The “Good Life” of a “Good Dog” – A Total Welfare Model for the Future of the Pet Dog Industry

How do you REALLY get a “Good Dog”? By giving them a “Good Life” – a term that has been defined by leading animal welfare scientists concerned with the characteristics of optimal welfare as the gold standard for any animal living under human control and captive conditions. Because – guess what? Animals who have this “Good Life” standard of welfare do not have behavior problems. That’s right- our dogs’ behavior challenges are very often symptoms of their chronic confusion, frustration, and distress in their modern pet lives. The “easy” life of today’s pet is not as easy as we think it is – and our dogs desperately need our help as their stewards and professionals.

This talk will be a powerful, game-changing, conflict-mediating introduction to Kim Brophey’s new Total Welfare Assessment Tool – the integration of the internationally celebrated L.E.G.S. Model of Canine Science with the updated framework of the Five Domains Model of Animal Welfare. This tool will give dog professionals a solid basis for curating a “Good Life” standard of welfare for pet dogs in their care to prevent and treat behavior problems, as well as the ability to evaluate and track a dog’s welfare before and after interventions are provided, without falling into abstract questions, concepts, values, and arguments about terms that are impossible to define. This model offers a promising future to an industry that is currently mired in conflict about the meaning of welfare for pet dogs – a solution for not only the health of our industry, but for the countless dogs and families who depend on us.