Wag. Zazie Todd
•Freedom from thirst, hunger, and malnutrition—by ready access to a diet to maintain full health and vigor.
•Freedom from thermal and physical discomfort—by providing a suitable environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.
•Freedom from pain, injury, and disease—by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.
•Freedom from fear and distress—by ensuring conditions that avoid mental suffering.
•Freedom to express (most) normal behaviors—by providing sufficient space, proper facilities, and company of the animal’s own kind.
Of these five things, the freedom to express most normal behaviors is the least well known. In a British survey, only 18 percent of people recognized it as a welfare need.10 The other four needs were identified by a majority, and only 4 percent of pet owners said they were not interested in knowing more about how to provide good animal welfare.
More recently, the Five Domains Model (see figure) was proposed by Prof. David Mellor of Massey University in New Zealand.11 The two approaches are complementary. One of the key differences is the idea that we should not just think about preventing harm, but also about providing good experiences. In other words, for good welfare, animals (including pet dogs) should get to do things that make them happy.
Overview of the Five Domains Model
Source: Based on Mellor (2017)12
Prof. Mellor told me, “If you’re talking about good nutrition, good environment, good health and appropriate behavior, what we need to make a distinction between is what we need in order to get animals to survive, and what we need in order not just to have them survive but to have them thrive.”
Negative states cannot be removed entirely, Mellor said. Take thirst: without feeling thirst, animals (including us) would not drink; as we drink, the sensation of thirst goes away and we are no longer motivated to find water. Similarly, without hunger, animals would not eat. Although we cannot remove these experiences entirely, we can minimize them, and we can create positive experiences, for example with different types of food.
There’s another kind of negative internal state to consider. The animal’s perception of its environment and what is happening in it may cause negative emotions like fear, anxiety, depression, boredom, and loneliness. We are often responsible for the situations that cause these emotions, but that also means we can change them, for example by enriching the environment to prevent boredom. This is, Mellor said, “where we can have quite a profound influence on whether or not the animals can have positive experiences.”
Mellor told me about the behavioral opportunities that dogs like to have. “We control a lot of these things,” he said, “but it doesn’t mean that a dog, to have a contented and happy and fulfilling life, needs to have access to all of those positive experiences. But the more that the dog can be given, appropriate to the circumstances, the better its life is going to be.”
Negative welfare states such as fear or pain can stop dogs from experiencing positive states. For example, a dog in pain will not play, may withdraw from other animals and people, and may not eat. This is why it’s important to minimize negative states as much as possible, not just in and of themselves, but also so the dog can experience pleasures. “And how do we know that they may be having positive experiences?” said Mellor. “It’s because they are engaging in the behaviors that those opportunities enable them to do.”
So to have a happy dog, we need to provide good nutrition, good health, a good environment, companionship, the ability to express appropriate behavior, and opportunities to experience positive emotions. A sense of well-being is not just about psychological welfare. Amongst orangutans living in zoos, those considered by their keepers to be “happy” lived longer lives.13 And for both captive brown capuchins and chimpanzees, their keepers’ ratings of their subjective “happiness” tie in with assessments of their positive and negative welfare.14 While we don’t have the same studies for dogs, we know the converse is true: stressed dogs live shorter lives.15 So making our dogs happy may help them have longer, healthier lives. In the intricate balance between physical and emotional wellness, anything we can do to improve welfare may bring added benefits.
There are many welfare problems for pet dogs: confrontational dog training methods that risk fear, stress, and aggression; breeding practices that reduce genetic diversity and increase the risks of inherited disease; changes in working lives and living spaces that mean dogs may be left home alone for longer and have to meet many other dogs when on walks; tail docking, ear cropping, and debarking (where these procedures are legal) that cause pain and reduce communicative abilities; and people’s failure to recognize signs of fear, anxiety, and stress in their pooch—or even people finding these signs funny. Some of these issues are caused by a failure to understand dogs.
UNDERSTANDING CANINE BEHAVIOR
UNDERSTANDING PET DOGS—WHO they are and why they behave the way they do—is also central to giving dogs a happy life. This idea was highlighted by Dr. Sam Gaines, head of the Companion Animals Department at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) in the UK. “A lot of the problems that we see or hear about,” she said, “wouldn’t necessarily come to light if people had a much better understanding of the dog that they’ve actually got in their house. So, for example, people go and impulse-purchase a puppy without doing any research, and then suddenly end up with this little creature in their house which they have no or very little understanding about, which then means it’s very difficult for them to provide for their welfare needs.”
And unfortunately there is a lot of misinformation too, which means people’s folk knowledge about dogs is often wrong. Gaines said, “In an ideal world what I would really like to do . . . is sort of like wipe the slate clean when it comes to [what people know about] dogs. Like in Men in Black they press that pen and every memory or anything associated disappears, and you can then give them a new knowledge and understanding of what a dog is.”
One of the great things about canine science is that researchers are investigating topics that are important for the everyday lives of dogs. However long you have known dogs, there is something new and exciting to learn.
THE NEEDS OF THE INDIVIDUAL DOG
JUST LIKE PEOPLE, every dog is an individual. Some dogs are sociable and friendly; they love to meet new people and other dogs, and so we should try to give them more of these experiences. On the other hand, some dogs are shy and timid and would hate to be forced to meet other people and dogs every day. That’s okay, because the important thing is that we recognize the needs of the dog we have and cater to them.
Individual differences were apparent with Ghost and Bodger. While Ghost was calm, sometimes aloof with other people, Bodger is desperate to become their friend. Having learned that sitting is required before he is patted, he secretly waits for just the right moment to leap up and lick the unsuspecting person on the face. And while Ghost was always so happy to meet other dogs, Bodger is choosy about who is allowed in his space.
There are two sides to considering the needs of an individual dog. The first is to do with minimizing experiences the dog finds negative, such as preventing situations where the dog is fearful (which may include avoiding the situation, teaching the dog to like the situation instead, and/or using medication under the guidance of a veterinarian). The second is to do with knowing what that particular dog enjoys. Do they love to play fetch or do they prefer to go for a swim? Do they love agility class or do they prefer to mooch about on a forest trail? It’s up to us to know what our dog likes and give them the opportunities to experience it.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HUMAN–ANIMAL BOND
WHEN WE GET a dog, we imagine a long, beautiful friendship, kind of like a canine equivalent of walking off into the sunset to live happily ever after.