Case study Platforms

K9X

The digital hub for dog-powered sport

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K9X

The story

How we scoped, built, and shipped this system.

K9X is a UK platform for dog-powered sport - canicross, bikejor, CaniScoot and trail running with your dog. Runners, clubs and organisers told us the same story: routes lived in one place, conditions in another, club admin in spreadsheets, and fitness data siloed in Strava or Fitbit with no link back to the dog on the line.

COZQ designed and built K9X to bring that scattered picture together. One account works on the web at k9x.uk, in the Expo mobile app, and on Apple Watch - with a conditions-first home screen, mapped trails, club and event tools, Pet Passport, and integrations that keep human and dog activity in the same story.

The challenge

Dog-powered sport in the UK has grown quickly, but the digital tools around it have not kept pace. Generic fitness apps track the human. Social networks are noisy. Club organisers juggle WhatsApp groups, Facebook pages and email lists. Route knowledge sits in GPX files and word of mouth. And heat, humidity and ground conditions - the things that matter most for dogs - are rarely surfaced in a breed-aware way.

The product needed to respect a simple truth: every run is a partnership. The platform had to treat dogs as first-class entities, connect activities to specific dogs, score conditions against breed and fitness attributes, and give clubs a calm place to organise without feeling like another social network.

  • Fragmented tools

    Routes, weather, club comms and activity history lived in separate apps and chats with no shared data model.

  • Dog-blind fitness tracking

    Mainstream integrations tracked people, not the dog on the line - making it hard to tell a complete training story.

  • Club admin overhead

    Volunteer-run clubs needed verification, roles, RSVPs and route approval without enterprise complexity.

  • Safety on UK trails

    Runners wanted practical guidance on heat and conditions, water stops on routes, and a way to share live location with trusted contacts.
Canicross runners on a woodland trail at sunrise
K9X homepage hero - canicross at sunrise on a woodland trail

The COZQ solution

We built K9X as a single Laravel API and website with a native Expo mobile app and watchOS companion. The architecture follows a HUMAN + DOG + SPORT + LOCATION domain model: dogs have profiles, breeds carry heat and coat attributes, activities attach to dogs, and routes carry suitability context for canicross and bikejor.

Super Admin settings control product name, strapline and feature flags without redeploying code. The public site handles discovery and logged-in member flows; Filament powers internal administration; and the same REST API serves web and mobile clients.

K9X conditions screen showing forest trail weather guidance
Forest conditions view on K9X

Conditions-first home

The home screen is built around the question runners ask first: should we go today? K9X combines Met Office Weather DataHub forecasts (with Open-Meteo fallback) into breed-aware scores - Ideal, Good, Caution or Not Recommended - plus a best run window based on hourly data and the member's active hours.

Conditions are guidance, not veterinary advice, but they give clubs and individuals a shared vocabulary for safer decisions on UK trails.

Published woodland route on K9X
Routes home on K9X

Routes, explore and offline packs

Members browse published routes from clubs and the community, save favourites, and explore an interactive map of routes, events, clubs, directory listings and water stops. Routes can be drawn, imported from GPX, generated from recorded activities, or curated by admins.

The mobile app supports offline route packs - route geometry and map tiles for patchy signal on woodland trails - and can send routes to Apple Watch for wrist-based recording.

Platform capabilities

  • Clubs and events

    Create or join clubs with roles, verification badges, feeds, polls, route submission workflows, club runs with RSVP, and published events across the UK.

  • Pet Passport

    Per-dog health records: vaccinations, medications, allergies, weight logs, vet and insurance details, documents, and time-limited QR health cards for events.

  • Community feed

    Follow runners and dogs, share photos with approval-based tagging, react to posts, and celebrate medals when milestones are reached.

  • UK directory

    Searchable listings for vets, hydrotherapy, secure fields, trainers, groomers and more - with suggest, claim, confirm and verified badges.

  • Activity recording

    GPS recording on mobile with live distance and pace, elevation profiles, companion invites, and idempotent sync to the API. iOS Live Activities during runs.

  • Run safety sharing

    Tokenised public links let trusted contacts follow a live run without an account - with mark-safe and overdue notifications.
  • Canicross sport
    Canicross on K9X
  • Route detail screen
    Woodland loop route
  • K9X community
    Community together
  • K9X mascot
    K9X brand mascot

Integrations and devices

K9X connects to the tools runners already use:

  • Strava - OAuth connect, activity sync, webhooks, and retroactive dog assignment on imported activities.
  • Fitbit / Google Health - separate OAuth flow with sync and dog mapping for a unified training history.
  • Apple Watch - watchOS app paired via QR with iPhone approval; conditions, route list, offline routes, and run recording on the wrist.
  • Garmin and COROS - marketing-ready integration slots; Garmin and COROS logos are in the product with roadmap positioning.

Apple and Google sign-in are supported on web and mobile alongside email and password, with session management and optional dev auth in non-production environments.

  1. Domain-first design

    Mapped the HUMAN + DOG + SPORT + LOCATION model before UI - ensuring dogs, breeds, routes and conditions share one API.

  2. Conditions engine

    Built a provider-agnostic weather layer (Met Office primary, Open-Meteo fallback) with geohash caching and breed-aware scoring.

  3. Unified API clients

    Shipped Laravel API consumed by Inertia web and Expo mobile - one source of truth for auth, routes, clubs and activities.

  4. Mobile and Watch

    Expo SDK 57 app with MapLibre maps, offline packs, background location recording, and Swift watchOS companion via custom native module.

  5. Community launch

    Medals, directory moderation, club verification, and Super Admin branding controls for iterative public rollout.

Technologies used

Key outcomes

  • One platform, three surfaces

    Web, iOS/Android app and Apple Watch share a single Laravel API - reducing duplication and keeping member data consistent.

  • Dog-aware decisions

    Breed-aware conditions and Pet Passport move safety and health information into the same place members plan routes and record runs.

  • Club-ready tooling

    Verification, roles, route approval, RSVPs and events give volunteer organisers structure without corporate bloat.

  • Free to join

    Lower barrier for UK clubs and runners to adopt a dedicated dog-sport home rather than generic social or fitness apps.

Know when to run. Built around your dog.

K9X platform strapline
What sports does K9X support?
Canicross, bikejor, CaniScoot, trail running and run-with-dog - each with conditions profiles and Strava sport mapping where applicable.
Is K9X only a mobile app?
No. K9X is a full web platform at k9x.uk plus native mobile apps and an Apple Watch companion. The same account works across all surfaces.
Who built K9X?
K9X is designed, built and operated by COZQ Limited - the same UK studio behind Around Town, LevelUp, and bespoke client platforms.

Explore K9X

Visit the live platform or talk to COZQ about building connected software for your community.

Visit k9x.uk

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