June DogBlog 2022

VICTOR TEIXEIRA – LMDI

I often get messages and emails from people and companies trying to use our community for purposes such as marketing, publicity and projects that will benefit themselves and not our members. So it’s no surprise that when Anvith contacted me on Messenger recently I was a bit sceptical and protective of the membership. I asked for more information and was presented with details of what Anvith’s project entailed and its support by the Imperial College London. Not only that but the fact that his study attempts to identify problems and potential solutions in canine socialization. The rest of the collaboration was a breeze and surely the first of many.

Welcome to our June DogBlog!

Anvith Varanasi – Imperial College London

Hello everyone! My name is Anvith (originally from Hyderabad, India), and I’m an aspiring entrepreneur and a masters graduate from Imperial College London. I’m currently doing some research on the various challenges pet parents face. I am also a pet parent of an 11 year old golden retriever named Ralph. Ralph first came into my life when I was 13 years old, so it can be said that we both grew up together! And he’s shared a portion of everything since then, right from my food to my bed . To describe how much he means to me, I took a 10-hour flight to India, and then embarked on a further 16-hour road trip earlier this year to take him to Goa to celebrate his 11th Birthday by the beach (because he loves water). So, why am I here?

The story so far:

Upon finishing my masters in 2021, I worked on a Healthtech startup idea that fell apart in the first quarter of 2022. As I was on the lookout for new entrepreneurial ventures to get involved with, I happened to visit India to celebrate Ralph’s 11th birthday. It was around this time that I noticed a huge dip in his energy levels. He wasn’t his usual, goofy self. I believe his age, coupled with him suffering from Arthritis and the fact that he’s alone when my parents leave for work, made things worse for him. And despite taking him to dog cafés and parks, he was unable to cope with the energy levels of younger dogs found in most places, and was getting quieter by the day. At that moment, I knew what my next entrepreneurial endeavour was going to be.

Thus began my mission to strive towards building a community where we all can give our four-legged friends an enriched and joyous playdate experience by making them meet another dog that matches their age, energy levels and temperament, among other preferences!

After a few weeks of research, it took shape in the form of Compawnion, a mobile app that connects a pet parent with local dog owners and their friendly, well-behaved pooches.

In the process of conducting research on this idea, I realised that there could be other critical problems that pet parents are facing, solutions to which could potentially be more valuable to both humans and their four-legged friends.

Help I’m seeking:

As such, here I am, hoping to have a short conversation with the lovely members of Let My Dog In, to understand your experience of being a pet parent, and get insights on the key challenges you all face to take my research forward.

If you would like to help a fellow member, please use the link below to select a date and time that suits you best for a short exploratory call, which I promise won’t take more than 10 minutes!

Link to select a date and time: https://calendly.com/anvith-varanasi20/exploratory-call

While I would love to talk with every one of you individually, I respect that we all have busy schedules. So, if you would like to help via an electronic survey, please use the link below:

Link to electronic survey: https://forms.gle/4ASPot8vSEGJwgrp7

A token of gratitude…

As Aristotle famously said, “The more you know, the more you realise you don’t know”.

I have always considered myself to be a very good pet parent. However, in my recent experience of interacting with vets and dog trainers as part of the research, I acquired a wealth of information which helped me evolve into a much better parent to my pooch! A significant contributor to this came in the form of a book called ‘Canine Enrichment’ by Shay Kelly.