Six-year-old Labrador retriever/German shepherd crossbreed Tai has been helping to test a new vibrating dog vest that is meant to train dogs to respond to commands sent via vibrations, providing another way for humans and dogs to communicate.

Originally Tai was raised to be a guide dog for a blind person, however, he failed to qualify because he was too easily distracted and very much led by his nose – he enjoyed sniffing things too much. In his new career, Tai has been retrained as a ‘remote-controlled dog’, with the aid of the vest he has learned to respond to haptic feedback through the vest.

Developed by Israeli researchers at Ben-Gurion University’ Robotics Lab, the vest has great potential to be useful in situations where the dog is not in its handler/owners line of sight or when they are unable to issue voice commands.

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The researchers modified a lightweight mesh dog vest with vibrating motors that touch the sides and back of the dog to provide varying levels of haptic feedback. Because it is wirelessly operated the vest can be used remotely, which means the dog can receive commands from far away and be recalled via the vest.

Tai was able to quickly learn to distinguish between different patterns, localisations, and durations of haptic feedback to understand certain commands. He can already perform commands such as  “spin,” “down,” and “back pedal” via vibration commands.

During the tests, the team found that Tai responded to haptic cues better than vocal ones, and he only required roughly an hour of training to learn and master each command.

Removing the need for visual or verbal cues could make a vest an invaluable tool in potentially dangerous situations. Not only would the vest be ideal for military and search dogs, it could also benefit disabled owners too. The vest could also improve the lives of animals that are blind, deaf, or slowly losing their senses.

Prof Amir Shapiro, director of the robotics laboratory within BGU’s department of mechanical engineering, said: “Our research results showed that dogs responded to these vibro-tactile cues as well or even better than vocal commands. Our current proof-of-concept study shows promising results that open the way toward the use of haptics for human-canine communication.”

The next stage of development will see the vest tested with dogs of different breeds and ages, as well as those at different stages of their training.