Prevent & solve dog behavior problems at their source as you curate the provisions & interventions to meet the unique needs of your canine clients, tracking their success following your custom-tailored services
Monitor changes to a dog’s welfare state during their shelter stays with your team to inform adjustments in their care, & track their welfare state in their new homes with their adoptive families to prevent returns
Work with clients to follow changes in their dog’s welfare through behavioral diversity surveys following any treatments, injuries, surgeries, recovery periods, medication adjustments, nutritional changes, & more
But that’s not all! Dog walkers, pet sitters, daycare operators, breeders, groomers…this app is for you too!
Keep all of your canine client notes about a dog’s Learning, Environment, Genetics, & Self elements in one place & make date-stamped updates at any time. Upload pictures, videos, and even DNA results to a dog’s file too.
Manage your cases, service notes, interventions, & provisions as they evolve for each dog in your care as you work to resolve any problems in their nutrition, physical environment, health & fitness, behavioral interactions, & mental state.
Run & compare behavioral diversity surveys to track changes to your canine clients’ welfare states over time, gauging the impact of your custom-tailored programs, provisions, and interventions as you work to deliver the good life standard for the dogs in your biz!
Being a successful welfare-conscious dog professional who gets all the right results starts with a single first step – understanding the L.E.G.S. of every unique dog in your care. The Total Welfare App delivers client profile and case management tools that make the difference from the jump.
An animal’s experience & education in life
The external conditions of a given animal’s world
The DNA that designed an animal inside & out
An animal’s internal conditions: age, sex, health, nutrition, disability, personality
While not required, we encourage all dog professionals to learn about the comprehensive science of canine phenotypes in order to optimize their results in improving canine welfare and behavior through the Total Welfare App.
What is the Total Welfare App and who is it for?
The Total Welfare App is a first-of-its-kind tool for welfare-conscious dog professionals who care deeply about the behavioral and emotional well-being of the pet dogs in their care. Designed for trainers, behavior consultants, veterinarians, groomers, shelter staff, daycare teams, dog walkers, breeders, and more—it offers a practical, 3-step system for assessing and improving welfare across every area of a dog’s life.
This app brings the Total Welfare Model to life through simple, intuitive behavioral surveys that track patterns and reveal a dog’s welfare state over time. Professionals can gather meaningful data while supporting dogs more fully and compassionately, based on what the dog actually needs—not just how they behave.
The Total Welfare App is also a cultural shift in your pocket. It’s designed to help professionals and families reframe behaviors once seen as “bad” or “naughty,” recognizing them instead as instinctual needs worth honoring and meeting in appropriate ways. By reinforcing the expression of natural behaviors, we improve both welfare and behavior—not through suppression, but through understanding and contextually appropriate provisions.
In a world where pet dogs are increasingly confined and expected to fit into narrow, unnatural roles, the Total Welfare App helps us rewrite that story. It supports a growing international movement to change how we define “a good dog”—one welfare-centered decision at a time.
Is this app for professionals only?
The Total Welfare App has been designed for dog professional use in welfare-centered case management and tracking, with the added capability to invite a dog’s family (the client) to access limited permissions in the dog’s profile (uploading pictures and videos, reviewing and conducting behavioral diversity surveys) made available by the client creating their own non-professional account.
Can the Total Welfare App be used for client / case management?
Yes, the Total Welfare App can be used for simple, efficient, and comprehensive case management for all welfare-conscious dog professionals.
How many clients and canine profiles can a dog professional have under their account?
The Total Welfare App currently provides unlimited client and canine profiles for subscribers.
What is the Total Welfare Model and how does it work?
The Total Welfare Model, app, and related L.E.G.S. Applied Ethology Family Dog Mediation Professional Course curriculum together guide dog professionals in how to comprehensively and effectively: 1- identify and understand the unique phenotype of the dogs in their care through the application of the L.E.G.S. Model of Integrated Canine Science (Brophey, 2018) in order to direct all canine care team members in how to 2- provide for the unique needs of the dogs in their care through customized, curated application of the Five Domains Model of Animal Welfare (Mellor, 2020), finally 3- assess and track the dogs’ welfare states over time (and following notable provisions/interventions/experiences) by determining their behavioral diversity (Miller, 2020) through surveys of the prevalence of natural canine behaviors expressed by the dog that are included in the ethogram.
The Total Welfare App simplifies the Total Welfare Model’s implementation for dog pros by organizing the critical information in each step of Total Welfare for each canine client, enabling the consolidated record keeping (including any changes or updates) of a dog’s L.E.G.S. profile, their Five Domains Provisions, and tracking of their welfare state over time as pros and families work together to accommodate their unique needs living in captive pet environments.
How were the behaviors in the ethogram/behavioral diversity survey selected?
The behaviors in the ethogram for the Behavioral Diversity survey were selected with the following criteria in mind: as specific to the natural history of the species (dogs), as behaviors the animal (dog) are likely highly motivated to perform, as including all 3 categories of natural animal behavior (Foraging, Hazard Avoidance and Management, and Social/Reproductive), as including positive emotional valence behaviors only, as behaviors that are autonomously driven rather than prompted/cued.
How do I interpret the Behavioral Diversity Survey results and what do they tell me about a dog’s welfare?
The Behavioral Diversity Survey results offer a multi-layered look into a dog’s welfare by measuring what behaviors are happening, how often they’re happening, and how balanced those behaviors are. Since welfare is dynamic—especially for dogs living in captivity—it’s essential to look at both patterns and changes over time.
Here’s how the results are presented:
Bar Graphs show two key things:
Behavioral richness—how many different behaviors are being observed
Behavioral evenness—how evenly those behaviors are distributed on a scale of 1–5.
This helps you quickly spot if certain behaviors are dominating the dog’s daily life.
Pie Charts provide an activity budget—a visual snapshot of how the dog is spending their time across different behavior categories.
H-Index (Shannon Index) gives you a single Behavioral Diversity Score that you can track over time or in response to life events, interventions, or environmental changes.
But it’s not just about greater behavioral diversity index being “better.” A dog’s H-Index might improve while they begin showing new signs of distress—like repetitive, excessive behaviors. That’s why it’s critical to look at the full picture, not just the numbers.
Use the Behavioral Diversity Score with the other data points:
Check for outliers or patterns that seem concerning, even when overall diversity is improving.
Cross-reference with the dog’s LEGS profile (Step 1) and 5 Domains assessment (Step 2) for deeper context.
Review the Biological Survey for changes in core maintenance behaviors—like sleep, appetite, elimination—which often signal shifts in welfare.
Together, these tools help you move beyond surface-level behavior to understand the real emotional and biological state of the dog in front of you.
Can the results of the behavioral surveys be shared?
Yes, the behavioral survey reports can easily be shared with the dog’s family members, veterinarian, and other members of a dog’s professional or personal care team via email.
Can clients run their own behavioral surveys on their dogs to add to their profile?
Yes, a dog’s family members can be invited by the dog pro account holder to join the Total Welfare app in order to view and run their own behavioral surveys on their dogs, as well as to upload pictures and videos of their dog to that dog’s profile. It is highly recommended that families are actively involved in running the behavioral surveys on their dogs over the course of the time they are working with the dog professional, as they are learning to notice and value the expression of their dog’s natural behaviors as significant to their overall welfare state (and therefore improved behavior).
Is there a limit to how many behavioral diversity survey reports can be run?
No, there is no limit to the number of behavioral diversity survey reports that can be run.
Will clients be able to run their own behavioral diversity surveys for their dogs’ profiles?
Yes, clients can run their own behavioral diversity surveys for their dogs at any time.
Can behavioral diversity survey reports be compared with each other to see changes in a dog’s welfare status over a period of time/ following behavioral, environmental, experiential, medical or other provisions and interventions aimed at improving welfare and behavior?
Yes, the Total Welfare App provides the valuable feature of allowing reports to be compared with each other in order to observe potential effects of experiences, provisions, changes in the environment, training programs, medication updates, etc.
Can videos and pictures be uploaded to a dog’s profile?
Yes, the Total Welfare App provides the ability for both professional account holders and the dog’s family (client) to upload pictures and videos to their account, which can be reviewed for behaviors included in the ethogram.
Will clients have access to their dog’s L.E.G.S. profile, 5 Domains notations, or be able to make changes to the professional account holder’s notes?
No, clients will not be able to access the information in Step 1 or 2 of the Total Welfare App nor make changes to the information in their dog’s profile.
Can a dog’s profile be updated after it has been created?
Yes, a dog’s profile may be updated at any time by the dog professional account holder or team member, and any new edits/notes will be date stamped for case management purposes.
Can multiple team members for a company or organization share one account?
Yes, the login and password that are established can be shared among team members so that multiple people can access the same client and dog profiles (this can be especially valuable when there are multiple staff members of the training company, veterinary hospital, animal shelter, daycare or kennel facility, etc. who are working with the same dogs). It is suggested that staff members enter their name or initials at the beginning of any new notes added to a dog’s profile so that users can recognize the respective contributions of their team members.
Can the Total Welfare App provide immediate information about a dog’s welfare state upon acquiring a subscription?
While the Total Welfare App can provide valuable insight into the welfare state of a dog through the use of the Behavioral Diversity Survey, there are a few important considerations regarding optimizations of its accuracy.
First of all, behavioral diversity is an increasingly popular, very promising potential indicator and method of assessing the welfare state of animals living in captivity (Miller, 2020), but is not yet validated. Significant efforts have been made to design the functionality of the Total Welfare app to reflect resolution of problems that have been identified in behavioral diversity as indicative of an animal’s welfare state (such as emotional valence and species specific behaviors being taken into account).
Secondly, new users will have a natural learning curve as they are learning to recognize the various behaviors in the ethogram and train their own eye to notice and account for them. Therefore initial reports can be expected to have lower behavioral diversity than later reports run when a user is more familiar with the behaviors. As a result, early behavioral survey reports will not be as accurate as later reports.
Thirdly, expectations on what kinds of behaviors would be expected to be observed in a given dog will change according to the specific LEGS of that dog (their phenotype including age, condition, health, genetics, current environmental conditions, prior learning, etc.). The most accurate picture of a dog’s welfare will therefore be garnered by cross referencing the Behavioral Diversity results with the dog’s comprehensive LEGS Profile (step 1) to determine if they are expected in light of the individual’s unique phenotype. It is therefore highly suggested that users of the Total Welfare app who are concerned with accurate results for their cases complete the LEGS Applied Ethology Family Dog Mediation Professional Course 2.0 to fully comprehend the elements of the dog’s phenotype (step 1).
Lastly, while behavioral diversity as a measure should naturally reflect any deficits in any of the Five Domains of Animal Welfare (nutrition, physical environment, health & fitness, behavioral interactions, and mental state), it is important to take other potential indicators of welfare into consideration as well and speak to the veterinarian if there are any significant or sudden changes in behavior, activity level, health problems, etc. if any concerns arise.
Who created the Total Welfare Model and App?
The Total Welfare Model and app were developed by Kim Brophey – applied ethologist, author, developer of the L.E.G.S. Model, and founder of the Family Dog Mediation Education Center – as the next step in an international grassroots movement to practically extend modern animal welfare science to the pet dog population in order to mediate mounting behavior problems in pet dogs and facilitate a long overdue paradigm shift in pet dog keeping conceptions and standards around the world.
How can I learn more about the science behind the Total Welfare Model & App, and the importance of its practical application for welfare-conscious dog professionals?
We highly encourage you to watch the official Total Welfare presentation to provide the comprehensive background and detailed explanation to ensure optimization of the app – The “Good Life” of a “Good Dog” – A Total Welfare Model for the Future of the Pet Dog Industry
How can I learn about the L.E.G.S. Model of Integrated Canine Science?
You’ve got a few options to learn more about this ground-breaking model in the pet dog industry. First you can grab a copy of Kim Brophey’s highly celebrated Meet Your Dog book as an invaluable user-friendly resource for both dog pros and families alike. You can also have a movie night with your friends or family and watch The Dog’s Truth one hour free documentary to get the skinny version of the science that’s simply enough for the kids to understand. And for those passionate dog pros committed to the cutting edge of the biz who want to have the complete story and training to optimize their outcomes with the Total Welfare model, we would highly recommend the whole nine yards the comprehensive flagship L.E.G.S. Applied Ethology Family Dog Mediation Professional Course (includes certification as a Family Dog Mediator upon completion).
Make your dog pro life more fulfilling and efficient as you do. Join the future of the pet dog industry to extend modern animal welfare science and standards to our canine companions, knowing that you are part of the solution that’s making the difference.
