Sony brought 12 or so early Aibo prototypes to the Agent 97 conference. IIRC the device was developed at Sony's D21 laboratory (later the "digital creatures laboratory") and was called the Mutant, for "Musical Tangible Agent". You'd play notes from a little keyboard and it would respond. I was told they hadn't determined what kind of animal it should be yet, and were leaning towards monkey. They had some faux fur for it too. But it wagged its tail! So everyone at the conference told them it should clearly be a dog.

At the end of the conference all 12 of the prototypes had broken neck servos. Because so many people had patted them on the head.