The YID Wellness Wheel

The Your Inner Dog Wellness Wheel brings awareness to the various aspects of keeping our dogs feeling and functioning at their best!

I've broken it down into the main categories of physical, social, emotional, mental and behavioral wellness and wellbeing.

When you look at the Wheel, you'll see how the many parts all center around your individual dog. That's because your dog is unique and each of the aspects and how your dog responds to them is based on his individual needs and desires. Dogs of different ages, health statuses, abilities, and with differing lifestyles will have some variances in each of the aspects.

Each category has different aspects to consider. For example, the large category of physical needs is broken into considerations involving environment, play and exercise, and daily care. Each aspect requires us to learn to look at life through our dog's eyes to best learn about their needs. Those needs and the dog's perspective (how they view and experience the world) are different than ours in some ways, yet very similar in others.

Each part of the Wellness Wheel influences each of the other parts. All of them work together and affect each other to create a harmonious big picture of life for the dog. What happens in one area will impact the other areas, so an imbalance in one place can show up as an imbalance in another as well.

A balanced dog has all their needs met and can therefore experience wellness and wellbeing in all areas of life. This is the ideal that we all strive for. It's important to refer back to the Wellness Wheel regularly, as these aspects of our dog's life are always changing. By knowing what to consider in each aspect of the Wheel, we can easily make adjustments that will keep our dog's Wellness Wheel in balance and harmony.