Dog Gear, Collars and Outdoor Pet accessories: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Tractive led valid recommendation coverage in August 2026 at 41.4%, a decline from 43.5% in July 2026. Fi followed at 40.2% in August 2026, up from 40.0% in July 2026, a gap of 1.2 points between the top two brands. The largest coverage increase was Fi, which rose by 0.2 points from 40.0% in July 2026 to 40.2% in August 2026. The largest coverage decline was Ruffwear, which fell by 4.9 points from 41.1% in July 2026 to 36.2% in August 2026. This was a quiet month with no brand moving beyond normal month-to-month variation; all four tracked brands were classified as stable.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 594 qualified observations after qualification in August 2026.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. All six families were represented in both months.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Dog Gear, Collars and Outdoor Pet accessories

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. See the AI Market Discovery Methodology for full details.

Current Brand Standings

Standings are current-month (August 2026) metrics, sorted by valid recommendation coverage.

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand was mentioned at all.
• Valid recommendation coverage: Share of qualified observations where the brand appeared with a valid recommendation.
• Top-three rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand was recommended in the top three positions.
• Rank-one rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand was the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: Positive minus negative sentiment among mentions, on a scale from -1 to 1.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

All four brands fell within normal month-to-month variation. Fi was the only brand to gain coverage, and its increase was small. Ruffwear posted the steepest single-month decline, dropping 4.9 points from 41.1% in July 2026 to 36.2% in August 2026.

• Largest Increase: Fi. Fi's valid recommendation coverage rose 0.2 points from 40.0% in July 2026 to 40.2% in August 2026. Presence rate rose 4.0 points from 52.1% to 56.1%, but this did not translate into a material coverage gain.
• Largest Decline: Ruffwear. Ruffwear's valid recommendation coverage fell 4.9 points from 41.1% in July 2026 to 36.2% in August 2026. Presence rate also declined 2.2 points from 46.3% to 44.1%.
• Category Leader: Tractive. Tractive led for a second consecutive month at 41.4% in August 2026, down from 43.5% in July 2026 but still ahead of the rest of the field. Its presence rate rose 2.2 points to 57.9% in August 2026, the highest among tracked brands.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Placement rates reveal how often brands appear in the top three or as the first recommendation.

Fi's top-three rate (34.3% in August 2026) is close to Tractive's (36.5%), yet its rank-one rate (7.6%) is far below Tractive's 27.1%. Similar coverage can still hide very different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class, matching discovery and consideration intent.

The current public series measures brand-recommendation discovery only and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure:

• Market share or attributable sales.
• Every possible AI response to a given question.
• Organic-search ranking performance.
• Social media mention volume.
• Private or sponsored channels and paid placements.
• Causality from a metric movement alone; movements are recorded as observed, not explained.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how often and how prominently brands are recommended across six canonical AI and search surface families: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. Each monthly measurement is built from prompt-level observations that are qualified through a consistent research funnel.

• AI Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Authority Value

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The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper into your brand's presence, placement, and sentiment across AI surfaces.

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