For dog’s sake, it’s time to start letting your dog be a dog. He needs to do the dog things. As long as those things don’t hurt you or your pup, what’s the problem? There may actually be more harm in not letting your dog do the dog things.

I recently spent some time talking about the Five Freedoms over on my Facebook page. They are all important freedoms, but one really resonates with me as I think more and more about it.

The Fourth Freedom

The 4th of the Five freedoms is: Freedom to express normal behavior… by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind. What does that mean to you? Can you think of ways you are providing that freedom to your dog? Ways you could improve in allowing that freedom for your dog? Ways you are limiting yourself from your own freedom to express normal behavior?

Normal Dog Things

What does it mean to express normal behavior? Here’s some normal dog things:

1. Sniffing all the things
2. Barking
3. Excited greetings with loved ones
4. Avoiding meeting strange dogs head on
5. Rolling around in nasty, smelly stuff
6. Eating nasty, smelly stuff
7. Sleeping a lot
8. Playing and asking to play

This is all normal behavior, and it should be a priority of ours to allow our dogs to just be dogs. If there is a behavior that truly is not okay, like jumping on Great Aunt Ethel to say hi, channel that enthusiasm to a new behavior. But don’t shut down the joy.

Dogs like to scavenge for their food (and lots of things we would never consider food). Give them opportunities to work for their food by stuffing Kongs, throwing their food in the grass to find and eat, using a snuffle mat, etc. Search for “canine enrichment” on the interwebs and you will find tons of ideas.

Sniffing is fun!

The one thing you can change immediately is to let your dog enjoy her walk! Of course, you don’t want your dog dragging you down the street, so teaching some walking manners is good. However, let your dog savor her walk. Let him sniff the things he thinks are interesting. Let her pick some of the path.

Taking a dog on a walk and not letting him sniff seems to me a lot like driving to the Oregon coast, sitting on the beach at sunset, and then putting on a blindfold. Sure, it’s nice to be there, but now I can’t enjoy looking at it. Humans are very visual. By the same token, dogs are very interested in odors. Let them sniff.

Be sure you take time to human too. Make it a priority to do the things you enjoy. If your dog deserves that, so do you!