Being human is so complicated – all that doubt, dread and self-loathing. Dogs have a much better time of it. But can I access their world of pure sensation?

You know how sometimes you think you’ve had a brilliant idea, then it bites you in the bum like an athletic but mean jack russell? Suggesting I could “live like a dog for a day to see if they’re happier” turned out to be one of those.

It seemed so promising. When I heard the title of the philosopher Mark Rowlands’ book The Happiness of Dogs: Why the Unexamined Life Is Most Worth Living, it struck me like a Frisbee to the head. Rowlands hasn’t written a how-to guide – rather it’s a lovely meditation on what it’s like in our canine companions’ heads – but it filled me with urgent longing.