How AI is reshaping the way we understand dogs

Barry Harris – Chief Executive and Founder of Fetchsense Ltd, a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner, and Animal Behaviour & Training Council Registered Animal Training Instructor – looks at how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the way we understand dogs.

For as long as humans have lived alongside dogs, we’ve relied on instinct, experience, and observation to understand them. As a professional trainer, I’ve seen how powerful body language, timing, and trust can be, but instinct has its limits and that’s where AI comes in.

FetchSense was born out of frustration. I run a busy training academy and daycare network across North Wales and the Wirral. Every day, we see behavioural patterns: stress signals, over-arousal, early warnings that most owners never notice. I kept asking myself, what if we could track this? Predict it? Step in before it escalates?

So we built something that does exactly that. FetchSense is a wearable device that combines sensors, AI, and GPS tracking to monitor behavioural and physiological signals in dogs, stress patterns, reactivity triggers, training progress, even subtle changes in temperature, motion, and location. It gives professionals and pet owners real-time insights into what a dog is feeling before it turns into barking, lunging, or shutdown and tells you where it’s happening.

We’re not guessing anymore. We’re measuring. But this isn’t Silicon Valley fantasy. Our models are grounded in thousands of real-world data points, from group classes, playgroups, solo walks, and 1:2:1 behaviour sessions. We were recently recognised with the 2025 Prestige Award for New Petcare Software of the Year (Wales), and we’re gearing up to begin testing FetchSense prototypes across our own care network.

Here’s where it gets exciting. Once you can track behaviour over time, you can start to predict it. You can spot patterns, maybe a dog’s reactivity spikes in warm weather, or their stress builds up in certain environments. And you can act early, adjust training, and personalise care plans in a way that’s never been possible before.

Will this replace trainers, walkers, or behaviourists? Absolutely not. But it will give us sharper tools. More precise data. A clearer picture of the dog in front of us. The future of dog care isn’t about replacing instinct — it’s about supercharging it. Blending what we know with what AI can uncover. And at FetchSense, that’s exactly what we’re building.

FetchSense is built on a foundation of ethical, evidence-based training, not just technology, but years of hands-on experience.