Smart Controls for Service Dogs

The Challenge

Most service dogs are asked to use tools designed for humans — buttons, switches, and objects that don’t match their abilities. This mismatch impacts their welfare, lowers performance, and contributes to a ~50% dropout rate during training.

The Outcome

A suite of canine-centered smart controls that improved performance, reduced training time by 47%, and enhanced user experience for both dogs and their human partners; and a methodological toolkit for animal centered design.

Key contributions

The controls were evidenced to improve:

  • Welfare - by enabling dogs to operate controls at adjustable heights with their snout, eliminating the need for stressful or harmful leaping.

  • Usability - increased ease, speed, and accuracy of activation by employing materials and mechanisms that responded to the dog's traits.

  • Delight - when usability and performance improved, the dogs showed an increase in confidence and enjoyment while handling the controls.

  • Learnability - Trainers reported a 47% reduction in training time

  • Bond with their human partners - because they were able to better interact with the controls, the dogs were eager to activate them; spontaneously doing so to let their partners know they desired praise or affection.

The animal centered design methodological toolkit includes:

  • A method for assessing tail wagging for the assessment of canine UX

  • A method for measuring dogs’ levels of confidence while interacting with technological devices

  • An ethical toolkit for animal centered design & research

  • An animal-centred design process framework

At a Glance

Sponsor: Petplan Charitable Trust
Partner: Dogs for Good (UK)
Duration: PhD research project, 8 studies
Focus: Assistive technology for canine users
Methods: Interviews, in-situ observation, prototype testing, wearable cameras
Contributions: Canine centered smart controls + methodological toolkit for animal centered design

Our Approach

We partnered with Dogs for Good (UK), combining interviews and in-situ observations with trainers, carers, and human partners across the service dog lifecycle. To complement these insights, we developed animal centered design methods including structured interaction studies and prototype testing — to evaluate usability, confidence, and welfare.

Initial Observations
Current Control Testing
Data Synthesis
Initial Concepts
Initial Prototypes
Initial Concepts
Initial Prototypes
Initial Concepts
Initial Prototypes
Initial Concepts
Initial Prototypes
Initial Prototypes
Initial Prototypes
Initial Prototypes
Size and Push Pad Distance Prototypes
Puch Pad Design Prototypes
Prototype Printing
Prototype Customization
Three Camera Testing Set-Up
Three Camera Testing
28 Day In-Home Study Kit
28 Day In-Home Study User Diary Exerpt
In Home Use
Final Design

Client Reflection

“The controls gave us new ways to think about how we train, assess and match assistance dogs as true users of technology, not just as companions adapting to human tools.” — Dogs for Good