Everyone wants to be happy in life. Whether this is having a good career, lots of money, starting a family, or just a positive outlook. Understandably most pet owners will want their canine friends to be happy as well! Since we can’t always make them happy in the same ways as humans, how can we make our dogs feel happy?
Table of contents
Five Freedoms
Before a dog can start enjoying life, their basic needs must be fulfilled. We term these needs the Five Freedoms (they were originally developed for farm animals, but they can be a useful tool for looking at any animal’s welfare, and they were the foundations that the Five Welfare Needs in the Animal Welfare Act were built on). We’ve discussed them before in previous articles, so we’ll keep it brief here. If you get these Five Freedoms correct, your dog is already on a good path to being happy. We can then discuss some more specific examples.
The first is freedom from hunger and thirst
This seems simple: ensure they have plenty of food and fresh water to sustain them. This also means ensuring your dog is not overweight or underweight. However, there is a world of quality between diets, and dogs at different ages, with specific needs or certain diseases may need special diets. Discuss with your vet which diet is most appropriate for your dog.
The second is freedom from discomfort
This means ensuring they have shelter, a place to rest and sleep comfortably, good temperature regulation, a clean environment and so on. For most people, a house provides most of this, though ensure it is dog friendly and free of hazards.
The third, and arguably the most important is freedom from pain, disease and injury
Most owners will be able to identify obvious points of pain or disease, like wounds, limping or vomiting. However, there are many more subtle diseases that aren’t always recognised. We will go into these in a bit more detail later on. Any form of pain should not be ignored, and treated as best we can.
The fourth is the freedom to express normal behaviour
For dogs, this means being able to exercise, play with other dogs if they want to, have space to roam around, and companionship (human or animal). These behaviours will of course vary dog to dog.
Finally, the fifth is the freedom from fear and distress
Failing to ensure the four other freedoms may lead to fear or distress, so this is a good starting point. Other sources of fear or distress may be noise or separation fears, problems associated with blindness or deafness, or a negative home environment (humans arguing will cause fear in most dogs).
Before thinking about happiness more specifically, ask yourself if every freedom has been met for your dog.
Entertainment and Playtime
Fun and games will come under the banner of freedom to express normal behaviour, but let’s think about it in more detail. Most dogs love to play, whether this is chasing a ball, going for a walk, swimming or playfighting with siblings. All these behaviours should be encouraged as long as they are safe.
However, it is also important to delineate playtime from other activities. This is especially important in growing puppies, so they can learn when it is time to be quiet and entertain themselves. Otherwise, this can lead to dogs not sleeping properly at night, overexcitement, or even separation anxiety. The best way to do this is to have a set playtime, such as just before a meal or when you get home from work. Dogs prefer set routines. While this doesn’t mean you can’t throw the ball around at home or give them a fuss outside of schedules, try and keep big activities to set times of day.
As an aside, if you are noticing your dog no longer wants to play as much as they used to, this may be a sign of physical or mental decline – we recommend speaking to your vet if this is the case.
Preventative Medicine
Freedom from disease doesn’t just mean treating diseases when they occur, they mean preventing them as best you can in the first place.
For injuries and accidents, this means ensuring their daily lives are safe
Keep them on a lead until you are in a safe enclosed area away from main roads. Ensure they are microchipped and registered, have a collar on, and the house/garden is secure. At night, high-visibility items are a must. Avoid dangerous activities like walking in risky places, swimming where it isn’t safe and so on. At home, prevent access to toxins like chocolate, certain plants, onions and other alliums and hazardous chemicals.
Regarding disease, always ensure your dog is fully vaccinated
The diseases we vaccinate against are serious and can be deadly. Parasite infections from fleas, ticks, mites and worms are also preventable with regular anti-parasite drugs. Regular vet checks, at least once a year in adult life (more frequently for older or younger dogs) will help identify disease early too.
There are also diseases that you may not recognise as such that we urge you to consider. Minimise disease by ensuring your dog’s diet is appropriate and they are not underweight or overweight; obesity is very common in pets and is a disease that can and should be prevented. Poor dental hygiene and periodontal disease is also very common. It can lead to severe pain, bleeding, tooth loss, infection and damage to organs. Brushing your dog’s teeth every 1-3 days is recommended to reduce this risk. Many dogs are predisposed to disease due to their breed – whether this is brachycephalic dogs’ breathing issues, Labrador hip dysplasia or Dachshund spinal disease. Consider these diseases when purchasing a new dog, and compensate for them with your current dog depending on their breed, such as reducing certain exercises.
Having Their Own Space
A good home environment is covered under the second freedom from discomfort. As we said, most homes fulfil the minimum requirements for dogs. But you can go a step further and give them their own private space, if you can.
This can be as simple as a crate with warm blankets. Crate training will take time, and should be started as a young puppy if this is what you want. A crate shouldn’t be a place to be locked in for punishment, but a place your dog can be for quiet time.
Some people may wish to go a step further and have a dedicated room or area of the house just for the dog. This should be quiet, secluded, warm, an area with low human traffic (so kitchens and living rooms are often not ideal), and able to be kept dimly lit if needed. As with crates, it should contain plenty of bedding, and possibly some food and water bowls too. These sorts of spaces are ideal for nervous dogs that don’t like strangers, those with noise phobias or any dog that is comfy entertaining themselves. If you are using the room as a safe space for phobias, like fireworks, introduce the area well in advance of fireworks season, so your dog knows it is somewhere they can retreat to when frightened.
As above, ensure these areas are safe from all risks, secure from escape from the house itself, but not blocked off by doors or barriers so your dog can come and go as they please.
Mental Health
By addressing a dog’s physical needs via the five freedoms, most dogs’ mental health needs will be met. You can take it one step further by providing your dog with lots of mental stimulation. This can include physical exercise, such as walking, swimming, going for runs, classes and more. It can also extend to mental games. You can try using puzzle feeders so they have to spend time getting to their favourite treat. A closed toilet roll tube with treats inside is a simple toy to make at home. Hiding treats in the garden is also good, and a great way to get lazy but food-driven dogs to exercise. If you want to get more formal, doggy sports like frisbee, agility, flyball and more are very positive for dog and human alike.
You could also consider new tricks
Your dog might know the basic ‘sit’ and ‘lay’, but could you take the time to teach ‘roll over’, ‘speak’, ‘play dead’ or others? Again, taking the time to teach your dog can be rewarding for you too.
All dogs will enjoy mental stimulation, but those who are elderly or have possible CCD will find even more benefits. CCD, or canine cognitive dysfunction, is the gradual degeneration of the brain with age, very similar to human dementia. Just like dementia, we currently cannot cure it, but only slow the progression. Encouraging the use of a dog’s brain like above will help slowing. Many dogs with CCD start to forget learned tricks, so as well as teaching them new ones, take the time to reinforce learned behaviour as well.
There are medications that some dogs may benefit from, designed to increase blood flow to the brain or stop free radicals damaging it further – ask your vet if these might work for your elderly dog. Finally, there are also prescription foods designed to protect the brain by providing good nutrients and minimising harmful chemicals. Many dogs will sadly get CCD, but addressing their mental health early will help keep their brain happy for longer.
Remember to treat mental health as actively as physical health
If your dog seems to have unusual behaviour, talk to your vet to make sure that there isn’t a physical problem. If not, get in touch with a good clinical animal behaviourist!
Final Thoughts
As you can hopefully see, keeping your dog happy shouldn’t be a challenge. And most of you will be doing all the right things already. Ensure your dog’s five basic needs are met; encourage plenty of mental and physical exercise at the right times of day; keep your dog well protected against harmful disease; and be on the lookout for subtle signs of disease like gaining weight, getting sluggish or poor teeth. With a little more attention, there’s no reason every dog at every stage of their lives shouldn’t be happy.
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