Taylor Hill Launches Pet Brand In Honor of Her Late Dog: ‘Bittersweet’ [Video]

Taylor Hill is honoring her late dog, Tate, as she celebrates the launch of her first business venture.

The model, 28, launched the pet brand Tate & Taylor on April 10. The new project includes a shopping platform filled with hip and helpful pet products, a community of animal lovers dedicated to helping one another, and content created to guide pet parents without judgment.

“It’s an homage, a dedication, to my dog, Tate, who’s the love of my life, and I started it with him because I just sort of realized as a young pet parent — I got Tate when I was 18 years old, I had no business getting a dog — it was extremely overwhelming,” Hill tells PEOPLE.

Hill’s “personal experience” as a first-time pet owner drove her to create “a community of people who can talk to each other, a place where you can go where you know the quality is really good,” she says, adding, “It’s something …