An offline-first progressive web app for structured dog-alone training, designed and built as South West Websites’ own live product. It turns a sensitive, emotionally loaded process into one calm next decision at a time.
Live public product. This is a South West Websites product, not a client site. It is a training and record-keeping aid, not a diagnosis or replacement for a veterinary behaviourist or appropriately qualified behaviour professional.
Dog separation training is not well served by a timer that simply asks people to stay away for longer. The product needed to make the next step manageable, keep the dog’s behaviour central and give the person using it permission to make things easier.
When a tool focuses too heavily on duration, it can encourage people to chase a number instead of noticing whether their dog is comfortable. The interface needed to reduce that pressure from the first screen.
SettledSolo turns the process into a short loop: plan a small step, leave gently, observe what happened, record it and adapt. The user stays in control throughout.
The work combines product thinking, interface design, front-end development, local-first data, account infrastructure and the operational discipline needed to keep a public tool reliable.
The first decision is deliberately small: establish a comfortable place to begin without asking the dog to prove what they can tolerate.
Short preparation steps help make the departure routine predictable, with room to repeat or randomise the sequence.
A focused timer, clear controls and background-friendly cues keep attention on the session rather than on navigating the app.
What the person notices after returning matters more than a single number, so the next step is explained in plain English.
The core experience can be used without an account, while optional accounts provide a way to back up and sync useful progress.
The product can be installed from the browser and improved centrally without asking users to manage a separate app-store release.
Because this sits close to animal welfare and behaviour, the product makes its boundaries visible. It explains the ideas that guide it, distinguishes conservative planning heuristics from evidence and points people towards professional help when the situation needs more than an app.
It gives someone a practical place to record a session and make a conservative next plan. It does not decide what a dog is feeling, diagnose a condition or reward pushing through distress.
SettledSolo is deliberately not a replacement for a veterinary behaviourist or appropriately qualified behaviour professional. The public site keeps the evidence notes, resources and help boundaries close to the product.
The app keeps the journey predictable while leaving enough flexibility for the dog and person in front of it.
SettledSolo is a deliberately lightweight product, but the supporting work still needs to be dependable: local state, account sync, install behaviour, timer interruptions, notifications and deployment all matter when someone is using it at the front door.
SettledSolo is now live at settledsolo.com: a calm, free starting point for people who want structure without pressure. It also demonstrates how South West Websites approaches a product that needs thoughtful UX, careful boundaries and reliable engineering behind a simple public interface.
I build focused web applications, portals and business systems around the way people actually work — and I keep improving them after launch.
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