What is Your Dog’s Quality of Life?
This question may not be something that you have considered previously. It is, however, extremely important to your dog. Of course, we all know a dog is not human; however, it has needs, much like we do. A dog’s most basic needs include, but are not limited to, sufficient quantities of good-quality food and fresh water daily to sustain it, adequate shelter, and an annual checkup. In certain parts of the Country, like the Mid-South, your dog will also need to be on a monthly heart worm medicine. A dog may also occasionally have health problems between its annual trips that necessitate additional trips to the vet.
Much has been written on the “basics” of keeping an animal physically healthy. We assume you know the “basics.” We want you to consider something equally important to your animal as its physical well-being. That is its “quality of life.” Quality of life relates to a sense of well-being that stems from satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the areas of life important to an individual, so, “quality of life” is about the things that make life worth living or your dog’s emotional and mental health.
Dogs need more then a soft spot to lay and a bowl of food and water. Have you ever thought what your dog’s life is like to your dog? Dogs are pack animals. That means God and nature have hardwired them for life in a group. It also means being alone is not natural for them.
When we domesticated dogs, we bred them to do things for us. Working dogs, dogs with jobs, have something to do, and, further, most of the tasks that we bred them for involved being with us, so they were not alone. Today, most dogs are no longer “working” dogs; they are guardians of our home and property or mere pets. Sometimes we have domesticated them to the point of boredom and many dogs don’t get the physical or mental stimulation they need.
What does this mean to their quality of life? We get dogs when they are young and “socialize” them to accept us as their pack, sometimes so much so that they cannot relate well with other dogs. Then what? While inside dogs have their own problems, because we, as humans, expect them to conform to our expectations of how they should act inside our homes, at least we do not condemn them to a life of loneliness. They enjoy our company and, although it is not the same type of company that they would have in a “pack,” it is, nonetheless, company. Dogs were not meant to be alone long hours or tied outside away from the family. Outside dogs or “only” dogs left for many hours a day are not so lucky. Remember, dogs are pack animals.
The outside dog and many indoor dogs left for long hours has no one to play with, no one to hunt with, no one to sleep with, no one to do anything with. Further, dogs do not have our resources. They can’t read. They can’t watch television. They don’t have friends… WE ARE ALL THEY HAVE.
Dogs handle this in a number of ways: some get depressed and just lay around or sleep all the time, others go stir crazy and barking excessively, dig, or chew, maybe even tear up anything and everything they can find, still others, become escape artists. What is that saying – home is where the heart is?
Every dog needs emotional, mental and physical stimulation and it needs more than five or ten minutes a day. It needs to be part of a pack, whether the pack is human or canine. They need physical exercise and stimulation. It doesn’t matter if you have a fenced yard; they need a change of scenery and still need walks and exercise they can not get from their yard. How would you like it if you never left home? Would you honestly want to live your dog’s life?
