Elaina Kim

DogEase

Sadly, there are countless reasons and excuses to abandon dogs in our society today. Only 10% of canines end up living with their first owner until their death. Boredom, career, change of residence, laziness, lack of time, noise, travelling, responsibilities- I could fill out the blank “Till ____ do us part” all day. Processes of abandonment and neglect bring extreme stress to canines, which change their behaviours in various ways. This includes behaviours like barking continuously, aggressiveness, self-harm, avoiding eating and moving, attacking others, etc. There are so many different behaviours shown that it is hardly impossible for the shelters to keep track of them, not to mention there is a lack of hands helping to the number of canines at the shelter... And the BIG problem of all is that they are the ones left at the shelter for the longest time- they are avoided and people get hesitant to see them as their dog candidates for adoption. But no one can say it's inhumane for them to only look for the cute friendly ones. Making a good impression is a very important part of the adoption process. The project started with a question: “How can we improve the mentally stressed abandoned canines in Ontario shelters to be ready to find a new family?”

“This small device is designed for Ontario animal shelters - specifically for the Ontario SPCA. The design needed to meet specific requirements as it is designed for public shelters with limited resources and workers.DogEase works as a sensory therapy for canines- a medical and training purpose device for any type of canines that heal mental health. It uses canine’s three key sensory: Tactile input (touch), hearing input (auditory) and olfactory input (smell), which help them ease anxiety and stress through sensory therapy. It is made with red cedar wood, a heating lamp and a speaker attached that receives the energy source from a solar panel. It seems like a lot of functions in one small device, but the key is to use these three fundamental senses together at once. The combination of using three senses in the therapy not only is more practical, but it’s also informative for them to learn and adapt faster. Please refer to the video presentation for more information! Thank you for your precious time. ”