also covered with a Cordura material, which is very resistant and scratch-proof. If a tube gets punctured, in addition to not bursting, it can be easily replaced.

Why did you call him Armadillo?
Andrew
Because when it needs to protect itself, the armadillo rolls up, using its outer shell to protect itself inside, just like our carrier does.
Unlike other carriers on the market, in the event of a collision or sudden braking, the dog does not risk coming out of the body, it remains protected inside.

What was the main difficulty and the main opportunity you encountered along the way?
Andrew
What sets us apart is that everything we have done – from the idea to the design, from the search for suppliers to the creation of the product and the patent – ​​we have always done it the two of us with our own resources, working on this project in the evenings and in our free time, since we both have another job. This is our strength and at the same time our limit.

Alice
Opportunity side, last year in May they invited us to Quattro Zampe in Fiera in Bologna where we had our own stand in the Quattro Zampe in ferie area. It was a great satisfaction to be able to show our product and have the first feedback from the people who came to the stand.

What challenge do you see facing you now?
Andrew
The Armadillo carrier has been on sale on our website and on Amazon for a few weeks now. The main challenge now is to position ourselves on the market, selling the carriers we have in stock, so that we can reinvest part of what we have earned to improve the product, also thanks to customer feedback, and expand our range.