Chapter 6 - THE SMART COLLAR LOG
Rex’s collar synchronized with an app.
The app stored:
boundary warnings,
manual remote activations,
battery status,
training sessions.
Diane told animal control she rarely used manual mode.
The manufacturer’s logs said otherwise.
In the four weeks before the bite:
sixty-three manual tone activations.
Twenty-one vibration activations.
Seven correction activations.
Most occurred between:
3:05 p.m. and 3:35 p.m.
Emma’s school bus arrived around:
3:18.
Claire stared at the timeline.
“No.”
Marcus said:
“We still need context.”
The logs did not show what Rex was looking at.
Or whether Emma was present.
Then Claire checked her doorbell history.
Not hidden surveillance.
Ordinary front-door motion clips.
Enough timestamps.
On nine dates, Emma walked home during the same minute Diane manually triggered Rex’s collar.
In several clips, Rex was already behind Diane.
Then the collar chirped.
Rex surged toward the property edge barking.
Diane never appeared startled.
Once she said:
“Back her off.”
Claire replayed the audio.
Back her off.
Not:
Rex, back.
Not:
come.
Back her off.
The phrase chilled her.
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Diane had not trained the dog to bite.
But she had been using his reaction to push Emma away from the walkway.
