🚨 NEWS ALERT

Paw & Order🧑‍⚖️ — There are more courthouse canines now than ever. Over 320 dogs are working across the US, more than 3x that of a decade ago.

Find out why defense attorneys think this is a problem.

THIS WEEK'S TOPICS:

• 📈 Pet strollers are surpassing baby strollers in sales

• 📛 How did you name your dog?

• 🦮 How much a dog walker costs in your city

 📈 PET STROLLERS ARE SURPASSING BABY STROLLERS IN SALES

In South Korea, the shifting dynamics of household preferences are vividly illustrated by a significant milestone in the consumer market: dog strollers are now outselling baby strollers. 

This trend reflects deeper societal changes, primarily driven by the country's decreasing birthrate.

Here are some key highlights:

• 🛒 Market Shift: According to Gmarket, a major online marketplace, dog stroller sales accounted for 57% of the combined stroller sales in the first three quarters of 2023, up from 33% in 2021. In contrast, baby stroller sales dropped from 67% to 43% in the same timeframe.

• 📉 Declining Birthrate: The proportion of the population under age 10 has drastically decreased from 14.43% in 2000 to an estimated 6.6% in 2023, with projections suggesting a further decline. The total fertility rate has similarly fallen, from 1.48 in 2000 to a projected 0.68 by next year.

• 🫰 Economic Impact: Economic challenges have altered consumer behaviors, with more families opting for second-hand baby strollers or renting instead of purchasing new. This trend highlights a move towards more economical and sustainable consumption practices.

• 🐶 Rise in Pet Ownership: Simultaneously, the proportion of households owning pets has increased, with about 25.4% of homes (over 6 million households) reported to have pets in 2022. This shift suggests a growing preference for pet companionship over traditional family expansion.

Analysis:

This change in consumer preference from baby to dog strollers not only highlights shifting societal values but also underscores a broader transformation in lifestyle choices.

As younger generations face economic uncertainties and evolving cultural norms, pets are increasingly seen as part of the family, deserving of similar amenities that children would traditionally receive.

This trend may continue to influence market offerings and consumer behaviors in other sectors as well.

📛 HOW DID YOU NAME YOUR DOG?

Naming a pet is a lot of fun.

Whether you go classic (Sparky), cute (Muffin), or a little wacky (Captain Good Boy) it's always a joy to bestow your dog with a new name.

Or, if you are like us, give them an official name, along with 10 other nicknames to confuse them further.

Insurance carrier Nationwide has cleverly started to run an annual contest of the wackiest names from the pets it covers w/ insurance.

Each year they let the public vote on a group of names pulled from their 1.2 million protected pets, and we get to benefit.

Without further ado, here are the 2024 winners 🥇🥳😀😀:

Those are some solid wacky names.

Our personal favorite of the three is Thor Odinbun, God of Bunder, but we also got a look into the other nominees, and they do not disappoint:

We would have have votes differently in those categories than the winners, with our three being:

• Boots With the Fur 👢

• Steph Purrrry 🏀

• Snopp Hoggy Hog 🐽

Someone on Nationwide's marketing team deserves a raise, b/c this is viral quality content that will only bring more awareness to their pet insurance product as it gets shared and shared again.

For those of you in the pet industry, start thinking about fun ways you can promote your customers or services!

BONUS: Figo Pet Insurance also has some solid TikTok’s sharing pet names they’ve come across —

@figopet

Even more of our favorite pet names 🐶 Let us know your favorite! #funnypetnames #petnames #petsoftiktok #yesfigopets #funnydognames #funny... See more

🦮 HOW MUCH A DOG WALKER COSTS IN YOUR CITY

You may know that we love to hear from other dog owners.

It can be hard to separate quality info from marketing content on the internet, which is why we often gravitate toward communities and other places where we can hear directly from people.

So when we were curious about the average cost of different dog services in different cities, we turned to online forums to help to see what actual owners said.

We also figured we'd whip up some charts to help summarize (and because we are data nerds).

Big old caveat here. This data in based on a few people's comments, which DEFINITELY doesn't capture all or even a small % of dog owners in these cities, so take this with the largest grain of salt you have ever seen.

What is the cost of a dog walker in different cities?

The responses we added in were all around 20-30 minute walks (which seemed to be the standard).

What surprised us here was that New York wasn't reported as the most expensive. Though for the most part the costs seem to be relatively close, except for KC and London, which are some bargains!

What about doggy daycare?

Not having done a ton of doggy daycare we didn't realize it was relatively close to the cost of a walk (NY, Louisville, and Washington DC excluded, but those might be daycares that offer a lot of services).

But if you think about it, a daycare is able to handle a lot more dogs at once so can take advantage of higher overall revenue ($) than a dog walker, and avoid the travel.

Grooming isn't that expensive, is it?

Oh yes it is.

But you probably already knew that.

We are guessing the people from NYC are going with the deluxe treatment, because all the other cities had a pretty comparable cost.

What if I need to go away for the night?

That would be overnight boarding, AKA your doggy babysitter.

Maybe we need to move to Annapolis and start traveling!

Again, this is all based on comments in forums, so you can't read into it too much, but now that you've seen it, how do you feel about the cost of your pup's services?

DOGGYDEX™

Winner 🏆: BITCOIN

Proudly introducing the DoggyDex™, an index comprised of 10 publicly traded companies whose primary focus is the dog/pet industry.

List of tickers used can be found at the very bottom of the newsletter.

The yellow line-plot in the chart represents these companies above (DoggyDex™) and their combined performance against both the S&P 500 and Bitcoin on a weekly basis.

Pawformance is measured by % gains & losses.

• 🤢 How to get rid of that fishy anal gland smell: Get this DIY natural dog deodorizer recipe to help combat that powerful punch from the rear.

• 💇 Dog loves getting a fake haircut: Nothing makes Rocco feel more fresh than getting a faux trim up in his barber chair.

• ❌ LA officially bans new breeding permits: legislation passed unanimously and will remain in effect until local shelters reach 75% of capacity.

DOGGY B-DAY

• $CHWY - Chewy: E-commerce platform for pet supplies

• $IDXX - Idexx Labs: Vet point of care instruments and vet software

• $FRPT - Fresh Pet: Pet food company

• $PETQ - PetIQ: Pet health products and medicines

• $PETS - PetMeds: Online pet pharmacy

• $ZTS - Zoetis: World's largest producer of meds and vaccines for pets and livestock

• $TRUP - Trupanion: Pet insurance company

• $WOOF - Petco Health & Wellness co.: Pet health & wellness company

• $BARK - BarkBox: Subscription service providing dog products, services, and experiences

• $PET - Wag! Group Co.: Tech platform that allows pet owners to connect with industry professionals for services such as, walking, training, etc.