Five from Finland
Dog-friendly solutions
These Finnish companies are bringing the best to man’s best friend.
Dog food, dog training, a gel that reduces anxiety in dogs and a dog health tracker – these innovations are making dogs wag their tails.
The Turku-based company specialises in dog training online and with smart devices and has a distinctive method of training from the dog’s perspective. Just this week, it landed 500 000 euros in crowdfunding. It will use the funds to pursue growth and launch its new online puppy training programme globally this summer.
“Our most important goal now is to find the most scalable way for customer acquisition and start implementing it first in North America,” said OneMind Dogs CEO Noora Keskievari.
Why give your best friend just anything to eat? This company’s range of dog food uses ingredients that are of high enough quality for human consumption. Dinner for two, then! Everything comes from close by, and the company avoids listing fancily named foodstuffs, favouring nutritional value instead.
“Even in Finland, authorities have been delighted that, because our product is fully Finnish, it must comply with Finnish regulations,” Laura Strömberg told us. “As Finnish food is world-famous for its purity and high quality, it can be trusted elsewhere too.”
ANAXEOS
We all wish we could ask our dogs how they’re doing. This company lets data speak. Anaxeos is a lightweight vest with sensors that track things such as heart rate and temperature, connected to a mobile app that then reveals and interprets the data so that the dog’s carer can take action.
“Anaxeos doesn’t make pie charts and histograms,” Toni Koutu explained. “Instead, it makes sense of the numbers and gives alerts and suggestions regarding things like what to do if your dog’s temperature is too high.”
Back in 2017, a research group led by Finnish scientists landed an award for their study that investigated a dexmedetomidine oromucosal gel for treating noise anxiety in dogs. They concluded that the gel can help to improve the wellbeing of dogs afflicted with noise sensitivity.
“There is an unmet need for treatment options for dogs suffering from noise anxiety,” said Dr. Mira Korpivaara. “Our study demonstrated that dexmedetomidine oromucosal gel provides veterinarians a treatment option for alleviation of acute anxiety and fear associated with noise in dogs.”
Looking for some variety of cuisine for your best friend? This company offers flavours without grains, additives or preservatives, and the food is not heated during the preparation process either.
“All of our products are natural and we are imitating the food that dogs have been eating the last 30 000 years and what a canine would eat by instinct if it was living in the wild,” said Petri Tapio from Mush.