How I make risk assessments in life with my dog

Life is full of things that can go wrong. It’s not possible to live in a completely safe, risk-free way. But I do think we can think critically about our choices! When it comes to the canine companions who depend on us for every facet of their lives, thoughtful cost-benefit analyses are more important than ever.

Here’s my best attempt to encompass the way I assess risk and make decisions with Scout.

The TL;DR (Too Long, Didn’t Read) version:

• When assessing risk, I try to estimate not just 1) the likelihood of something bad happening if we make a certain decision but also 2) the impact it would have and 3) how easy it is to avoid or mitigate that risk.

• Most of the time we land in a middle ground with our risk tolerance. There are many things we enjoy and don’t want to (or reasonably can’t) give up entirely. But we can take simple steps to make them safer!

• We bring individual variables to our own risk assessment equations. Some of us might find a given probability or impact reasonable while …