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Maryna Ozuna
Dog Culture: State of the Union: Article
Dog is a Peripatetic Creature
The biological impact of movement on the canine body and mind. MOVEMENT MARKERS™
DOG IS A PERIPATETIC CREATURE
Copyright 2024 Ozuna
A dog is a peripatetic creature – meaning it’s a creature whose entire body is biologically organized based on moving from place to place. Without movement, stimulation and progressive stressing (in the biologic sense of increasing load factors), innumerable bodily functions do not function as they were designed. Below is just a brief sampling of the ways in which movement is key to development and maintenance of the canine body and mind.
Many, many behavioral problems in modern day canines are caused by a lack of meaningful movement in their lives or during training. Movement in this context does not mean just quick short, sharp movement in a small space. Movement needs to include long, slow distance on soft ground at a medium trot for a minimum of about .5 mile or about 20 minutes 2x a day. Movement heals.
Bone growth: Movement stimulates the periosteum, the growing layer of the bones.
Without the stimulation of movement, and progressive stressing of the bones, bones don’t grow and form correctly. We want bones to widen like tree rings as they lengthen, not just shoot up like toothpicks. Joints also do not form correctly where there is no progressive stress to the bones. This can result in the failure of various critical structures and structural relationships, e.g.: the femoral head; the acetabulum (the socket in the sides of the pelvis into which the femoral head fits); the entire pelvis resulting in an incorrect angle of the femur to the pelvis, which will cause the femoral head to meet the acetabulum incorrectly and cause aberrant positioning; the pelvis/sacrum relationship; and the lumbar/sacral relationship. All these affect the eventual way in which the hind legs meet the ground, the efficacy of their push off, and the integrity of their flight pattern.
Movement: If all or parts of the entire skeleton do not form to their full potential, the quality of the movement in the dog will be diminished and will not reach its full genetic potential. Stride length may be shortened, or be choppier, impulsion may be inhibited, elasticity restricted, flight pattern affected, tracking not true or correct for the breed. This in turn, may impact many aspects of temperament and behavior including drive levels; attitude towards learning or working; and dog:dog body language up to and including, depending on the level of distortion or stiffness, unintentional aggression signals.
Urogenital integrity: If the hind end does not form correctly, or to its full capacity, there can be an impact on the dog’s ability to hold their urine, to urinate a full stream, to lift the sacrum and urinate without drenching the front legs, to balance, to crouch, to lift a leg.
Brain function: Movement augments brain function. Movement increases blood flow to the brain, supplies brain cells with oxygen and nutrients crucial for optimal function; promotes the production of new brain cells particularly in the hippocampus, a region crucial for memory formation; aids in creating new synapses enhancing cognitive abilities like memory and learning; and enhances cognitive skills like planning, decision-making, and attention, which are controlled by the prefrontal cortex. So which dog would you rather train, the one with more learning capacity or the one with less?
Neuroendocrine function: Movement also increases the production of neurotransmitters like dopamine and seratonin, which are associated with mood and cognitive performance. On a practical level for those of us training, movement helps regulate arousal, drive levels, and relaxation.
Appestat: Appestat – the region of the hypothalamus of the brain, which is believed to control an animal’s appetite for food. Regular exercise can help increase a dog’s appetite. I see post after post in professional dog training forums complaining that the trainee has no food drive. Presuming decent food as a base nutrition – move the dog. Just move the dog.
Movement across ground is critical to the well-being of the dog.