In his brand new book, Mon Chien Est Heureux (My Dog Is Happy), vet and canine behavioralist Joel Dehasse explains that dogs are genetically programmed to have a specific job and inactivity leads to behavioral issues and psychosomatic disorders. Dogs need an average 6 hours of activity each day, but this may vary from 3 to 10 hours depending on the breed and the individual energy level within the breed. Dogs need different types of activities: feeding, hunting, social, vocal, locomotor, chewing, playing, intellectual, etc. If the animal is not able to meet these different needs, he could develop one or several behavioral problems. It is important to give your animal the opportunity to perform various activities each day. If your pet spends an hour a day barking or gnawing on the table legs, he is probably lacking stimulation. If you provide a variety of structured activities, it is very likely that the undesirable behavior will diminish. If your animal spends 30 minutes to an hour a day eating instead of wolfing his food down in 5 minutes, he will have met a large part of his daily activity needs and will be less likely to destroy the couch or dig holes in your backyard. Is your dog happy?
