You can be on Entrepreneur’s cover!

Derby the Dog Can Now Run Free Thanks to His New 3-D Printed Legs Derby's unusually small forearms kept him from playing with the other dogs, until he received a pair of robotic legs that lets him keep up with his friends.

By Laura Entis

entrepreneur daily

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

It doesn't get much more heartwarming than this: Thanks to 3-D printing technology, a dog can now play with his friends.

Derby was born with deformed front legs that prevented him from walking. When his original owner could no longer take care of him, he was taken in by Peace and Paws dog rescue. That's when Derby struck gold: Tara Anderson had read about Derby's story, and agreed to foster him.

Anderson ended up doing a lot more than that for the pup. An employee at 3-D printing company 3D Systems, she first tried to increase his quality of life by harnessing him to a wheeled-cart. It worked pretty well, but still "limited his mobility in terms of being able to play with other dogs," she explains in a video. "It's not really the full motion of running."

Related: Hasbro to Let Fans Design 3-D Printed My Little Pony Art

And so Anderson got her colleagues involved. Along with Derrick Campana, an animal orthotist, two of 3D Systems' employees scanned Derby's legs and designed Derby-sized cradles and blades.

"The great thing about using 3D technology in Derby's case is having these images on file on a computer and being able to print them is a lot quicker than having to hand-sculpt every mold and rebuild these braces five, 10 times," Campana says in the video.

By this point, Derby had found permanent parents in Dom and Sherry Portanova, and his new prosthetics were shipped to the couple.

He adapted to the robotic legs right away. "The first time he was put on them, he took off running. He was just so happy," Sherri says in the video. "I was absolutely amazed at how well he did."

Related: From the Sustainable to the Flexible to the Edible, We Explore the Possibilities of 3-D Printing

Now, Derby goes on a daily run with the Portanovas, and plays with the other dogs in the neighborhood, both things he could never do before Anderson came into his life.

Watch him in action in the video below.

Laura Entis is a reporter for Fortune.com's Venture section.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Business News

Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Multibillion-Dollar Crypto Fraud

Southern District of New York Judge Lewis Kaplan said that the loss amount to the victims of Bankman-Fried's crimes surpassed $550 million.

Side Hustle

This Mom Started a Side Hustle After a 'Shocking' Realization in the Toy Aisle. Her Product Was in Macy's Within the Year — Seeing Nearly $350,000 in Sales.

Elenor Mak, now founder of Jilly Bing, didn't plan to start a business — but the search for a doll that looked like her daughter inspired her to do just that.

Growing a Business

To Achieve Sustainable Success, You Need to Stop Focusing on Disruption. Here's Why — and What You Must Focus on Instead.

Instead of zeroing in solely on disruptive innovation, embrace a pragmatic approach to innovation, recognizing and leveraging the potential within ongoing industry shifts.

Marketing

5 Ways to Get on the Media's Good Side (and Stay There)

When you're trying to make a name and a mark for yourself and your business, it's really important to get on the media's good side — and stay there.

Business News

Mark Zuckerberg Told Meta Engineers to 'Figure Out' Snapchat's Privacy Protections: 'We Have No Analytics on Them'

Recently unsealed court documents detail "Project Ghostbusters," Meta's project to work around Snapchat's end-to-end encryption to intercept data.