How tech is making it easier to find the right dog

In 1995, twenty-two years after the first call was made on a Motorola cell phone, Match.com broke ground with an online platform using technology to help people find their human soulmates. A year later Petfinder an animal adoption website that posts adoptable animals launched, and a process that historically only took place in the confines of brick and mortar shelters was brought to an online audience of millions.

Fast forward to 2019 when technology has advanced so much that our wrist watches record our sleep patterns, track how many steps we take, and just about everything and anything can be researched and purchased online. Modern consumers have come to expect the speed and convenience technology brings to their every day lives.

While the cell phone, which was once a whopping 4.5lb brick (that by the way could only make a phone call), has been upgraded to a svelte 4.5oz miniature high-speed computer, finding the right pet is still stuck in 1996 — until now. How I Met My Dog, a new online service uses an algorithm based on behavior and lifestyle to custom match the right dogs with people who want to rescue them.

Now more than ever, dogs are becoming our first babies before having our own human children. The parallels are obvious. Like our human kids, our fur babies require toys to play with, food and treats to eat, bed to sleep, yards to run in, cars to ride in, and sitters to look after them when we’re not at home. For some time now technology has been able to give us access to all kinds of valuable information about how to parent and now, with How I Met My Dog, people have access to technology that can help them choose which dogs they should be parenting.

Humans tend to make relationship choices based on appearance first, and that can often result in a mismatch. The same holds true when it comes to our dogs. Four million dogs end up in our shelter systems every year – many because the dog and their person were just not compatible. Clearly, when it comes to choosing a partner, whether human or canine, we need to dig deeper. While individual breeds of dogs do exhibit common characteristics even two puppies from the same litter might have very different personalities, so neither breed nor appearance should ever take top billing. Using their proprietary adopter and dog surveys, How I Met My Dog’s algorithm can custom match the people and dogs that are best suited to each other, based on personality, expectations, and training style.

Who could have imagined that the wireless phone would one day be the vehicle for bringing together humans and their canine soulmates? With over 100,000 registered adopters, tens of thousands of matches made every day, and hundreds of successful adoptions already facilitated, How I Met My Dog is proving that custom on-line matching is exactly what people want and exactly what dogs need.

Thanks to machine-based learning, dog trainers, animal behaviorists, veterinarians, and shelter experts, How I Met My Dog is now helping people find the right dog and helping dogs find the right homes.