I mean if your owner loved you and threw the ball and took you for walks.
Dogs seem so happy to me when they are loved, going for walks, or chasing a ball or wrestling playfully.
Would you be happier as a dog perhaps?
No. Where I live in Mexico, we are seeing an evolution in the way locals view dogs due to our foreign influence. Dogs were considered guards, and to be avoided. They might be left on a roof (that's been made illegal now) or left tied to a tree with no companionship.
They are learning to see them as pets, friends, even part of the family, taking them for walks and dressing them in sweaters.
But even that life is worse than being human. They get hit by cars, they are sometimes killed by other street dogs (happened to a chihuahua two doors down at the hand of a stray pit bull before we lived in the neighborhood), and twice since I've lived in Mexico, people have placed poisoned food on the streets to kill them randomly.
But it's probably nothing like that for dogs near you, nor for our dogs, who don't go on walks. They have an enclosed yard to use for biological needs, and are taken to the dog park for exercise and socializing with other dogs.
Still, life is harder without hands or speech, even if you are safe and well cared for, and your people take you to the dog park. Sometimes we find one locked in a room for three hours. They act like we might not come back when we leave without them and are ecstatic when we return, moping in between as seen from home security cameras. And they cringe at the thunder and bottle rockets. So, there lives, while as good as they can be, aren't nearly as good as ours even during a pandemic of which they are blissfully unaware.
