🐾 Beyond the Consult Room — How Dog Owners Navigate Confusion, Care & Daily Decisions

Across Australia, dog owners are devoted to their pets’ well being — yet many feel unprepared to manage care once they leave the vet clinic.

Through in-depth interviews with pet owners, this report explores how they navigate post-consult care — where confusion and stress often emerge — and what types of support they value most.

The Woofya team conducted over 70 in-depth interviews with dog owners across Australia to understand their post-consult care experience, identify common pain points, and uncover opportunities to improve communication and adherence between vet visits.

Findings reveal six consistent challenges:

• Aftercare confusion — Pet owners often forget or misinterpret veterinary instructions, struggling to manage feeding, medication, or recovery steps once at home.

• Information overload — Conflicting online advice and scattered resources make it difficult to know what’s credible or breed-specific.

• Continuity of care gaps — The most critical phase of recovery happens at home, yet the least supported phase of recovery.yet many pets miss out on consistent follow-up care. Despite their best intentions, pet owners often struggle to follow discharge instructions or maintain routines, leading to fragmented care after the consult.

• Routine struggles — Busy lifestyles and competing priorities make it difficult for pet owners to maintain consistent feeding, exercise, and training routines.

• Admin burden — Many pet owners manually track  diets, behaviours, and chronic conditions through diaries or spreadsheets — creating unnecessary workload and fragmented records.

• Emotional load - Pet owners face ongoing worry about “getting it right,” often balancing guilt, confusion, and financial pressure. Fragmented communication amplifies this stress, leading to repeat vet calls and reduced care adherence. 

Together, these themes reveal a consistent challenge: dog owners genuinely want to do the right thing but often lack the structure, clarity, and reassurance needed to maintain confident care between appointments.

Vet clinics and pet care providers that bridge these gaps through timely, personalised support can not only enhance health outcomes but also build stronger trust, operational efficiency, and long-term client loyalty.

The first part of our research reveals a crucial truth: owners genuinely want to follow veterinary advice — but unclear instructions, emotional stress, and fragmented systems make home-care harder than it should be.

👉 In Part 2, we dig deeper into WHY this problem matters right now — from workforce shortages to rising expectations and emotional stress during consults.

📞 Book a quick chat with our Founding Team
📧 [email protected]