Breathable Retrieving Device With Respiratory Passageways
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional retrieving devices for training hunting dogs, known as bumpers, obstruct a dog's airflow, leading to overheating, cardiopulmonary stress, and psychological stress due to restricted breathing, which hampers heat dissipation and gas exchange.
Innovation Solution
Designing retrieving devices with respiratory passageways that allow unobstructed airflow through the mouth, either internally as hollow shells or externally through grooves, to facilitate breathing and reduce airway resistance, thereby enhancing thermoregulation and gas exchange.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If conventional solid-walled bumpers are used, then the bumper provides structural integrity and durability, but the bumper obstructs airflow through the dog's mouth, causing thermal stress and cardiopulmonary stress
Solution Approach 1:
The bumper is designed with a porous or latticed structure that allows air to pass through while maintaining structural integrity. This resolves the contradiction by enabling airflow (reducing harmful obstruction) while the porous framework continues to provide the necessary strength and durability for the bumper to function as a retrieval device.
Solution Approach 2:
The bumper structure is divided into a framework of interconnected struts or lattice elements rather than a solid mass. This segmentation creates channels and openings throughout the bumper that allow airflow passage while the distributed framework maintains overall structural strength and rigidity.
2Ease of manufacture
If conventional bumpers are used, then the bumper is simple in design and easy to manufacture, but the bumper restricts respiratory airflow, leading to overheating and stress
Solution Approach 1:
The porous or latticed bumper design can be manufactured using standard molding or fabrication techniques for porous structures. While slightly more complex than solid bumpers, the design remains relatively simple and can be produced efficiently using existing manufacturing processes for porous or honeycomb structures.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of adding complex internal mechanisms, the solution introduces airflow pathways through the third dimension by creating a three-dimensional lattice or porous framework. This allows air to flow through the bumper in multiple directions, enhancing cooling without requiring complex internal mechanisms.
3Reliability
If conventional bumpers are used, then the bumper provides adequate buoyancy, but the bumper blocks evaporative cooling surfaces, reducing heat dissipation capacity
Solution Approach 1:
The porous or latticed structure provides sufficient buoyancy because the interconnected framework encloses air pockets throughout its volume, while simultaneously allowing evaporative cooling by permitting airflow across the dog's mouth and tongue surfaces that would otherwise be blocked by a solid bumper.
Solution Approach 2:
The segmented lattice structure creates multiple small air-filled cells that collectively provide buoyancy, while the gaps between segments allow airflow passage for evaporative cooling, resolving the contradiction between maintaining buoyancy and enabling heat dissipation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The new design reduces thermal and psychological stress, improves breathing efficiency, and increases the dog's comfort and performance by allowing free airflow over critical thermoregulatory surfaces, thus making retrieval activities safer and more enjoyable.
Implementation Method 1
Gas Exchange During strenuous exercise, a dog's oxygen uptake can be increased up to about 15 times its at-rest value. Gas exchange is important for waste removal from, and oxygen delivery to, working muscles. Conventional bumpers significantly obstruct the upper airway system and decrease the dog's ability to inhale and exhale efficiently.
Implementation Method 2
Evaporation from the upper respiratory tract constitutes the primary means of heat loss for dogs when they are under heat stress. Researchers have shown that dogs are able to increase heat loss by exhaling primarily through the mouth, where two of the major three (nasal, buccal, and lingual) evaporative surface areas are located.
Implementation Method 3
In addition, one or more flotation elements can be provided in the body to provide buoyancy for the retrieving device in the event it's launched into water (e.g., a lake or pond) during retrieving activities.
Data Source
AI summary
A retrieving device includes a body with at least one respiratory passageway formed in it through which a dog can breathe when holding the device in its mouth during retrieval. In some embodiments, the body is hollow and in the form of a shell defining an internal cavity that functions as a lateral respiratory passageway, with communicating respiratory passageways formed through the shell. In other embodiments, the body is solid with internal respiratory passageways formed through it. And in still other embodiments, the body has surface features (e.g., grooves or other thinned portions) that function as external respiratory passageways. In use, the respiratory passageways decrease obstructions to enable the dog to breathe more freely to avoid overheating and associated problems. In addition, one or more flotation elements can be provided in the body so provide buoyancy for the retrieving device in the event it's launched into water during retrieving activities.