02/23/2024
🐕🦺🧠🫁🫀 WHY MOVEMENT HELPS COMBAT THE EFFECTS OF STRESS 🫀🫁🧠🐕🦺
A couple of months back, a client noticed a strange thing in one of her dogs. He was struggling quite a bit in some situations where there were other intact male dogs around, so she decided to take him for a refresher of obedience classes. Her obedience instructor was really helpful and found her a space in an a class with no other intact males. He did really well in class and behaved like a model citizen.
But...
When she got him home, all kinds of stuff would happen.
At first, he just seemed pretty fizzy. He'd come back and then go do zoomies in the garden. She thought nothing of it, as zoomies are rarely anything to worry about. The odd thing, she said, was that he didn't normally get the zoomies.
Then, the winter had set in and she didn't want him creating deep mud tracks in the house and then bringing it all inside, so she brought him in from the car after class. Although he'd sometimes get zoomies around the living room, she noticed he then started to pounce on light reflections from a lampshade, or he'd try and catch moving shadows in the kitchen.
Although she had contacted me about other things, she asked me why I thought this was.
The fact is that movement can often be a good release after stressful experiences. And stressful experiences doesn't necessarily mean 'bad' experiences - not all stress is bad, right? Obedience was mentally taxing. He had to concentrate hard. He had to control his body and movement. He also had to ignore all the other dogs, even if they were barking or excited.
What her dog did is exactly what many animal species do following a stressful event: they move more. We all know that exercise and movement is good for physical health, but animals show us the way in understanding that it can help us with psychological health too.
Of course, exercise elevates mood - as long as you don't hurt yourself! It's one reason doctors are prescribing gym memberships for a bunch of mood disorders in humans, including depression. Movement certainly seems to help us regulate physiologically.
But we know it also helps enhance mood too. Not only does it make us feel better, it also reduces the impact of stress. Some of these processes may be innate: nobody has to teach a dog that having the zoomies feels kind of cool. Others may be learned. Some dogs may need a little encouragement for example to learn to love swimming, but once they've found the pleasure of swimming, they take to it easily.
Many of the dogs I work with have little bursts of movement after stressful experiences. Sometimes those movements are small - things like shaking off or increasing their pace on a walk. Other times, those movements can be more frenetic.
One dog I worked with had spent a long time getting over his fear of strangers on the property. It took him a while to find his feet. Eventually, he got to the point where he was happy with guests in the home. When they left the house, though, he'd often seem really energetic. His guardians called it his 'Victory Celebration' - as soon as the door closed, he'd go and pick up a toy and bounce from sofa to sofa.
Noticing those bursts of activity can often help us understand that movement helps our dogs feel good. I know plenty of dogs who, after a good meal, do the happy dance of having a full belly. Lidy often goes and picks up her toys right after food and she quite often looks for a game with me.
Understanding how movement can cause good feelings in the body definitely helps us understand why so many animals increase their movement after stressful events.
You didn't think your Friday night disco days were for nothing, did you?!
Our emotions and our bodies are deeply and intricately interlinked. It's no surprise then that movement helps us feel good and helps us regulate well.
The same is definitely true of our dogs as well.
+ reinforcement real world training. We offer classes as well as in home private lessons.
