The Dog Life Wheel: give your dog's life a score

The Dog Life Wheel is a fill-in exercise that puts your dog’s six basic needs side by side and gives each one a score from 1 to 10: safety and trust, sleep and recovery time, body care and food, choices and control, social relationships, and movement and dog behavior. Color in the scores and you can see in a single glance whether the wheel is round or whether there is a chunk missing. That missing chunk is almost always where problem behavior comes from. A dog in balance is a dog whose natural needs are met, and the wheel shows you where that is not the case yet.

In short

Some needs have to be met for your dog’s wellbeing. If they are not, he will go looking for a way himself, and that is what we usually call problem behavior.
Six parts, each with a score from 1 (not in order) to 10 (comfortably met). Aim for a reasonably round wheel, not for straight tens.
The parts are connected: too much movement costs sleep, too little sleep costs patience. The domino effect.
Fill in the wheel separately for every dog in the house.
The fact that you are reading this and want to improve your dog’s life is already something to be proud of.

At every part of the wheel your dog tells you himself how it is going. Learn to read his signals in the free webinar.

The heart of the life wheel

When we give our house dogs more of their natural behavior back and understand their behavior better, only then can we truly live together with love. Your dog experiences less stress and more satisfaction, and that in turn affects his mood, his health and your bond.

Some behaviors and needs have to be met, and others are more flexible. If a basic need is not met, your dog will go looking for a way himself, and that often comes with what we call problem behavior. Chewing is a basic need; if there is nothing to chew on ready for him, the couch cushions are next. If we then put the dog in a crate because he is not allowed near the cushions, that leads to frustration and lower wellbeing. And after several failed attempts a dog can stop trying altogether. That gives you stress, frustration and a dog who is no longer in balance.

The six parts

Part	What it is about	Questions to ask yourself
Safety and trust	Feeling safe is a condition for developing and functioning well. Feeling unsafe creates stress, with physical and psychological consequences.	Does he have a safe haven where he is left in peace? Am I predictable? Do I support him when he is scared?
Sleep and recovery time	An adult dog sleeps and rests 12 to 16 hours per day, a puppy 16 to 20. He needs dream sleep and deep restorative sleep, stretched out and close to his family.	Is he sleeping enough? Can he lie stretched out and move from spot to spot? Is he never woken up?
Body care, temperature, food and water	Free of pain and discomfort, a good coat, the right care in time, and food that matches natural eating behavior: variety, chewing, searching.	When was he last examined thoroughly? Can he choose a cool or warm spot himself? How much time a day does he spend chewing and sniffing?
Choices and control	Being allowed to choose grows confidence and self-reliance. Dogs decide almost nothing for themselves in our lives.	May he choose where he sleeps, which route we walk, whether he wants to be petted? Is he allowed to say no sometimes?
Social relationships	Dogs are social animals who need safe relationships: with the people at home, with regular visitors, with other animals in the house and with a few dog friends.	Does he have one or a few steady dog friends? Is it calm and predictable at home?
Movement and dog behavior	Natural movement is low in intensity and in balance with the individual: not two hours of running at the dog park. Plus room for dog behavior: sniffing, digging, marking, barking.	Is he allowed to sniff everywhere? Can he dig regularly? Is the movement appropriate for his age and breed?

In summary: the Dog Life Wheel has six parts: safety and trust, sleep and recovery time (12 to 16 hours a day for an adult dog, more for a puppy), body care, temperature, food and water, choices and control, social relationships, and movement and dog behavior. For each part you give your dog an honest score using the questions in the table.

Do the fill-in exercise

Go through each part for your own dog and give it a score from 1 to 10, where 1 means the need is not in order and 10 means it is comfortably met. Draw a circle on a sheet of paper, divide it into six equal sections, one per part, and mark each score from the center outward. Once you have done all six, you see a more or less round figure. Because every dog and every situation is different, not every part has to score a 10, but it is good to aim for a reasonably round wheel. If there is a chunk missing, you know right away what you can work on. If you have several dogs, fill in the wheel for each dog separately.

Give every part an honest score. The point is not that everything is already perfect, but that you get a realistic picture of where things could be better. Just as in our own lives, there is always room for improvement and the situation is never a hundred percent. This is about improving over time, without perfectionism and without guilt because not everything is a ten.

Take a dog who scores high on safety and social relationships but low on sleep and movement. That is a pattern we see often: a dog who goes to the woods every day, fetches balls and does a dog sport, and never settles down at home.

Watch out for the domino effect

Even though you look at the parts separately, they are inseparably connected. Take movement. Movement is good and healthy. But too much movement and activity puts stress on the body (muscles, joints, stress hormones) and on top of that it costs rest and sleep. Less rest and sleep means your dog cannot bring his body back into balance and cannot recover, and that in turn affects his mood and his behavior. Anyone who is tired and still has plenty of stress hormones in his system has less patience and reacts differently than usual.

There are many more connections like this in the wheel. A good, complete wheel gives you a satisfied, stress-free and relaxed dog. Sometimes you already know the cause of a disruption (you started a new dog sport and notice the wheel going out of balance), and sometimes it is less obvious and you need more knowledge.

From our practice

When we work with dogs who cannot be left alone, one of the first things we do is go through all of the dog’s needs, from water and sleep to freedom of choice and safe relationships, before we train a single minute of being alone. There is a reason for that: with almost every dog who cannot be alone, the wheel turns out to have a chunk missing in several places, usually at sleep, at movement (chasing games) and at freedom of choice. As the wheel gets rounder, the dog becomes ready to train. That is how we use the life wheel in our course: as a diagnosis before the approach.

When to get help

If your dog scores low on several parts and you see problem behavior that does not change as the wheel gets rounder, then there is more going on: pain, fear, or a history that needs guidance. Start with the veterinarian (dogs hide pain) and then bring in a welfare-focused behavior professional.

Frequently asked questions

Does my dog have to score a ten everywhere?

No. It is about a reasonably round wheel, not about perfection. Every dog and every situation is different. A 7 on all parts is better than three tens and three threes.

How often do I fill in the wheel?

At the start, and after that every time something changes: a move, a new hobby, an aging dog, problem behavior that shows up. Many of the dog parents we work with do it every season.

My dog scores low on movement. Should I do more with him?

Often the opposite. Natural movement is low in intensity: sniffing, strolling, choosing the route himself. More running and more ball throwing only makes the missing chunk at sleep and safety bigger. Read Stress-free walks with your dog.

Where do I start if there are several chunks missing from the wheel?

With sleep and safety. Those two are the foundation for all the other parts; a dog who sleeps well and feels safe can handle the rest.

The wheel is round, everything is connected

At every part of the wheel your dog tells you himself how it is going: in how he sleeps, how he greets, how he walks and how he reacts when something happens. Anyone who reads those signals does not have to guess at the wheel. In the free webinar Communicating With Your Dog you learn the five signals that almost everyone misses.

Do you want to go on and work on every part of the wheel, with the course and the coaching of our team around you? That is the Stressless Dogs Community.

Thank you for reading, on behalf of me and all the dogs.

Amee de Bruijn

Dog Behavior Consultant & Natural Dog Trainer