Matchmaker, Matchmaker: The Creation of Technology through Epistemic Partnerships with Assistance Dogs

• In Event: Animals and Technology Around the World, Past and Present 1

Abstract

Assistance dogs are working dogs trained to aid someone with a disability. In this paper I discuss the use of assistance dogs with autistic children and their families. I argue that assistance dogs are a type of technology, but that triggering this technology-"activating" it-requires the formation of an epistemic partnership between the dog and its handler. A dog, even a well-trained one, is just a dog until a partnership is formed with its human handler. This partnership is epistemic in character. The success of these partnerships is dependent on a range of social, cultural, environmental and idiosyncratic factors, not unlike the success of human-human partnerships. Assistance dog trainers are key elements in this technology because they serve as matchmakers when determining what dog will be partnered with what family. The act of matchmaking is always uncertain, and I discuss various techniques used by assistance dog trainers to mitigate this uncertainty.

As part of a Marie Curie ASSISTID fellowship to address the ethical and epistemic questions regarding the construction of evidence for assistive technologies, I observed assistance dog trainers "matchmaking". In this paper, I will discuss my observations and interviews with dog trainers from Irish Guide Dogs to illustrate the how in this case dog-as-technology is contingent on the formation of a successful epistemic partnership.

Author

• Leah M McClimans, University of South Carolina, University College Cork