Physical Product · 2024
Canine Alert™ Device
For many veterans, PTSD-induced nightmares are a debilitating aspect of daily life impacting sleep quality, overall well-being and daily functioning.
- Canine Companions for Independence | Santa Rosa, CA | CCI-Funded | 2024
Problem
For many veterans, PTSD-induced nightmares are a debilitating aspect of daily life impacting sleep quality, overall well-being and daily functioning.
Solution
Final Product
The Canine Alert™ Device enables service dogs to interrupt PTSD episodes earlier. The CanineAlert™ Device integrates state-of-the-art technology with the specialized training of Canine Companions® service dogs, offering a more comprehensive solution to the traumatic nightmares experienced by veterans living with the symptoms of PTSD.
The CanineAlert™ Device monitors the wearer’s heart rate and wirelessly communicates with a collar device worn by the service dog. The collar activates a specific vibration that prompts the service dog into action. Unlike conventional approaches that focus only on interrupting nightmares, the CanineAlert™ Device also facilitates a faster recovery process by training the service dogs to initiate tasks aimed at reducing anxiety and hypervigilance in veteran’s post-nightmare. Canine Companions® developed the CanineAlert™ Device to improve upon one of the most popular skills among Canine Companions® service dogs, the ability to recognize active nightmares and intervene by pulling off blankets or otherwise waking their humans and interrupting the episode.
I worked on this project with CCI as a design team volunteer along with Collette Bunton, MIS, Sarah Leighton, Ph.D. and Shira Mowlem, JD.
Outcome
Canine Companions launched the CanineAlert™ Device in April 2024. It is in production and in use with veterans living with PTSD, and Canine Companions provides its service dogs free of charge. The device is patented by Canine Companions. No clinical study of the device has been published.