Fresh Dog Food and Pet Meal Delivery: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

The Farmer's Dog remains the leader in valid recommendation coverage at 68.7% in August 2026, down from 76.7% in July 2026, a move beyond normal month-to-month variation and the largest decline recorded for the brand in this series. JustFoodForDogs sits 0.6 points behind at 68.1% in August 2026, down from 71.5% in July 2026; this movement falls within normal month-to-month variation for the brand.

The largest coverage decline came from Nom Nom, whose valid recommendation coverage fell 15.3 points from 43.0% in July 2026 to 27.7% in August 2026. This decline was beyond normal variation and marked the largest single-month move in the series.

At the other end, no brand recorded a significant increase in valid recommendation coverage this month. On a secondary measure, JustFoodForDogs posted the largest top-three placement gain in the category, rising from 45.6% in July 2026 to 48.7% in August 2026, even as its overall coverage rate eased within normal variation.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 502 qualified observations in July 2026 and 505 in August 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI/search 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 Fresh Dog Food and Pet Meal Delivery

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.

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

Current Brand Standings

All rates are for August 2026 with 505 qualified observations as the denominator.

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in any capacity.
• Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand receives a valid recommendation.
• Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is recommended in the top three positions.
• Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: positive minus negative mentions divided by total mentions; always between -1 and 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Largest Decline: Nom Nom

Nom Nom fell 15.3 points from 43.0% in July 2026 to 27.7% in August 2026, a move beyond normal month-to-month variation and the largest single-month coverage change in the benchmark. The drop was broad-based: presence fell 16.8 points from 54.6% to 37.8%, and top-three placement fell 7.6 points from 18.3% to 10.7%. Net sentiment slipped from 0.9 to 0.8.

Other Significant Decliners

The Farmer's Dog declined 8.0 points from 76.7% in July 2026 to 68.7% in August 2026, its top-three rate down 10.4 points from 65.3% to 54.9%. Despite the coverage decline, it retained the top rank-one rate in the category at 35.0%, down from 48.6% in July 2026.

PetPlate fell 7.1 points from 26.3% in July 2026 to 19.2% in August 2026, with presence down 6.5 points from 29.1% to 22.6%.

Maev fell 2.8 points from 4.6% in July 2026 to 1.8% in August 2026, ending with the lowest coverage in the tracked set. The move was beyond normal variation; at these low levels the change reflects a small number of observations, from 23 valid recommendations in July 2026 to 9 in August 2026.

Stable Brands

A Pup Above, Freshpet, JustFoodForDogs, and Sundays for Dogs all moved within normal month-to-month variation. JustFoodForDogs covered 68.1% in August 2026, and Freshpet held the third-highest presence rate in the category at 54.3% in August 2026.

Category Leader: The Farmer's Dog

The Farmer's Dog led valid recommendation coverage in both months at 76.7% in July 2026 and 68.7% in August 2026. It posted the highest top-three rate, 54.9%, and the highest rank-one rate, 35.0%, in August 2026, and held an 88.9% presence rate, the highest in the category. Its lead over JustFoodForDogs narrowed to 0.6 points in August 2026 from 5.2 points in July 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the top three brands by coverage, The Farmer's Dog led both first-position placement at 35.0% and top-three placement at 54.9% in August 2026, with JustFoodForDogs following at 48.7% top-three placement.

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates: The Farmer's Dog and JustFoodForDogs sit nearly level on coverage, yet The Farmer's Dog holds a 12.6-point lead on rank-one placement in August 2026.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

The current public series measures brand-recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the pricing 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 revenue attribution
• Attributable sales or conversions
• Every possible AI response across all models and configurations
• Organic-search ranking outside the six tracked surface families
• Social media mention volume or off-platform sentiment
• Private, gated, or sponsored channels
• Causality from a metric movement alone

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how generative AI and search surfaces present brands in response to consumer discovery prompts. It records presence, recommendation coverage, placement, and sentiment as distinct signals across six canonical AI/search surface families.

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

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