How many times have you come across someone walking their dog barking and lunging in an uncontrollable manner and the owner says “oh don’t worry he’s friendly he just wants to play” when in fact the dog is either fearful or showing more aggressive body language? I have seen this many times while working in the vet field and it astounds me how many people misinterpret their own dog’s behavior. What is play drive? Play drive is part of the joy system in Panksepp’s emotional command system and when other systems are in play (seek, rage, fear, care, panic and lust) the play drive can also be the most suppressed if a dog is in another “mode”. If you have dog that comes across their Achilles heel they may not have any interest in playing with you. This is because their seeking mode is prominent at that moment. Once your dog has a better understanding and increased impulse control they will soon learn that engaging with you is more fun and productive so chasing the animal is not worth it. This is something that takes time and practice to achieve but is well worth it in the long run. The type of play you have with your dog is also very important for achieving this goal of reengagement with you after seeing a trigger. The play has to fulfill the desire that the dog wants to do which can be achieved with Predation Substitution Games and also knowing what kind of toy they find rewarding. This must be done when the dog is not over threshold and has their thinking brain back online and if your dog is not interested in either the treat or their toy do not fret. This is important information as it tells you that your dog is not ready yet. The play drive system also serves as a buffer between prey and aggression drives as it provides a safe way (pending your fingers) for your dog to “scratch that itch” but in a safe way. Fetch is associated with the seeking system (aka the prey drive) and a game such as tug is associated with the rage system (aka the aggressive or fight drive) but while also keeping the play system engaged.

This week I wanted to talk about pet insurance. While I am not an insurance expert I can say with confidence that animal insurance is much easier to understand than human insurance. This week’s topic was inspired by my animals and encouraged to talk about by @Katie Schobel . For those who don’t know I have 3 dogs, 3 cats and a snake and they range from the age of 2.5 years old to 12.5 years old. Dogs: - Lucas McCain – American Pit Bull Terrier – 12.5 years - Káosz – Vizsla – 2.5 years - Csili – Vizsla – 5 years Cats - Artemis – DSH – 12 years old - Aries – DSH – 11 years old - Minka – 3 years old Snake - Havoc – Thorn Scrub Rat Snake – 5 years (?) I have had Lucas on insurance since he was about 4 years old and I am so glad that I have due to him getting sick at a month short of 9 years old with a chronic auto immune disease that he still has. That first year I spent about $10,000 between food, diagnostics, medications, supplements and insurance payments. Thanks to insurance though I was reimbursed about $7000-8000. So, when I bought Káosz I immediately put him on insurance and when I adopted Csili she was covered as well. In November of 2025 I switched the vizslas to a different insurance company which I am happy with but kept Lucas on the one he has always been on due to coverage issues with his history. I will admit that I only have my dogs covered as thankfully my cats are for the most part medically boring although Minka is no longer medically boring. The blood test is pending but she is suspected to have histoplasmosis which is a fungal infection endemic to the Americas that is found in the soil that if left untreated is fatal. She is currently blind and her sight may not possibly return. I will know more about her prognosis once I get the test result hopefully later this week. In hindsight having her covered would have been beneficial as well but it won’t stop me from caring for her. Given my experience some things to note when considering insurance:

When someone says they have a “high drive dog” have you ever stopped to think what that means? I know as a trainer when someone describes their high drive dog to me what I imagine is that their dog has a lowered threshold for predatory triggers - often times that is by design within the breed. What is drive? Many people think that when a dog has a lot of drive that it comes from within and if their needs are not met that it builds up and often leaks or pours out as “bad” behavior. This is a very easy thing to think and up until recently I thought the same thing. While a dog with unmet needs does display more intense predatory behavior it is not an “internal drive” that is building up like water behind a dam but rather the dog’s SEEKING system becoming overactive and dysregulated with no appropriate outlet which can happen under stress, conflict or frustration. The SEEKING system does not wait for an external trigger as it is always on and scanning. The part of the Predatory Motor Pattern that we do not want our dogs to display (chase, grab bite, kill and dissect) does in fact wait for an external trigger such as movement or scent. What is Motivation? Motivation is considered the why behind a behavior and it is not just with predatory behavior either (hunger, social need). Learning is less likely to happen without motivation and when a dog has a history of predating there is motivation to repeat the behavior but if that stimulus was not there then the behavior wouldn’t happen. So how can one reduce the motivation of the undesirable behavior chasing wildlife. When a dog chases something there are two phases that occur: drive induction (wanting - as in the chase itself) and drive reduction (getting - as in capturing). Both are rewarding but the pleasure areas of the hypothalamus is more strongly connected to the drive induction (which is why dogs try again and again even if they fail). Since drive induction is associated with pleasure part of the hypothalamus more so than with drive reduction if you were to replace chasing a wild animal, such as a lizard, with chasing a treat not only will you get a dog that is not chasing wildlife but you will get a dog that has less of a desire to solo hunt and an increased desire to engage with you in these highly stimulating moments.

I did not write this but I think it is important and puts into words well what I wanted to talk about today. From Canine Evolutions on Facebook: There is a question I get asked constantly: "Bart, should I play fetch with my dog every day? He LOVES it!" And my answer is always the same: No. Especially not with working breeds like the Malinois, German Shepherd, Dutch Shepherd, or any other high-prey-drive dog, like hunting dogs, Agility dogs, etc. This answer is often met with surprise, sometimes with resistance. I get it-your dog brings you the ball, eyes bright, body full of energy, practically begging you to throw it. It feels like bonding. It feels like exercise. It feels like the right thing to do. But from a scientific, behavioral, and neurobiological perspective- it's not. In fact, it may be one of the most harmful daily habits for your dog's mental health and nervous system regulation that no one is warning you about. Let me break it down for you in detail. This will be long, but if you have a working dog, you need to understand this. Working dogs like the Malinois and German Shepherd were selected over generations for their intensity, persistence, and drive to engage in behaviors tied to the prey sequence: Working dogs like the Malinois and German Shepherd were selected over generations for their intensity, persistence, and drive to engage in behaviors tied to the prey sequence: orient, stalk, chase, grab, bite, kill. In their role as police, protection, herding, or military dogs, these genetically encoded motor patterns are partially utilized- but directed toward human-defined tasks. Fetch is an artificial mimicry of this prey sequence. - Ball = prey - Throwing = movement stimulus - Chase = reinforcement - Grab and return = closure and Reward - Reinforecment again. Every time you throw that ball, you're not just giving your dog "exercise." You are triggering an evolutionary motor pattern that was designed to result in the death of prey. But here's the twist:

This week I wanted to talk about nutrition in our dogs and how they might affect how they behave. Granted there is no diet out there that can train your dog for you but the quality of nutrition that your dog takes in can make training easier or harder. A few months ago, I was looking for treats for my youngest dog since the dehydrated chicken hearts were way to high value for him and what I wanted to achieve with him (he lost interest in his toy which I have since repaired. I can do a post on that as well if you would like.) When I was at the pet store I was reading the ingredients and was so surprised at how many had sugar in it! Whether it was brown sugar or molasses the options that did not have some form of sugar in their recipe was so small. I ended up going with a big bag of food toppers with quality ingredients which are tasty (I assume) but also boring enough I think that they would not be too arousing. Sugar in diets doesn’t just stop with treats I have also seen it in commercial dog food as well and high quality brands at that. Many brands have multiple lines to address different needs which usually includes: a basic line, limited ingredient line, diet line and a high protein line. Each recipe, of course, is different from each other so don’t assume that just because one doesn’t have an ingredient that you should avoid that they all do. Be very diligent and check often, even on bags you have been buying for a while, since companies do change recipes without informing their consumers sometimes. Another thing to watch out for is when the protein isn’t specific as to what animal it comes from plus if it is whole protein or protein meal. Whole protein is weighed before it is cooked and protein meal is when there isn’t any moisture therefore protein meals are usually more nutrient dense. This way there is more protein concentration per pound with meals versus the whole protein. Additionally quality omega-3 fatty acids are very important for good brain health and for combating inflammation. This may have to be supplemented in and from what I understand dogs process omegas differently than humans so a canine formulated formula would be best. Typically, you need a much higher dose of the human version to give the dog what they need. Also, if your dog has allergies there are many different sources for omegas such as salmon, pollock and even a DHA vegetarian/algae base omega 3 source.