What does dog behavior and training have to do with chronic illness?
I nearly didn’t make it to three years old.
At the– what I consider spectacular–age of 29 now, there is obviously not much I remember about the ordeal, but I do know that I was sick for quite some time. My parents were exhausted, at the end of their ropes, and desperate for answers my pediatrician at the time was inadequate to give. In their persistence and thanks to it they found a junior pediatrician, his first week on the job mind you, who took one look at me and knew right away my affliction:
Kawasaki’s disease.
It was his keen insight that got me the treatment I needed, but I had been sick so long that the damage to my heart had me returning for ultrasounds annually for the next decade.
I had never entertained the thought that my heart issues might be connected to the chronic anxiety I had been feeling for as long as my memory stretched. For this, I suffered socially and found myself in therapy on and off from a young age. I could not understand that while I took great steps to protect my mind, my body would consistently betray me with tunnel vision, a racing heart rate, and difficulty breathing. It was not until I learned about Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) that the answers started to become clear.
I began managing my POTS symptoms at home with daily electrolyte intake. Almost instantly, I saw results; my mind was clearer, breathing easier, and blood pressure in control. Not coincidentally, what I had been told my whole life was anxiety also dissolved before my very eyes. What I had believed up until that point was a psychological problem, turned out to be physiological all along.
Now, this is not to say that “anxiety isn’t real”, or anything of such absurd nature. In fact, I still do experience anxiety– only now, it is appropriate, and logical. This is also not to say that my experience is universal; chronic anxiety is very much real, and not “cured” simply by increasing your sodium intake.
However, I hope my experience implores you to consider your dog– particularly their behavior.
When I began to manage my POTS, it was around the same time I started my apprenticeship as a force-free dog trainer. Under the informed guidance of my mentor Abbie Volpone, I began to notice a pattern: that many dogs with behavioral concerns had underlying health issues that, when addressed, eliminated or made manageable those behavioral concerns. I became curious about this pattern and, through further research, learned
the gut microbiome can influence the animal central nervous system via various mechanisms such as the vagus nerve, neurotransmitter level regulation (serotonin and dopamine, among others), production of metabolites (especially short-chain fatty acids), and the modulation of the HPA axis or inflammatory state within the organism. (Kiełbik, Witkowska-Piłaszewicz 2024)
Though we cannot ever truly know what a dog is thinking, we observe behavioral patterns on a large scale that suggest a dog’s feelings based on probable proceeding action. I realized that I could relate to the experience of dogs whose physiology might affect their emotional state, and therefore influence their behavior.
Daily I see dogs who react to the world around them by barking, lunging, whining, growling, and panic, which made me start to realize that there might be more to this than meets the eye.
I started to notice how dogs carry themselves and their physical bodies on a micro-scale; how their toes lay when they’re standing versus sitting, their leg posture, walking gait, inflamed skin, chronic diarrhea, and more. Then, I started to notice that
there is much crossover between these two groups.
Studies are publishing with more frequency now that suggest a direct link between dog behavior and underlying health conditions. Often when I speak with owners, they are surprised at how I observe their dog’s body and wonder what it has to do with training, but the truth is that it is far more important than most people think. I believe that having health knowledge is essential to dog training and provides an invaluable edge that makes the process the most efficient with a multi-pronged approach. Most importantly, it would be unethical to ignore a dog’s health when asking them to perform to any degree.
I am grateful for my health despite its challenges, and my knowledge, for they provide me great insight when it comes to dog behavior.
I am dedicated to remaining health informed for the good of dogs and dog behavior, and am enthusiastic about bringing that knowledge to my training.
The irony? Now I ride a Kawasaki!
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