Ex-Google Strategist Brings Connected Economy To Pet Care

Adopting a dog has become a favored coping mechanism during the last year as pet adoptions boomed during the pandemic doubling in some areas. Dogs, for a lot of people, filled a companionship void for those isolated while stuck at home.

But now, some experts are concerned that return rates are about to start spiking up, as consumers spend more time away from home and their lonely dogs are left alone more to get anxious and destructive in response. Pre-pandemic, according to ASPCA’s National Rehoming Survey, pet problems defined as bad, destructive or aggressive behaviors were the leading reason that dogs were rehomed after adoption — a trend that could pick back up for new dog owners who realize that they have not trained their canine companion nearly so well as they could have.

A very understandable condition, Companion CEO  John Honchariw told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in a recent conversation, shortly after the firm announced $8 million in seed funding last week.   Training a dog is difficult, time-consuming and at times emotionally taxing work.  It takes hours of repetitions to learn any skill and then lots of refresher work to make sure that a skill once trained in isn’t lost.

“Everyone’s busy, everyone’s got kids, everyone’s got jobs, everyone’s got tons of stuff going on,” Honchariw said. “But if you ask them if they would value a phenomenal relationship with their dog that responded every time, all the time that they can have a safe, secure relationship with? Everyone says yes, they would love but they can’t  spend the several hours a day it takes to train a dog to that level and to keep it trained over time.”

Companion — leveraging the power of an artificial intelligence (AI) embedded device and an app — was designed in partnership with the SF ASPCA to create an easily accessible toolset for dog owners to give them the kind of “training superpowers” they will need to manageably train their pet and maintain that training over time tapping the transformative power of technology.

There is almost no such thing as a dog that can’t be trained with the right regimen, he said, and Companion was created to make sure that no one ever has to give up a relationship with the pet simply for lack of ability to build and maintain that regimen all on their own.

Building A Better Training Tool

Since his days working in product strategy at Google, Honchariw said, he knew that the developing field of AI was going to create major leaps and bounds in understanding animal behavior — as AI would have the unique ability to observe and recall animal behavior over time and recognize patterns that human beings would simply never be able to see.  The obvious application of this technology, he said, was in animal training.

Training requires two things: engagement and understanding, he said. “It’s basically a conversation and just a different kind of conversation, right? What was also clear is that training is something everyone needs and it has a tremendous impact on your anxiety and your animal’s anxiety.”

Companion makes that possible with a proprietary device that uses computer vision combined with machine learning to precisely detect and analyze dogs’ movements and behaviors, respond to them and reward them over time.  It is also, Honchariw said, designed to be extremely fun and engaging for the animal — as this particular piece of technology only works when a dog is willing to interact with it. To make that happen, he said,  the device is designed to produce smells and sounds, dispense treats, play games — anything they could think of to make sure those first couple of interactions hook the dog in and keep it on coming back looking for more.

“We try to use kind of every best-in-class training practice and where that comes into play here is the training sessions are 10 to 20 minutes. That’s what’s been shown as the longest amount of time your pet really wants to engage and learn. And so we’ll do anywhere between one and two or three of those every day. And that’s just the training part. There’s a lot of other things we can do over time and engage your dog throughout the day,” he said.

And via that device, Honchariw said, Companion can patiently and over time — for hours each a day — work with a dog. Some of it will be play, some of it will be formal training, all of it will track toward the goal of a better-behaved, comprehensively trained pet. Because, he said, the machine can’t get impatient or frustrated — waiting 20 seconds, 20 minutes or 20 hours for an animal to start learning the skill makes no difference to it.

Moreover, he said, this isn’t entirely outsourced for the owner – whose voice is what is placed into the device so the dog is responsive to it. The pet owner is also given access to an app that allows them to track and modify their dog’s training regime. That app also allows them to see highlights of training captured by the device that are “always really cool to see,” and to interact regularly with a training expert on their pet’s progress.

“We also give you access to this phenomenal coach. The types of people who just have the most amazing knowledge, both practical and academic, and they’re there for your success. The device, the Companion, is doing a ton of the heavy lift and engaging your dog throughout the week. And then you get access to these folks for a check-in on how everything’s going and they’re there to answer basic questions, but also answer the really high-end behavioral questions dog owners have.”

The Path Ahead

Companion is very early in its life as a company — it expects to ship its first devices in May to consumers who have signed up already and have been on their waiting list. The Companion device and app will be part of a subscription service — though the firm has not made any public announcement on pricing thus far.

The goal, he said, is to get the technology out there and improve the lives of dogs and dog owners by offering a version of high-intensity, continuous training that is accessible to the average middle-class dog owner both in terms of what it costs and how much of a time commitment it requires.

Plus, he said, the potential to do more and add more is there — both in the world of training and beyond.

“I can say that we’re already really excited by what we see on the health and wellness side. We’re excited to make announcements in the future.”

Because the first step to treating our animals better, he said, is understanding them better. Something made possible in a way the world has never seen before with the power of AI.