How AI Search Is Recommending GPS Dog Collars and Smart Pet Trackers: Monthly Trends

Executive Summary

Halo Collar remains the coverage leader in September 2026, with valid recommendation coverage of 61.8%, holding a 13.1-point lead over second-place Tractive at 48.7%. Garmin Ltd. is the only brand whose movement across the full July-to-September series reaches the threshold for significance, falling 6.8 points from 37.1% to 30.3% coverage. Tractive's rank-one rate decline of 8.1 points, from 36.0% to 27.9%, is the largest single metric movement recorded in the category this period, while Fi's rank-one rate gain of 6.1 points, from 8.2% to 14.3%, is the category's largest gain.

August-to-September was a quiet month by the benchmark's standards: no brand's month-over-month move exceeded the threshold for normal variation, and four of five tracked brands — Fi, Halo Collar, PetSafe, and Tractive — are classified as stable across the full series. Garmin Ltd.'s two-month decline stands as the category's only significant movement, while the shifts in Tractive's and Fi's rank-one placement point to a category where the coverage leader is stable but the placement immediately behind the leader is not.

Each monthly benchmark run begins with 800 prompt-surface observations across the tracked AI/search surfaces. In September 2026, those prompts produced 518 unique questions; all 800 mentioned a tracked brand or competitor; 703 were relevant and 97 were irrelevant; 544 observations qualified for the public benchmark. In July 2026, 800 prompts produced 488 unique questions, with 699 relevant and 101 irrelevant, yielding 564 qualified observations.

Key Findings

Benchmark Context

The report separates the raw collection universe from the qualified analysis set. Brand-level recommendation percentages are calculated within the qualified benchmark set.

Qualified surface breadth held steady at six canonical AI/search families in both months, meaning the two periods draw on a materially consistent measurement footprint even though the qualified observation count moved. August 2026, the intermediate month, produced 527 qualified observations from 537 unique questions.

Benchmark-Level Metrics

The August 2026 observation count of 527 was the lowest in the series, with September 2026 recovering to 544. The share of recommendation-shaped answers rose from 28.5% in July 2026 to 30.7% in September 2026, suggesting AI systems returned recommendation-oriented content more often in the current month.

AI Recommendation Trend

Halo Collar Holds the Lead as Garmin Ltd. and Tractive Slip

Valid recommendation coverage, the share of qualified observations where a brand appears in a recommendation shortlist, is the primary lens for this analysis. In September 2026, Halo Collar leads at 61.8%, with Tractive second at 48.7% and Fi close behind at 47.1%.

Garmin Ltd. is the only brand whose three-month decline exceeded the threshold for normal variation. The category-level changes otherwise came from the combination of several smaller movements rather than any single decisive shift.

What Changed This Month

Garmin Ltd.: the significant decliner

Garmin Ltd. fell 6.8 points from 37.1% in July 2026 to 30.3% in September 2026, the only significant decline in the category across the three-month series. The decline was steady rather than sudden, with coverage at 33.8% in August 2026 before slipping another 3.5 points to 30.3% in September 2026. Garmin appeared in a valid recommendation shortlist in 165 of the 544 qualified benchmark observations in September 2026.

Garmin's raw mention presence slipped from 41.1% in July 2026 to 39.0% in September 2026, a relatively modest change. The sharper signal was in placement: its top-three rate fell 4.9 points from 22.7% to 17.8%. Its average recommended rank also loosened, from 3.08 to 3.14, meaning that when Garmin was recommended, it tended to be positioned lower in the list.

The category gap between Garmin and PetSafe narrowed from 8.0 points in July 2026 to 0.3 points in September 2026, while the gap between Fi and Garmin widened from 9.7 points to 16.8 points. These shifts place Garmin at the edge of the category's second tier rather than firmly within it.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which question types and comparison prompts are driving Garmin's sustained decline in top-three placement, and what changed across the three-month period?

Fi: the category's largest gain

Fi's coverage held essentially flat, moving from 46.8% in July 2026 to 47.1% in September 2026, up just 0.3 points. Its rank-one rate, however, rose 6.1 points from 8.2% to 14.3%, the largest single metric gain in the category. Fi appeared in a valid recommendation shortlist in 256 of the 544 qualified benchmark observations in September 2026.

Fi's top-three rate rose from 39.4% to 42.1%, and its average recommended rank tightened from 2.09 to 1.90. Its rank-one count reached 78 in September 2026, up from 46 in July 2026. This pattern shows Fi being positioned as the first-choice answer more often even as its overall shortlist presence stayed flat.

The distinction to notice: Fi is appearing as the top-ranked answer in a growing subset of answers. Its rank-one rate of 14.3% is now closer to Halo Collar's 6.1% and PetSafe's 6.1% than to Tractive's category-leading 27.9%, but the direction of movement is notable.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which prompts or surfaces drove Fi's rank-one gain, and does the pattern correlate with specific competitor losses?

Tractive: losing rank-one placement

Tractive fell 5.4 points from 54.1% in July 2026 to 48.7% in September 2026, a decline that stayed within normal variation for the full series. Its rank-one rate dropped 8.1 points from 36.0% to 27.9%, the most pronounced single metric movement in the category. Tractive appeared in a valid recommendation shortlist in 265 of the 544 qualified benchmark observations in September 2026.

Tractive's raw mention presence slipped from 66.7% to 64.1%, and its top-three rate fell from 48.2% to 43.6%. Its average recommended rank loosened from 1.44 to 1.63, meaning the brand is still placed near the top when recommended, but it is reaching that position less often.

The distinction to notice: Tractive still holds the strongest rank-one rate in the category at 27.9%, well above Fi's 14.3%. But the 8.1-point decline in rank-one placement across the three-month series is the largest downward movement of any brand on that metric, suggesting its position as the default recommendation is being contested.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which surfaces or prompt types account for Tractive's declining rank-one placement, and which brands are taking the top spot when Tractive loses it?

Halo Collar: leadership steady, top placement improving

Halo Collar held its lead, with coverage essentially unchanged at 61.5% in July 2026 and 61.8% in September 2026. The brand appeared in a valid recommendation shortlist in 336 of the 544 qualified benchmark observations in September 2026, the highest count in the category.

Halo Collar's top-three rate rose 5.5 points from 43.8% to 49.3%. Its rank-one rate eased from 6.9% to 6.1%, and its average recommended rank tightened from 2.69 to 2.65. Raw mention presence rose from 77.1% to 79.2%, the highest presence rate in the category.

The distinction to notice: Halo Collar is appearing in more answers and being placed higher within shortlists, but its rank-one count of 33 remains well below Tractive's 152. The brand wins the shortlist while other brands still take the top placement more often.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Why does Halo Collar's strong coverage and improving top-three placement coexist with a rank-one rate that trails Tractive substantially?

PetSafe: steady at the bottom of the coverage ranking

PetSafe's coverage moved from 29.1% in July 2026 to 30.0% in September 2026, up 0.9 points, a change within normal variation. The brand appeared in a valid recommendation shortlist in 163 of the 544 qualified benchmark observations in September 2026. Its rank-one rate held essentially flat, from 6.2% to 6.1%, and its top-three rate rose from 23.8% to 25.4%.

PetSafe's raw mention presence slipped from 39.9% to 37.9%, meaning the brand is being mentioned in slightly fewer answers even as its shortlist presence held steady. Its average recommended rank of 2.38 places it behind Tractive's 1.63 and Fi's 1.90, the third-tightest positioning in the category.

The distinction to notice: PetSafe's gap behind Garmin Ltd. narrowed from 8.0 points in July 2026 to 0.3 points in September 2026, though this reflects Garmin's decline more than a gain by PetSafe. Both brands now sit in a tight cluster near 30% coverage.

Highest-priority diagnostic: What keeps PetSafe's coverage at the lowest level in the category, and which prompt types would need to shift for the brand to break out of the 30% range?

Buyer-Intent Interpretation

In September 2026, all 544 qualified observations fell into the Brand Recommendation cluster. The Pricing & Value and Multi-Brand Comparison clusters were empty. This means the public benchmark can quantify which brands AI recommends and how often, but it cannot yet answer price, value, or head-to-head comparison questions from this month's data. Those commercial questions remain outside the scope of what the qualified observations captured.

Brand Opportunity Summary

The benchmark identifies where attention is warranted; a company-level analysis is needed to explain why.

Evidence Behind the Benchmark

The aggregate metrics are built from prompt-level observations capturing the query, surface, recommendation outcome, rank, sentiment, and citations where exposed. Company-level analysis can go deeper into prompt, competitor, surface, and evidence patterns. Source presence is not automatically treated as proof of causation.

About This Benchmark

This analysis is part of CiteWorks Studio's ongoing AI Industry Market Discovery research. Full methodology, metric definitions, and measurement standards for this benchmark are documented at:

• AI Industry Market Discovery
• AI Industry Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Industry Market Discovery Metrics
• AI Industry Market Discovery Standards

Report-Specific Interpretation Notes

• September 2026 qualified observations numbered 544, down from 564 in July 2026. Brand-level percentages are calculated within this qualified set, so month-over-month percentage comparisons reflect the qualified denominator.
• August-to-September was a quiet month: no brand's month-over-month move exceeded the threshold for normal variation. Across the three-month series, Garmin Ltd.'s 6.8-point coverage decline was the only movement that reached significance.
• Fi's rank-one rate gain of 6.1 points and Tractive's rank-one rate decline of 8.1 points were the largest movements on that metric across the July-to-September series.
• Movement identifies changes worth investigating. Directional analysis of coverage, placement, and presence does not by itself establish the cause of those changes.

Next Step

The Public Benchmark Shows Where a Brand Is Winning or Losing. A Company-Level Audit Shows Why.

Beneath the aggregate percentages sit the questions that matter commercially: which high-intent prompts are won, which competitor takes the recommendation when a brand loses, what attributes AI associates with each option, and which external sources shape those answers. The public benchmark shows the scoreboard; it does not reveal the plays that produced it.

A company-specific AI visibility audit maps those prompt, surface, competitor, ranking, sentiment, and evidence-source patterns into a prioritized visibility strategy. For a category where the leader is stable but rank-one placement is shifting, the next competitive move will come from understanding the driver beneath the numbers, not the numbers themselves.

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