
The 7 Basic Needs of Dogs: Why Is It Crucial to Understand Them?
What Are "Primary Needs" or "Basic Needs"?
These are the essential requirements for maintaining a dog's physical and emotional health. There are seven primary needs, including one that is specific to non-neutered animals: the social need, the need for physical exercise, the need for mental stimulation, the need to chew, the need to vocalize, and the need for reproduction. Understanding these needs helps ensure that our canine companions lead a fulfilling and balanced life in all aspects. Let's explore the seven basic needs of dogs in detail.
1. The Need for Survival: Physiological Needs and the Sense of Security
Drinking, eating, sleeping, resting, breathing, eliminating waste, moving, avoiding pain, feeling safe, and regulating body temperature are physiological needs essential for the dog's survival.
These needs are their top priority, driven by instinct. When a dog feels in danger, it reacts automatically by triggering its defense reflexes: fleeing, freezing, or attacking the source of fear to ensure its survival and that of its species.
Within the home, it is crucial to provide our companion with a healthy environment and a secure resting space where they can feel safe. Socialization and imprinting play a key role in establishing their inner well-being.
In addition to offering fresh water and appropriate food, humans must position themselves as a reference point, understanding canine cues, and calming stressful situations when necessary.
2. The Social Need: The Dog and Its Fellow Canines
For a dog to feel good, it needs to see, meet, and sniff other dogs, play with them, or at least interact. Imagine leaving one of your human children in their room permanently, without ever letting them meet another child, regardless of their age or size. Unthinkable, right? Well, it’s the same for our four-legged companions.
Moreover, this interaction plays a significant role in their socialization, especially when they are puppies or young adults. If a dog has only known its siblings, who look and are the same size as them, it will struggle to recognize another dog of a different size or color.
Playing with a buddy or simply interacting with them is extremely beneficial! Physically, it's excellent for expending energy, and mentally, seeing, smelling, and touching other dogs brings them true well-being.
For these experiences to be beneficial, they must be positive. That’s why proper socialization and imprinting from a young age are so important.
3. The Need for Physical Exercise: Essential for Our Dogs
Yes, you probably already know this, dogs need to expend energy! Running, playing, discovering new playgrounds, meeting new friends... everything is an excuse for physical activity. And just like athletes, it's important to start outings gently, allowing them to warm up before letting them run freely.
Also, if you wish to engage in a sport with your dog, such as agility, cani-cross, running, cycling, or anything else, it’s essential to prepare a warm-up routine or at least respect the time limits based on their age. A dog can, indeed, run one minute per week of its life before tiring.
For a young dog or a puppy still in growth, it is important to respect their bones and not overexert them initially. A dog is not always aware of its efforts, so it will follow its human everywhere without necessarily showing signs of fatigue.
Going out with us is always a joy for them! It is up to us, humans, to ensure that our dog does not "wear out" prematurely by adapting outings according to their age, training, and cardiorespiratory capacity.
4. The Need for Mental Stimulation: Often Overlooked
Smelling new scents, discovering new trails, meeting new people, or experiencing new situations, playing intelligence games with their human guardians, learning new tricks or education exercises, etc., all stimulate our dogs mentally, developing their intelligence, memory, and bond with us.
This need is one of the most important of the dog's fundamental needs. A simple walk can be both a physical exercise and a mental stimulation for them.
Likewise, an educational exercise has a dual purpose: to teach them, of course, but also to stimulate them mentally.
An intelligence game will also fulfill this function while allowing us to share a moment of bonding with them.
In summary: all of this is also a real pleasure for them and essential to their overall balance.
5. The Need to Chew: A Dog Must Be Able to Use Its Jaw
Dogs have powerful jaws and strong teeth that they need to use, and doing so brings them great satisfaction! This need might be hard for us to understand, especially when we find a destroyed sofa when we return home. But if we put ourselves in their paws, observing their teeth and how easily they can break a stick, we can understand the well-being related to satisfying this chewing need.
So, if we can provide them with some good things to chew on, they will surely be grateful! A hard piece of wood (ideally olive wood, as some fragile woods can create debris), a raw bone (previously frozen), a toy designed specifically for chewing without destroying it, or even one of our old shoes that they destroyed when they were puppies—these would all do the trick.
6. The Need to Vocalize: A Dog Must Be Able to Express Itself
Dogs also need to express themselves, just like we humans need to talk. They are fortunate to communicate in more subtle ways through their body postures, scents, and expressions. But sometimes, they feel the need to express themselves more loudly by barking, growling, vocalizing, whining, or howling. They are also great at expressing themselves during play and might even growl out of enjoyment during a game.
To satisfy their vocal need, it is possible to teach them to bark on command or play with them to encourage barking, all while taking the opportunity to teach them to stop playing before they get too excited.
Identifying all the sounds and vocal expressions of our dogs can be an interesting exercise, one that can be added to our observation of canine communication.
7. The Need for Reproduction: For Unneutered Dogs
Finally, the last primary need is the need for reproduction. Of course, this only concerns unneutered male and female dogs. They can sometimes be particularly influenced by their hormones, especially during heat periods, making this reproductive need more present than for neutered dogs. Be cautious during heat periods, as males and females may escape, and if you have a female in heat, expect uninvited male visitors from the neighborhood!
If you have an unneutered male or female dog and don't wish them to reproduce (with the new law, it is prohibited unless you're a breeder), you have two options: either neuter your dog or compensate for this reproductive need with one or more of the other primary needs, while staying cautious during heat periods.
Compensating One Primary Need with Another
If one or more of these primary needs are not sufficiently met, it can lead to various issues such as destruction, barking, or accidents in the house.
It is crucial to address all these fundamental needs, as they are vital for your dog’s well-being, and to offer varied activities every day.
Tip: If you cannot meet one of your dog’s needs, compensate by increasing or varying another activity.
And what about you—did you know all the fundamental needs of dogs?