 Dogs are a national obsession. So many of us love them. Although all dogs are special, some dogs have the extra special task of helping people with disabilities or helping us diagnose life-threatening conditions. The Open University is the first academic institution to have created a research programme in Animal-Computer Interaction. This is our dedicated Animal-Computer Interaction where we prototype all our technologies. The programme aims to understand the relation between animals and technology, to design technologies that can support animals in different ways, and to inform animal-centred research approaches to developing technology intended for them. Dogs for the disabled is a charity that trains assistants dogs to do all kinds of daily tasks. Standard life switches are very challenging for dogs to interact with. They're very small, fiddly, they're designed for fingers, not for paws. Our research tells us that the dog finds this kind of design a lot easier to interact with. This dog is learning to operate a friendly door-opening mechanism. This is an excellent relationship, providing specifically designed equipment for our dogs to use in the environment. Our technology is also being used to help the charity Medical Detection Dogs. So we are developing a dog-friendly alarm system that diabetes-alert dogs can use to go for help when their human loses consciousness. When the dog triggers the alarm by pulling a specially designed tag, the technology calls a family member or the emergency services. The work that EIU is doing in collaboration with Medical Detection is massively important. It allows our dogs to communicate with their client or the handler a lot more effectively. I'm thrilled with the progress that we are making so far, but there is so much more to be done. If we expect dogs to help us out then it is only fair that we give them the technology to support them.