Every paw-rent knows the stress of planning a holiday without their fur baby. It’s, in a word, ruff. But the solution to sniffing out those dog-friendly holiday spots is here.
Introducing: DOGALONG! The brand-new way for doggos and their hoomans to plan the perfect adventure, no matter where in New Zealand they’re headed.
Alex Diethelm and Ron Ragen - the founders of DOGALONG - know the pain of planning the pup-friendly holiday all too well, and after too many hours of scouring the internet for places to visit with their pooches in tow, they said “enough is enough!”.
Together, they’ve designed an online community linking paw-rents with everything they and their fur babies could need while adventuring around the country. From holiday accommodation, dining venues, walks and accessories, all the way to pet insurance and vets, dogalong.nz is a one-stop online shop for all things dog-friendly.
Alex, a dog mom herself and avid traveller, discovered the need for this kind of community after getting a puppy during COVID-19 lockdowns. Once the country opened again, she wanted to show her rescue dog Bailey all the beautiful places Aotearoa has to offer, but there was a problem.
“Once we were able to get around the country again, I found it wasn’t that easy to get out on holiday with Bailey,” she says.
Alex attended the 2022 Techstars Startup Weekend in Blenheim, where she met co-founder Ron, and the two of them immediately bonded over the idea. DOGALONG’s initial concept went on to win both the judges’ and people’s choice awards at the event, granting the co-founders the supreme prize.
And the love just keeps on coming, with hundreds of hoomans having already registered their interest in DOGALONG before it’s even launched! Combined with the endorsement from the start-up judges, this has both founders feeling good about their upcoming June 18th launch.
“Dog owners are great people, and they all run into the same issues when trying to take their dogs on holidays, or even just on a day trip! It reinforces our initial feeling that our service is desperately needed.”
With almost 500,000 registered dog parents in New Zealand, that’s a lot of Kiwis who love to treat their dogs. The average annual spend on a dog’s basic needs like food and vet visits (not including holidays, insurance and accessories) is $1750, a annual spend of at least $1 billion!
This is a similar amount that parents of a new baby spend on food and nutrition supplies (according to Plunket) and clearly illustrates that dog parents greatly value their four-legged family members.
“DOGALONG is dedicated to bringing paw-sitive vibes back to holiday planning for paw-rents everywhere”, Alex says.
DOGALONG’s launch date of 18 June is one year to the day since their win at Techstars, and just in time to celebrate founder Ron’s 81st birthday!
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