Our Most Important Responsibility to Our Dogs

If asked, I suspect most people could come up with a list of responsibilities that we have for the dogs in our care. This list will probably include:

• Food
• Water
• Exercise
• Mental stimulation
• Health care
• A place to rest comfortably
• Treat them with kindness and empathy

For me, all of these things come down to one central concept: our responsibility to our dogs (and any other animals in our care) is to make them feel safe. We can do this by fulfilling their needs, both in terms of things they must not be exposed to and ensuring they have access to what they need to live a happy, healthy, and comfortable life. By doing this, ensuring they feel contented and comfortable, we proved our dogs with the huge added benefit of feeling secure and safe.

What Are a Dog's Needs?

So what are the things that our dogs need?

In human psychology, needs are often represented in a pyramid made up of the headings from Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs (although the pyramid itself never appeared in Maslow's work). The pyramid construct works in such a way that the basic needs must be met before progression can occur towards the top of the pyramid.

 

• Physiological needs: food, water, air, shelter, sleep. The essentials for life.
• Safety needs: physical and emotional safety, a sense of security
• Belonging and love needs: a social species needs relationships, connections with family and friends.
• Esteem needs: respect, self-esteem, sense of self-worth
• Self-actualisation: achieving potential, becoming what they want to be.

Linda Michaels, a leading member of the force free training community, reworked this hierarchy to apply to dogs. In the pyramid she created, the levels move down the pyramid as follows:

• Cognitive needs: choice, novelty, and problem-solving opportunities.
• Force free training needs: kind and ethical management and learning.
• Social needs: social bonding with both other dogs and people (although I would say bear in mind that different dogs will have differing levels of social skills and many dogs are dog selective) and play.
• Emotional needs: security, love, trust, and consistency.
• Biological needs: good nutrition, water, air, shelter, exercise, sleep, and veterinary care.

The Five Freedoms

Arising from a UK Government report on livestock husbandry and formalised into their recognisable form in a 1979 UK Farm Animal Welfare Council press statement, these outline five aspects of animal welfare that are under the control of the humans caring for those animals. They have been adopted by many organisations, including the RSPCA and ASPCA, and professionals such as veterinary surgeons, and provide an easy to remember and understand guide to ensuring the welfare of animals in our care.

The five freedoms, which cover all of an animal’s basic needs, are:

• Freedom from hunger, thirst and malnutrition. This does not just mean making sure that your dog has food to eat. It means ensuring that your dog receives good quality nutrition, that you know what is in your dog’s food and that the ingredients in it are suitable and able to be utilised. A dog can consume plenty of food and still be suffering from malnutrition if the diet is of poor quality or doesn’t contain available nutrients in the right amounts. Poor diet can stress the dog’s system.
• Freedom from discomfort. Many dogs are stoic, very good at not showing discomfort. For this reason, it is very important that dog guardians make sure that they are doing everything they can to make sure nothing in their dogs’ lives could be causing discomfort, and to take action if something is causing a problem for the dog. This is particularly important with mental discomfort, which is even more difficult to see.
• Freedom from pain, injury and disease. This measure is largely preventive, as regular check-ups will help to prevent disease, and manage pain. Complementary therapies such as hydrotherapy and canine massage can also help with pain and keep the body in a good condition to help avoid pain and injury. Completing the holistic approach to this freedom is the important proper nutrition, including supplementation if required.
• Freedom to express normal behaviours. Modern society places many demands on dogs and their behaviours. It is vitally important to let our dogs be dogs. Dogs need to bark, run, dig and play and it is up to dog guardians to provide appropriate circumstances to let them do that. A dog that doesn’t get time to bounce around and chew something tasty and then have a nice nap is going to be a stressed dog as due to the suppression of their natural behaviours.
• Freedom from fear and distress. The things that can cause these feelings are wide and varied between dogs and sometimes between days, depending on how the dog is feeling. The best thing we can do to ensure dogs around us have this freedom is learn to understand how our dogs are communicating with us, and to recognise when they are showing signs of stress of being scared. We can also try to teach them to feel less scared by training and enrichment activities to give them confidence and positive alternatives, increasing their confidence and resilience.

The Five Domains

While the five freedoms have provided a useful shorthand explaining the basics of what we must ensure our dogs don’t have to deal with, they do have limitations. The freedoms only deal with negatives, things we must make sure our dogs don't experience. They make no recognition of how positive factors can also influence the lives of dogs. The five domains model has rectified this and the domains are under constant review and updating.

The five domains in their current form are:

• Nutrition. This includes providing the correct amount of quality, nutritious and varied foodstuffs and access to plenty of fresh clean water.
• Physical Environment. Provide suitable shade or shelter, fresh air, comfortable levels of noise and light, enough room for the dog to move around and enough comfortable resting places so they can get enough sleep or rest.
• Health. This covers all aspects of health, from maintenance of ideal body condition and fitness levels to injury, physical impairment, disease and toxins.
• Behavioural Interactions. Interactions with the environment, other dogs, and humans. Providing dogs with novel and varying experiences in their environment and allowing them to explore is so important for them. Appropriate interactions with other animals and humans (within the scope of the individual dog’s tolerances and preferences) is also important.
• Mental State. All of the above have an effect on the dog, combining to dictate their mental state. Awareness of our dogs’ mental states is vital in considering their welfare. I have written before about the importance of considering canine emotions, as it really is a central part of being the best guardians, the best dog people that we can be.

For more information on the five domains model, and its current up to date form as of writing this article, read the open access paper here.

Ensuring That We Meet These Needs

Looking at those lists of officially termed factors we must avoid or provide might seem a little overwhelming, but good dog guardians are already providing their dogs with the things they need to feel happy, healthy and safe. Have a look at this final list written in ordinary language. 

• Good quality food and access to plenty of fresh water
• Regular appropriate healthcare as and when required
• Regular appropriate exercise
• People who can understand their communication and heed them
• Allowing them to have as much choice as is possible and safe
• Enrichment activities (including breed specific enrichment)
• Able to do dog things: digging, running, sniffing - let them be dogs!
• Comfortable places to rest or sleep
• Peace and quiet when they want
• Minimising stress in their environment
• Kind and empathetic handling and training
• Respect for the dog's individuality and preferences

If you can tick off that all of these are covered, then your dogs' needs are definitely being met and that they are living their best lives with you. Congratulations, you are a good dog guardian!

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I also have a new Redbubble shop, which has a mix of items in there from both the dog side of what I do and the imposter syndrome aspect. I've seen a few pieces in the flesh from the 'Feeling the Fear' design and they are absolutely gorgeous!