The animal welfare paradigm developed by Fraser et al. in 1997 suggests that welfare is optimized at the intersection of 3 key domains: health and biological functioning, affective state, and natural living. These domains are differentially prioritized by stakeholders, with those not familiar with dairy farming tending to emphasize natural living and producers often focusing on optimizing health. The intensification of housing systems for dairy cattle has catered to this health focus, permitting increased capability to provide individualized care. For example, cattle on approximately 39% of US dairy herds are housed in tie stalls, which permit individual rationing and reduce competitive interactions. Similarly, dairy calves are typically separated from the dam at parturition and housed individually over concerns of disease transmission. However, such housing systems come at the expense of natural behavior: in tie stalls, cattle movement is restricted and the opportunity to engage in natural social behavior, pasture grazing, or estrus expression is compromised. Compared with group-housed calves, calves reared individually have impaired cognition, increased fear responses, and reduced solid feed intake before weaning. Moreover, calves permitted to suckle the dam show a diverse repertoire of social behaviors paired with a reduction in oral stereotypies. Particularly given the societal concern that animals lead a natural life, future housing for dairy cattle could be reimagined to incorporate naturalness while maintaining a commitment to animal health and biological functioning. In particular, the distinction between “natural living” and “natural behavior” can be harnessed to incorporate opportunities for animals to express their natural behavior without rendering the system non-operational or antiquated. Preference and motivation testing are also useful tools to determine which natural behaviors are actually of importance to the animal; housing systems may then be modified to accommodate the realization of these behaviors. Examples include improving floor design to facilitate estrus expression, providing pasture access in appropriate weather conditions, and implementing group housing for calves.