What Is “Total Welfare”?

Total Welfare is the practical integration of the L.E.G.S. Model with modern animal welfare science (including the Five Domains model and behavioral diversity tracking).

Total Welfare represents a comprehensive standard of care that moves beyond behavior modification and toward meeting the true biological needs of dogs living in human environments. The Total Welfare Model, app, and related L.E.G.S. Applied Ethology Family Dog Mediation Professional Course curriculum together guide dog professionals in how to comprehensively and effectively do the following:

Identify and understand the unique phenotype of the dogs in their care through the application of the L.E.G.S. Model of Integrated Canine Science (Brophey, 2018).
Provide for the unique needs of the dogs in their care through customized, curated application of the Five Domains Model of Animal Welfare (Mellor, 2020).
Assess and track the dogs’ welfare states over time (and following notable provisions/interventions/experiences) by determining their behavioral diversity (Miller, 2020) through surveys of the prevalence of natural canine behaviors expressed by the dog that are included in the ethogram.

Assess , Track, Organize

The Total Welfare App simplifies the Total Welfare Model’s implementation for dog pros by organizing the critical information in each step of Total Welfare for each canine client, enabling the consolidated record keeping (including any changes or updates) of a dog’s L.E.G.S. profile, their Five Domains Provisions, and tracking of their welfare state over time as pros and families work together to accommodate their unique needs living in captive pet environments.

Three simple steps to the good life with the Total Welfare app:

Identify a dog’s unique L.E.G.S. profile

Keep all of your canine client notes about a dog’s Learning, Environment, Genetics, & Self elements in one place & make date-stamped updates at any time. Upload pictures, videos, and even DNA results to a dog’s file too.

Follow the 5 Domains of Animal Welfare

Manage your cases, service notes, interventions, & provisions as they evolve for each dog in your care as you work to resolve any problems in their nutrition, physical environment, health & fitness, behavioral interactions, & mental state.

Assess & track welfare with behavioral diversity surveys – and share your results!

Run & compare behavioral diversity surveys to track changes to your canine clients’ welfare states over time, gauging the impact of your custom-tailored programs, provisions, and interventions as you work to deliver the good life standard for the dogs in your biz!

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