Leaps and Hounds Behavior

06/02/2026

A must read for all dog behavior consultants/trainers and veterinary pros! Interesting prospective observational study on OA in dogs while under sedation for routine dental cleaning - conducted at UT College of Veterinary Medicine from 2013 to 2014. 30 dogs were studied, of multiple breeds and aged 4 to 10 years old. REALLY interesting discussion section here...

A recent new study of canine osteoarthritis highlights how often this condition goes undiagnosed, leading to potential missed opportunities to provide adequate pain management and optimize patient quality of life.

05/29/2026

When we think about a dog’s health, the conversation usually starts and ends with a few things.

Veterinary care.
Vaccines.
Injuries.
Medications.

Exercise.
Walks.
Runs.
Maybe a game of fetch.

And when behavior changes, we’ve learned to ask:
“Could there be a medical cause?”

All of that matters.

But over the past few posts, we’ve been looking at something much bigger.

Because in animal welfare science, the Third Domain of Animal Welfare, Health & Fitness, is not just about disease prevention or exercise routines.

It’s about the functioning of the entire brain-body system.

Dogs balancing on logs and navigating uneven terrain.
Building strength, coordination, and resilience through movement.
The effects of obesity on comfort, mobility, and opportunity.
How genetics can shape welfare long before a dog ever enters our lives.
How pain, weakness, exhaustion, stress, and chronic discomfort can influence every other domain of welfare.

Because health is not just about how the body looks to us.

Welfare science also asks us to consider how the body feels to the animal.

Comfort.
Vigor.
Vitality.
Functional capacity.

Pleasure in movement and interaction with the world.

Traditionally, we’ve been taught to focus mostly on negative indicators of welfare.

Disease.
Debility.
Metrics.
Symptoms.

But welfare science also asks us to pay attention to positive indicators of welfare.

Strength.
Competence.
Resilience.
Biological integrity.

Because health is not just the absence of problems.

It shapes how a dog experiences life in their body.

And that influences everything else.

05/24/2026

Thoughts and reflections from my Adventure Dog bro time this weekend..

Nature provides many opportunities for supporting a dog’s needs— especially those natural behaviors and behavioral interactions.

The Five Domains of Animal Welfare, is not about control— how we can change the dog or animal to serve us. It’s not a fleeting thought, or fad.

Rather, this framework is about providing for ALL the welfare needs of an individual dog—based on their phenotype—across each of the Five domains:
1 - Nutrition
2 - Physical Environment
3 - Health & Fitness
4 - Behavioral interactions w/ animals, people, and environments
5 - Mental State (Wellbeing)

Further, when behavior modification, management, and psychotropic therapies routinely come before (or at the expense of) comprehensive welfare needs assessments and ongoing analysis of a dog as an individual, and/or overly restrict or compromise their freedom of movement, agency/choice, and fundamental welfare needs—their provisions (inputs and actions from humans/environment) are consistently not “feeding their needs” and wellbeing—we’re missing the mark.

The more I do this work, the more I want to understand and support dogs— and the less I want to control or manipulate them and their behavior.

05/24/2026

“Feeding the needs” first in a welfare approach! We ventured out today with Stevie and Hugh on a Sniffspot adventure to provide for running, sniffing, chasing, digging, wrestling, play bitey chew face, and dissecting behaviors— to name a few. And just feeling that warm sun, cool breeze and wet grass. Their family loves helping them live their best lives!

These provisions (the physical inputs and actions of their humans) meet SO MANY of the fundamental needs within their 4th Domain— behavioral interactions with other animals, with people, and with environments; and the agency and choice to act on their environment and in life. The 4th domain is just as critical as all the 5 Domains of Animal Welfare; see attached graphic.

Provisions must synergistically flow from the first four (physical and functional) domains to ultimately serve the dog’s mental state and wellbeing, their 5th Domain— not detract from or compromise it. In this framework, provisions are the means to an end, and needs are the end goal.

05/20/2026

Love this - from our friends at Derpy Paws Behavior Consulting!! 🙌😁

05/19/2026

How many free-living dogs on the ledge? 🤩🙌

Seriously though, let’s talk about affordances for these dogs — “what it offers the [individual] animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or ill. … It implies the complementarity of the animal and the environment.” — James Gibson (1979)

This stone ledge is situated on a busy road near our hotel, Kailasham Stay, in Dharamshala, India. I passed by these free-living dogs on the first day of the Mountain Dog Study Tour. (~80% of the earth’s dog population live in villages, towns— in nature. The “street” is their home.)

This simple ledge​, as an example, but affords ​these dogs a strategic vantage point/perch, ​providing:
-Efficiency in observing/scanning their environment, an expanded line of sight to detect threats
-Effective navigation of potential threats or conflict from other animals, people, and traffic​
-Increased distance from the road​, ​sturdiness— added safety and stability
​-Greater capacity for stress reduction and emotional regulation
-Less repetitive motion and force on joints, longer periods of rest without constantly avoiding traffic —physical comfort, economy of behavior
-A cooler surface than the asphalt road, helping moderate body temperature
-Enough space to comfortably accommodate several dogs - shy ones can position farther from the road

There’s so much we can learn from ​the study and observations of free-living dogs​ and their environments, in nature— what affordances are provided; and the resilience so many have developed to adapt and survive in life over generations.

Through evaluating the affordances available to our modern domesticated dogs, as individuals— and considering how each perceives​, and acts on their environment according to ​their own unique needs — we can make changes to​ their captive “pet” environments​ and daily living that increase opportunities for agency, choice-making, emotional regulation,​ resilience building, and ​natural behavior​s, more effectively supporting individual welfare.

05/18/2026