Early-stage, pre-revenue, founder-backed

Building the next generation of pet behaviour technology

Silent Buddy Co Ltd is developing a behavioural training device that teaches dogs when the day begins, with a longer-term roadmap towards intelligent sound recognition.

Request investor deck Speak to Lucy

01 of 16

Dogs that start the day before their owners are ready

Early-morning barking, whining and attention-seeking costs households sleep, and it is one of the hardest habits for an owner to change alone.

15.5 million

dogs living in UK households in 2026, up from 12.5 million in 2021.¹

76%

of dogs in the 2024 National Dog Survey showed at least one behaviour their owner considered undesirable.³

02 of 16

Owners reinforce the behaviour without meaning to

Getting up when the dog makes noise teaches the dog that noise works.

Dog barks early
Owner gets up
Dog learns noise starts the day
Owner responds inconsistently
Earlier waking, repeated

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Take the owner out of the loop, and give the dog a signal it can rely on

SilentBuddy is designed around teaching a predictable morning routine. The morning starts when the device says so, the same way every day, not when the dog makes noise.

Most existing products address the barking. Few address the routine that causes it.

04 of 16

One bedside device, three jobs

Front view of the SilentBuddy device with its light ring glowing and the display showing 10:05 — Design render.

Designed

Sound detection

An adjustable microphone listens for barking during an owner-set quiet period.

Subject to validation

Behavioural response

A cue to interrupt early barking. The concept includes a potential ultrasonic cue, which requires technical, welfare and behavioural validation before it is adopted.

Designed

Morning signal

At the chosen wake time, a sunrise-style light and a gentle melody mark the start of the day.

It is designed to run without an app, Wi-Fi or subscription, with an optional vibration collar tag. A patent application has been filed. How it works in detail

05 of 16

Early customer validation

Historic data from earlier SilentBuddy research and waitlist activity. These are not sales, customers or orders.

126

responses to a UK consumer survey.

historic waitlist registrations: 64 from paid advertising and 20 organic.

About £1.70

historic cost per waitlist sign-up from paid advertising.

The waitlist on this website is counted separately and starts from zero. It records acquisition source, dog ownership, the main early-morning problem, typical wake time and interest in product testing, so that demand can be evidenced with our own data.

06 of 16

Technology: simple first, intelligent later

The first product does not depend on AI. That keeps the route to a working prototype short.

Currentexists or is done today
Plannedwork we intend to do
Potentiallonger-term possibility

Current

Current concept

Threshold-based sound detection, scheduled quiet period, light and audio cues, all on the device.

Planned

Feasibility work

Electronics, firmware and an assessment of on-device AI sound recognition.

Potential

Future capability

Recognition that distinguishes sounds and adapts to an individual dog.

Technology page: on-device AI and privacy principles

07 of 16

The AI opportunity

AI could turn a scheduled training device into an intelligent behaviour system. This is a research roadmap. No AI system exists today.

Current concept
Basic sound detection
Knows that a noise happened.
Planned research
Sound classification
Tells barking from whining, howling and background noise.
Potential
Individual behaviour recognition
Learns one dog's patterns.
Potential
Adaptive responses
Responds according to behaviour and history.
Potential
Behavioural insights
Shows owners trends and progress.

What that could mean commercially

Differentiation

Beyond devices that react to any noise.

Defensibility

A system that improves with use is harder to copy than hardware.

Recurring revenue

Insights open a path to optional software.

Expansion

The same recognition could serve other behaviours.

Opportunities, not forecasts.

08 of 16

Market

Published figures only, each with its source. Where no reliable figure exists, we say so.

Global pet tech

$7.6bn to $15.6bn

Published estimates for 2024 and 2025, with forecast annual growth of 12% to 15%. They differ because analysts define the category differently.⁴⁵

UK homes with a dog

About 12 million

41% of UK households, up from 33% in 2021. The household count is our calculation from the same survey.¹

Homes with an early-waking dog

Not yet known

We have found no published figure. Measuring it is one purpose of the waitlist.

A second UK estimate puts the dog population lower, at 11.1 million.² In the 2024 National Dog Survey, 99% of owners said they see their dog as part of the family.³

09 of 16

Competition

Products exist that respond to barking, and products that monitor it. We have not found one built around a wake-time routine for dogs.

Product	Type	What it does	Response to barking	Wake-time routine
PetSafe Indoor Bark Control⁶	Anti-bark device	Tabletop unit with a range of up to 25 feet	Automatic: a 2-second ultrasonic tone whenever the dog barks	None described
PetSafe Bark Control Collar⁷	Bark collar	Collar that detects the wearer's bark	Automatic: static stimulation that increases over 6 levels	None described
Furbo 360 Dog Camera⁸	Pet camera	Live video, two-way audio and treat tossing, with a subscription	Alerts the owner, who responds through the app	None described
Tractive DOG 6⁹	Smart monitoring	GPS and health tracker with bark monitoring	Reports whether barking is below, at or above the dog's normal level. Does not intervene	None described
SilentBuddy (proposed)	Routine device	Bedside unit with quiet period and morning signal	Proposed: only during the owner-set quiet period; method subject to validation	Yes. It is the purpose of the product

Competitor features are as described on each maker's own website, checked October 2026. "None described" means the maker's page does not mention one. Training apps, classes and behaviourists are owner-led alternatives and are not compared here.

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Business model

Hardware first. Recurring revenue depends on a software layer that is not yet decided.

Planned

At launch

HardwareSale of the SilentBuddy device.
AccessoriesIncluding the optional collar tag.
ChannelsDirect online first, then pet retail, marketplaces and distribution.

Potential

Later

Premium softwareBehaviour trend reports, progress insights, multiple pet profiles.
SubscriptionOnly if connected features prove valuable to owners. Always optional.
More devicesProducts for other behaviours.

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Traction: what has been done so far

Founder investmentApproximately £15,000 of Lucy's own money. No external investment and no revenue to date.
CompanySilent Buddy Co Ltd, incorporated April 2025 (no. 16383600).
Product designConcept sketches through to engineering drawings for the bedside unit and collar tag, with external product design and manufacturing support from Design by Datum.
Intellectual propertyPatent application filed.
Early testingEarly testing with volunteer households.
ManufacturingInitial manufacturing outreach.

Hand-annotated concept sketches of the SilentBuddy device exploring where the controls should sit, with the dial on the back marked as the favourite — Concept sketches. Controls on the top and sides were tried and rejected; the dial on the back kept the front clean.

Engineering line drawing of the SilentBuddy bedside unit — Engineering drawing: bedside unit.

Engineering line drawing of the optional SilentBuddy collar tag — Engineering drawing: collar tag.

Exploded 3D view of the SilentBuddy unit showing the front and rear enclosures and internal layers — Exploded view of the assembly.

Full engineering drawings are available to investors on request. Development updates

12 of 16

Roadmap

Dates will be added once the technical development plan and funding are fixed. We would rather show none than guess.

Stage 1
Concept and initial validation
Problem, product concept, design and early demand testing.
Substantially progressed
Stage 2
Technical feasibility
Electronics, firmware, sound detection and AI feasibility.
Next
Stage 3
Functional prototype
A genuinely working, integrated prototype.
Planned
Stage 4
Controlled user testing
Testing with dog-owner households to gather behavioural and product data.
Planned
Stage 5
Product refinement
Hardware, software, industrial design and behaviour logic.
Planned
Stage 6
Manufacturing and compliance
Supplier selection, design for manufacture, testing, certification and production preparation.
Planned
Stage 7
Pilot and early commercial launch
First customers.
Planned
Stage 8
Intelligent product development
AI sound recognition, personalisation and behavioural insights.
Potential

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Lucy Goffin, Founder and Director

Lucy previously built and operated a high-turnover consumer home-improvement business, giving her first-hand experience of customer acquisition, sales, operations, suppliers and running a growing business.

Her role at SilentBuddy is to identify the problem, develop the commercial proposition, drive the product vision, build the business and bring in the technical expertise needed to deliver it. She is not the engineer behind the product and does not claim to be.

Why Lucy started SilentBuddy

Building the specialist team

SilentBuddy is founder-led. There is no in-house engineer, AI specialist or behaviour adviser yet. Investment would secure this expertise as the product progresses:

Embedded systems and electronics
AI and machine learning
Firmware and software
Industrial design
Dog behaviour
Manufacturing
Compliance

Have that expertise? Explore a partnership.

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The investment opportunity

Current funding round: to be confirmed

Investment buys measurable milestones. Each one removes a specific risk.

Investment
Working prototypeIntegrated hardware and firmware
Technical validationIncluding AI feasibility work
Real-world testingWith dog-owner households
Manufacturing readinessIncluding compliance preparation
Commercial launchLaunch preparation

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Vision: from one routine to intelligent pet behaviour technology

Mornings are the first use. A device that can recognise and respond to behaviour could support many more.

See where the platform could go

16 of 16

Request the pitch deck, or speak directly to Lucy

SilentBuddy is looking for investors and strategic partners to take it from concept through technical validation and prototype to commercial launch.

Lucy sends the deck personally, normally within two working days.

info@silentbuddy.co.uk

Sources

UK Pet Food, Pet Population Survey 2026. Kantar, 8,951 UK adults, January 2026. Published 31 March 2026. ukpetfood.org
PDSA, PAW Mini Report 2025: 30% of UK adults own a dog; estimated 11.1 million dogs. pdsa.org.uk
Dogs Trust, National Dog Survey 2024 (373,217 dog owners), as reported by Agria Pet Insurance.
Global Market Insights, Pet Tech Market report, December 2025: USD 15.6 billion in 2025, forecast 12% annual growth 2026 to 2035. gminsights.com
Arizton, Pet Tech Market: Global Outlook and Forecast 2025 to 2030, April 2025: USD 7.63 billion in 2024, forecast 14.56% annual growth to 2030. arizton.com
PetSafe, Indoor Bark Control (PBC-1000) product page. petsafe.com
PetSafe, Bark Control Collar (PBC19-10765) product page. petsafe.com
Furbo, 360 Dog Camera and Furbo Nanny. furbo.com
Tractive, Bark Monitoring help article (Tractive DOG 6). help.tractive.com