New Pawzy.co site offers Canadian pet parents reputable online advice

When you think it’s time to add a dog to your life there’s a lot to process. Or there should be. Dogs are more than a furry companion – they are life changing and truly part of your family. A recent study conducted by Pawzy with element54 and Maru/Blue found that 95% of Canadians consider their pets to be part of their family. Nearly half (48%) say they treat their pets like children. The study also found that kid-free millennials are leading the way with the highest number (63%) choosing to become pet parents before, or over, having babies!

Sweet! But there’s a lot more than snuggles and cuddles with your fur babies. Canadians spend $8 billion annually on their pets. According to the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association, the annual average cost of owning a dog is $3,235 or $32,814 over its lifetime on vet care and insurance. Then there’s the added spending on daycare, boarding, dog walkers, toys, treats (lots of treats), and all the adorable and arguably non-essentials available for pets, like puppaccinos, cute sweaters, and birthday parties.

When our own family started researching breeds a couple of years ago our criteria included a dog that wasn’t too needy, active (but not too active), and friendly. Research led us to deciding on a Corgi but it took over a year of research and visits before we decided to commit. Then there was the process of finding a breeder and the discussion of adoption. Research was all over the internet and mostly U.S. based. It took a lot of time to weed through.

Corgis are dogs with strong personalities. Even my own is known to be the “fun police” making sure everyone is engaged and living in the moment. In a recent NYPost article, it actually named the herding breed as the “it” dog of the year but warned of how much work they can be. *nods head at every sentence*. Not for everyone but the breed is continuing to be sought after.

 

Why didn’t this site exist when we were doing our research? I can see how the Pawzy site would come in handy to learn about the different breeds. It’s filled with useful tips and interesting research. Right off the mark, users will find a proprietary breed matcher tool that asks a series of questions to help determine ideal dogs for your lifestyle. I was pleased to see that Corgi came up as one of top 3 ideal breeds for my family! The site includes 100 detailed dog breed care guides and connections to over 400 registered breeder and adoption agencies.

Pawzy.co is founded by Toronto-based tech and marketing entrepreneur Kerri-Lynn McAllister, who brings over a decade of expertise building marketplaces including Ratehub.ca — a financial product comparison website. With that experience in hand, McAllister felt there was a need to connect modern pet owners to real research offering the best advice out there.

The site is already rich with content. It references the highly regarded and reputable American Kennel Club (AKC) for the breed guides and their dog breed selector quiz uses over 2,000 data points to match prospective pet parents to their ideal companions. Pawzy.co has one of North America’s leading pet health experts on the advisory board, Dr. Walt Ingwersen.

“Dr. Walt is the former president of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association, has practiced medicine for over 40 years, and has worked in everything from pet pharma to pet insurance. He’s been an amazing resource of information and connected us to experts across North America,” said McAllister.

I’ve come to quickly learn that fur parents are as equally opinionated as kid parents. Just join any social media platform and ask for advice and you’ll be flooded with many different perspectives but not always trustworthy. How will Pawzy.co move forward with community? “There is such a strong community aspect to this sector, and we plan to tap into that first through our content,” said McAllister.

“We have a blog called “Pawticles” live now, and we’ll be adding interviews and stories with pet parents, and we plan to build a forum in the future. Unlike other forums available now, we plan to build and provide a trusted source by having ours moderated by healthcare experts. Our community is important to us, and that’s also why we’ve already pledged 1% of Pawzy’s equity to animal charities through the Upside Foundation.”