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

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand leads valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, and how large is the gap over the next brand?
• Which brands recorded movements beyond normal month-to-month variation, and what were the shifts?
• How did qualified observations change between the start of the benchmark and October 2026?

Ruffwear led valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 at 43.4%, up from 41.1% in July 2026, a gap of 1.3 points over Tractive, the next brand, at 42.1% in October 2026. The largest coverage increase across the full series was Ruffwear. The largest coverage decline was Tractive, which fell 1.4 points from 43.5% in July 2026 to 42.1% in October 2026.

October 2026 produced movement beyond normal month-to-month variation for two brands even though the month-over-month category summary classifies every tracked brand as stable. Kurgo rose 7.6 points from 32.9% in September 2026 to 40.5% in October 2026, and Ruffwear rose 8.0 points from 35.4% in September 2026 to 43.4% in October 2026. Both moves are larger than any change recorded for those brands earlier in the series. Fi slipped 0.6 points from 41.1% in September 2026 to 40.5% in October 2026, and Tractive slipped 0.3 points from 42.4% in September 2026 to 42.1% in October 2026. No brand is classified as a significant riser or significant decliner for the series, and no streaks of three or more months are running in either direction.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 560 qualified observations after qualification in October 2026.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

August 2026 and September 2026 sat between these two months at 594 and 587 qualified observations respectively. 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 every month of the series.

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

Questions This Section Answers

• How many prompt-surface observations qualified for the public benchmark in October 2026, and what happened to the rest?
• What makes a prompt-surface observation irrelevant or out-of-scope for the dog gear benchmark?

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 Visibility Market Discovery Methodology for full details.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brands lead the October 2026 dog gear standings on valid recommendation coverage, and how do their presence rates compare?
• How do Fi and Kurgo compare on top-three and rank-one recommendation rates despite similar coverage?

Standings are current-month (October 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 Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand posted the largest coverage increase since July 2026, and which posted the largest decline?
• Did Fi's or Tractive's movement since baseline fall within normal month-to-month variation?
• Which brand overtook the previous leader for the category, and when did the lead change?

Largest Increase: Ruffwear

Ruffwear's valid recommendation coverage rose 2.3 points from 41.1% in July 2026 to 43.4% in October 2026, a move within normal month-to-month variation over the full series, but the level reached in October 2026 was the brand's highest of the four months measured. The October figure rose 8.0 points from 35.4% in September 2026, a move beyond normal variation for the month. Ruffwear's top-three rate rose 7.4 points from 31.9% in July 2026 to 39.3% in October 2026, and its rank-one rate rose 6.1 points from 19.8% to 25.9% over the same span. Its presence rate was essentially flat, moving down 0.2 points from 46.3% in July 2026 to 46.1% in October 2026.

Largest Decline: Tractive

Tractive's valid recommendation coverage fell 1.4 points from 43.5% in July 2026 to 42.1% in October 2026, a move within normal month-to-month variation. The brand's October figure slipped 0.3 points from 42.4% in September 2026. Tractive still holds the highest presence rate among tracked brands at 55.9% in October 2026, up 0.2 points from 55.7% in July 2026, and the highest rank-one rate at 27.0% in October 2026, down 0.4 points from 27.4% in July 2026. Its top-three rate rose 4.1 points from 35.7% to 39.8% across the series.

Category Leader: Ruffwear

Ruffwear took the category lead in October 2026 at 43.4% valid recommendation coverage, overtaking Tractive, which had led in July, August, and September 2026. Ruffwear also carries the highest net sentiment score in October 2026 at 1.0, tied with Kurgo. Its top-three rate of 39.3% in October 2026 trails Tractive's 39.8%.

Additional movers

Kurgo rose 4.0 points from 36.5% in July 2026 to 40.5% in October 2026, a move within normal month-to-month variation over the series, but the October value came on a 7.6-point jump from 32.9% in September 2026, a move beyond normal variation for the month. Its top-three rate rose 8.8 points from 22.8% in July 2026 to 31.6% in October 2026, while its rank-one rate was effectively unchanged at 3.2% in October 2026. Fi moved 0.5 points from 40.0% in July 2026 to 40.5% in October 2026, a move within normal variation, and slipped 0.6 points from 41.1% in September 2026. Fi's top-three rate rose 6.0 points from 31.9% in July 2026 to 37.9% in October 2026, and its rank-one rate rose 4.7 points from 6.9% to 11.6%.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How far apart are Tractive, Ruffwear, and Fi on top-three placement versus rank-one placement in October 2026?
• What does the gap between top-three and rank-one rates reveal about first-position recommendation strength?

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.

Tractive, Ruffwear, and Fi sit within about two points of one another on top-three rate in October 2026, but their rank-one rates spread across a wider band, from 11.6% for Fi to 27.0% for Tractive. Close coverage can still hide very different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• Which buyer-intent class do all qualified observations fall into, and what does that mean for the benchmark's coverage?
• Are there any qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes?

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

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand led each monthly measurement, and when did the coverage leader change?
• Which month recorded the largest coverage movement, and for which brand?

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

Evidence and Source Layer

Questions This Section Answers

• What does the presence of a citation or attributable source prove, and what does it not prove about why a brand was recommended?

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, 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.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains were cited most often across AI platform responses in October 2026, and how concentrated are those citations?
• Which vertical-specific review site or retailer appears among the top cited domains?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, 6,459 citations were observed pointing to 1,294 unique domains.

Citations are broadly distributed: the top 10 domains together account for roughly 38% of the 6,459 citations, and the long tail of 1,284 other domains carries the rest. No tracked brand's own domain appears in the top 10. The mix leans toward a small number of high-traffic general platforms, Google properties, video, and community forums, with a vertical-specific review site (treelinereview.com) and a retailer (chewy.com) present alongside general marketplace and news domains.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility 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 Visibility Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Visibility Authority Value

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