Mobility aids including wheelchairs and orthotics enable dogs with paralysis, amputations, and limb deformities to maintain quality of life and remain active and engaged.
Mobility aids transform the welfare trajectory of disabled dogs whose owners would otherwise face choices between euthanasia and inadequate care. Dogs with paraplegia or limb loss are not inherently suffering - they adapt to altered mobility in ways that maintain positive welfare, provided they can move, interact, play, and engage with their environment. The welfare error is applying human assumptions about disability to dogs: most dogs in appropriate mobility aids show behavioral evidence of happiness and engagement that belies the presumption that their life is not worth living. The welfare-positive approach provides mobility aids as tools for welfare maintenance alongside appropriate physical therapy and nursing care.