During my time as a dog behavior consultant in Malta, a new client came to me with the kind of request most professionals secretly dream about. When I asked him to describe the problem, he said, “Oh, they don’t have any problems. I just want to make them happy.” He paused, then added, “From their point of view.”

 

I was thrilled to work with his five shepherds for quite a while (and the generous fee did not hurt either). For them, I designed my first sensory garden and developed individualized play plans. The experience left me wondering whether these dogs were free of behavior problems precisely because they were happy. Their physiological, safety, social, and cognitive needs were all being met. They were neither bored nor overwhelmed by sensory input. Their preferences mattered. They were understood, and they were loved.

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Years later, at the Dog Science Conference, I had a quick talk with Michael Shikashio, a leading expert on canine aggression. He agreed that in many serious aggression cases, the real turning point is not a specific training protocol, but environmental management. That brief conversation reinforced something I found out before: many behavior problems, including those that tear families apart, send dogs to shelters, and sometimes result in euthanasia, may be preventable through thoughtful changes to a dog’s daily life and their relationship with their caregiver. In other words, we need to learn exactly that — how to make dogs happy from their perspective, and how to talk to them in ways they can understand us.