Could Your dog's Behavioural Changes Be a Sign of a Medical Problem?

 Read Complimentary Blog: https://www.brighthound.ie/blog/behaviourmedical/ 

Have you noticed sudden changes in your dog or cat’s behaviour that seem unusual or unexpected? Maybe your dog has become unusually aggressive, has started having accidents indoors, or is grooming excessively. While these might seem purely behavioural issues, they could actually signal an underlying medical condition. 

📧barbara.j.hardman@brighthorse.ie

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Hi, uh thanks so much for clicking play. My name is Barbara Hardman. I am the owner of Bright Horse and Hound, and I started these little mini podcasts as a way of sharing my blogs in a slightly different way. So thanks so much for clicking play. I really hope you enjoy it. This is one of the first ones I've done. And yeah, I'm gonna keep that in, I'm not gonna edit it. Um, we're gonna get this a little bit more loosey-goosey. Uh, if you want to read my finely tailored thoughts, then the blog is there. If you want to hear me go off the rails and yeah, do a load of this stuff, probably hear the dog and the cat and everybody else barking in the background, then stay tuned. You're listening to the right thing. So today I want to read to you my blog and add my own little bit of frosting on the top about behavioral changes in your dogs and there being a sign of a medical problem. I see this a huge amount with my clients where things appeared out of the blue, uh, they are seem random. Um, we often attribute it to our dogs just slowing up. Um, there's a lot of things in behavior that is very much connected to medical issues. So, part of this blog is explaining what those look like, what those changes might look like, but also there is a little quiz to help you be able to understand. And if you scroll down the blog, you'll be able to read it yourself. But I'm also going to explain how to do it and what it actually means. And it means you can evaluate your own dog's behavior and see actually, do you know what, is it medical? Um, and then explain a little bit about how behaviorists work, what we do in conjunction with vets, and why it's important to look at behavior as medicine because it is, and it all happens inside the body. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Um, I'm gonna crack on and get started. Um, read some of this out loud, you can read along like uh a Disney. So remember they all sing alongs with Disney. See, this is it. You if you're gonna hit play, you're gonna get all this, and I ain't cutting out because I'm gonna do the bare minimum editing-wise, um, because I don't have a huge amount of time. Uh so anyway, I'll get started. So, how health issues influence behavior. So, animals, much like humans, and I'd argue also, you know, humans are animals, communicate discomfort, pain, and illness through changes in their behavior. We often forget the brain is an organ in the body, and when we first studied behavioral sciences, uh the scientists at the time separated behavior out. They thought they considered the brain and behavior separate to what was happening in the rest of the body. Now we understand that that's not true because the brain is an organ inside the body, and ultimately, in order for us to understand behavior and what's actually happening with that animal, we need to consider it holistically because the animal communicates how the rest of their body feels through the behavior that they perform. So, by understanding that, and many studies have done this over the years, notably Mill's research is one of the big ones, has showed that certain behavioral patterns are irrefutably linked to pain and discomfort. When dogs experience and humans, and animals and horses and cats and everybody else in between, pain, discomfort, or sickness, their overriding instinct or innate behavior to survive will make lead them to behave in certain ways that help them avoid further discomfort and ultimately stay safe. There's a few common medical problems that influence how a dog behaves. I'm going to list a few of them here. You can look at them through the blog as well. There's quite a lot of them in the research with Mills, but the big one in the heavy hitter number one is reduced activity levels. I'm sure we're all used to seeing that, and a lot of the time we go, oh, they're just slowing up, but actually they've got progressive arthritis, and when we treat that arthritis, then we well, we support that arthritis because it's degenerative. Suddenly the dog becomes a puppy again. So we know the reduced activity levels. If they're feeling unwell, if they're showing decreased activity, they might play less, they might sleep a little bit more because they need to rest, they might interact less frequently with the family members and other dogs. Like, for example, a dog who used to get really excited for going for a walk now avoids the collar, the lead, the harness being put on. They might move away from you, they might give us calming signals. We see the whites of the eyes, they lie down, they might hide, and if we force them to engage, they might start growling when they're being touched. Number two, increased irritability. And I don't know about you, but when I'm sick, I get pretty irritated. Um, so ongoing pain, uh, what we call chronic pain. So acute pain and chronic pain are two different things. So acute pain is if you say broke break your arm, like it is very acute, it'll heal and it'll go over time, and it's very obvious to see acute pain, it's it's an injury that's just happened. Chronic pain could be something that is hereditary, it's been brewing beneath the surface, and it's kind of death by a thousand cuts. So arthritis is a big heavy hitter for that. Um, or if there's an old injury and it niggles at you, that can definitely lead to dogs being unexpectedly aggressive or defensive, and it it always looks like it's out of the blue. Like we cannot see what else is going on because ultimately there's something in the dog's muscular skeletal system, so everything from hip dysplasia to a looks like a patella that can just get missed in routine vet exams, and that's not a knock it against the vets, it's just that the behavior is the only indicator that something is amiss, and the dog is having good and bad days. So the day you go to the vet, they could be a little bit stressed and or a little bit scared of the vets because sometimes it's a scary place, and that can mask a lot of you know the symptoms. But then when they're at home and they're a little bit more relaxed, then then the behavior sort of appears out of the blue because that sort of irritability is there. So number three is changes in appetite and thirst. Um, so health issues like diabetes, kidney disease, thyroid issues can significantly change your dog's appetite or thirst, and often lead to unusual behaviors that sort of come out of that. So drinking too much water, uh, not being quote unquote motivated by food. So I hear this a lot, they're not motivated by food. I'm gonna tell you now that any animal and any species that is not made motivated by food is gonna go extinct because everybody needs to be motivated by food. So something is wrong if they're not eating. If they're a little miss no eat or a little Mr. No Eat, something is wrong. There could be gastrointestinal issues, intolerances, gastric ulcers, they could have a dental issue, there's something else going on. Also, a wave of destruction in the house if they're just ripping and tearing and shredding things as well. What is happening, you know, that can sort of redirect, or if they're eating and actually ingesting random things, and that's known as pika. They're all red flags that something isn't right. So altered motivation, this is what it comes down to why your dog acts the way they are acting. So pain alters motivation in favor of either avoidance or defensive behaviors, and it's usually avoidance first, and if they can't, then we need to defend ourselves because we're in discomfort. So acute pain, discomfort, and chronic pain absolutely dictate a large amount of the dog's behavior. An example of avoidance behaviour is how a dog moves during certain behaviors and how they behave, which provides us the information about what's going on in their body. So the best example I can give is if you have a dog with hip issues and they fail to maintain a squat while defecating. Lots of fancy words there, but I'm going to explain it. So the normal behavior when a dog needs to poop is to sniff, you know, search for gremlins, circle, search for snakes, and then they hold a squat in one place while they defecate and poop. If your dog says circles lots and lots of times, uh they almost look like they need to go, but they keep kind of circling and sniffing and checking, and then when they finally do go, they go into a squat and then they basically do like a waddle forward. This is a failure to maintain a squat. So by understanding what a normal biological movement of a dog is and recognizing that behavior in the locomotion, because by the way, locomotion, being movement, is behaviour, all behaviour, then that behaviour helps us see when something's not normal and indicates that there's an issue. And it's not just a funny little quirk that your dog does when they do a waddle, it's indicating there's something's not quite right. So if your dog is unable to avoid an unpleasant stimulus, the next we get is a defensive behavior. So when your dog can't escape the discomfort or avoid the unpleasant feeling in their body, they've got to protect themselves in a different way. And sometimes the only option is available to them at time is to become defensive. So if we have a dog again which is going to take a hip issues, for example, who is uncomfortable jumping in and out of the car, but we make them do it, or we try and pull them up or pull them down, the dog might react defensively, like when we put pressure on them to jump because they're in pain and discomfort, and they feel that the only choice they have available to protect their body and themselves from the pain or discomfort is to do something defensive. It's important to understand that every behavior your dog exhibits has a biological reason behind it. And when we talk about behavior, we talk about locomotion, movement, uh eating and ingestion, all behaviors, um, you know, defecation and urination, so going to the bathroom effectively, uh, sleep is also a behavior. All of these things are part of, you know, a critical biological function within your dog, but are also fundamental behaviors, and we know what normal behavior should look like, and we also have a very good amount of research that tells us what abnormal behaviors look like and dictate when something's not wrong, or when something's not right, should I say. Again, I'm doing very little editing here, so you're gonna get all the mistakes that I make. A lot of behavior is ultimately related to survival, safety, and meeting basic needs. So it's what we call maintaining homeostasis and obviously supporting like that's the the the internal body system and also to support them, but also as well safety, you know, reproduction and survival. That's where it all comes from, ultimately. So when it at a very high level, so ultimately, when your dog isn't feeling well, their motivation is gonna shift, they're gonna perform different behaviors. So if your dog is, say, like feeling hungry or thirsty due to an illness, maybe they've got a lot of diarrhea. So if they have a lot of diarrhea, they're gonna be thirsty, they're gonna want to drink more. Or if they have a gastrointestinal issue where they're not digesting the nutrients properly, they're not getting enough food because of something that's happening as an intolerance, or if they have a tooth uh dental issue, I was gonna say a tooth issue, uh, dental issue, and they're not able to eat that uh properly and eat that food, then they might become say protective or aggressive around food and water. And now I say protective because that's a really important resource. That's a really important resource for them, and they want to guard that resource. So water and food suddenly become vital for survival. So guarding them becomes even more motivating. This is what I mean about it, you know, what is the altered motivation? If you have all the food and the water in the world, you're gonna be like, oh yeah, absolutely, you can have some of that. If you don't have much food and water, and it's really important for you to survive, you're gonna guard that and you're not gonna share it. So dogs with gastrointestinal issues, and we have things like ulcers, intolerances, there's so many that are out there, may start resource guarding unusual items or act defensively if you try and remove them. And it's usually something random that they think is important in that moment. We also see dogs with, say, hormonal issues like hypothyroidism, who can't hold their bladder as long and are urinating in the house. And it's not because they're bold and they know they've done wrong, and these behaviors are often mistaken as a training problem. Now, while going to the bathroom outside and teaching our dogs how to go to the bathroom outside is part of training, it is not a training problem if there's something medical. However, it is behavior. Now I'll explain that a little bit more thoroughly. While we expect our dogs to be able to go to the bathroom outside because we've trained them, when there's a medical issue present, it's not a training problem. It is, but it is still behavior. We cannot train through the medical issue, but we can recognise the behavior as being an issue and support it, and it's behavior that that helps diagnose it. Pain ultimately causes subtle and small changes to normal behavior. Everything from gait abnormalities in an arthritic dog, the lameness that the dog is displaying, often mass compensatory issues and movement patterns, and then they adapt those movement patterns to allow them to continue to move with reduced discomfort, and we can see that in gait abnormalities because of those compensations. The compensations can persist long after the pain has subsided, meaning that the behavior itself becomes part of the adaptation. Vets often don't observe these gait issues in a clinical setting, and that's ultimately because the environment doesn't allow for natural movement patterns. Behaviorists, however, are trained to spot all those tiny little changes in the gate and be able to spot them. And unfortunately, owners too often miss a lot of these changes because they see their dog every single day, and it's kind of like the frog in the boiling water. And behaviorists will tell you themselves for their own animals when things change. Sometimes it's very hard for us to see it too, because we see it every single day. And a lot of these changes happen gradually, they can easily be overlooked, and then suddenly they seem to appear out of the blue. So there are several medical conditions that we know make have noticeable behavioral changes. I've gone through a few of them there, but know that there are so much papers and researches and studies out there, researches, uh, yep, uh, not editing, and clearly details all of the links between the pain and the behavior. Like we know that. And ultimately, I say this time and time again: behavior is medicine. It's also a diagnostic tool. It's also an amazing diagnostic tool because we can all see it. We don't need to have a fancy X-ray machine, you know, and and and behavior's often the first diagnostic we ever we see, and it is the least invasive. So understanding that behavior is is is part of that process can really help us identify health problems early and help us understand that training might not be the correct solution, behavior might be, but so also maybe medical support. So now I kind of want to get on to recognizing signs of pain in dogs. So the great thing about behavior, it being so recognizable, and it being nearly our first diagnostic in pain and discomfort, is that you yourself can evaluate your own dog. Uh so what follows, and you can scroll down in the blog and have a look yourself, is a set of questions and the the answers are based in research in behavior and can help you observe the link between the two. This should only be taken as a guide, ultimately, but if you're ticking high on it, then medical investigation could be warranted. So if you go ahead and scroll down, you'll be able to have a look at the quiz and assess some of your own behaviors. If, for example, you come back with a lot of random totally ignores me, or the dog can't stop in part in evaluate your own dog part one, this strongly suggests there's a medical issue at play. Okay. In part two of evaluating your own dog, what we're looking at is is it normal for them or is it not so normal for them? So if you're getting a no, not normal for them, then again highlights that there might be an etical issue. There's a few other things to kind of monitor, like if you're kind of oh, I'm not so sure after taking that quiz, that there might be something wrong, then there's a few other things that you can look for. Obviously, we talked about like less playfulness, less activity, you know, don't be fooled with the they might just be slowing up for age. There's you know quite a lot of stuff that we can do to support them, even if they are getting a bit older. Um an arthritis, an osteoarthritis can be a really debilitating, you know, condition as the dog gets older, and we do have a lot of treatments available to support it, even if it is a degenerative disease, we can help them. Increased anxiety and fearfulness and nervousness, you know, yeah, that that's the one when they get if they get more anxious or they seem to be more fearful, particularly with sound, you know, we know that there's something not quite right. Sudden aggressiveness, defensiveness, behaviors, again, if they're trying to protect themselves, particularly if it appears out of the blue and with no warning. Changes in grooming habits, so excessive licking, scratching, particularly licking their their paws or particular sites or over-grooming, big red flag, big red flag. It's not just general maintenance grooming, I'm talking about really licking into one spot. Tail chasing or the zoomies. I know the tail chasing and the zoomies might seem cute or playful, but actually it could be an indication that it's not right. You know, something is not right. Um, we don't really want to see our dogs doing zoomies, believe it or not. Um, and we don't want them chasing their tails. Anything that's new or unusual when it comes to drinking, you know, or eating, if they suddenly won't eat out of their normal bowl or they'll only drink water in strange places, again, something to keep aware of. Really, I want to just talk really briefly about how behavior helps diagnose medical conditions. So if your dog shows behavioral changes, uh as a member of the APBC, ABTC, and the clinical animal behaviors, we are required to work on veterinary referral. So the first step should always be uh a veterinary check-in, always, and referring out to a behaviorist because we want to make sure that the animal is healthy and fit before we start looking at behavioral stuff. However, this is the big caveat. The vets in our in our country, in Ireland, are so utterly overworked and understaffed. We do not have enough vets in this country, and they may not have the time to do the same level of observation that a behaviorist can. And a behaviorist is a specialist in that area. When you go to a vet, sometimes you can only get 15 minutes of consultation time, and that's if you're lucky, because they're expected to turn it around so quickly and there's a lot of pressure placed on them. Whereas a behaviorist can spend two hours with you and your dog and then provide the vet with a summary report. So while yes, veterinary support first is really important, we have an opportunity to be able to support vets a little bit better. Because the veterin consultation often takes place in clinics, that's also a stressful and frightening environment for a dog. The fear and stress are just absolutely fantastic for masculine pain. They are brilliant, we call them performance hormones for a reason, and it makes it even harder to see how the dog is moving, if they're in pain, or if they're behaving normally, because they're not in their normal environment. And it's usually not where the behavioral problem is. The behavioral problem tends to be at home. A behaviorist, however, can come into your own home where your dog is relaxed and they can observe the typical behaviour environment. So, yes, while a veterinary checkup is essential, and all behaviourists should always want to work and collaborate alongside vets. I do find that starting with a behavioral assessment and then us behaviorists providing a vet with detailed findings leads to better and faster diagnostic. It also reduces the burden on vets because they are overstretched, and it can kind of share the load to help them contribute a detailed behavioral observation, and we can support the veterinary team and then achieve better care for the dog. So early intervention really does matter, particularly from a behavioral perspective, because if you imagine the pain starts early and it's just mild, and we think, oh, it's just a silly quirk, or oh, they're just slowing up, or oh, that's a bit weird, and we don't get on it, it can get worse and it can make the behavior even more complicated, and the dog may go from avoidance into defensive and aggressive behaviors, and then it gets harder to unpick. So we want to identify the cause of the behavioral issues early, and it can just significantly improve the treatment outcome. Early medical care reduces pain and discomfort, it can resolve behavioral issues so much more effectively, and it can prevent complications ultimately. And if we delay veterinary attention, it can allow the problems to get worse and make treatment less effective. So ultimately, if you've done the quiz and you feel like, yes, actually, do you know what this is unpredictable, is random, and I wouldn't want to get on top of it, what should you do next? So, yes, schedule a veterinary evaluation. I know I made an argument about going to a behaviors first, but it's still as long as you've had something recent or talk to them and ask for a referral for a behaviorist, even if you want to call them up and ask for that referral if they've seen your dog recently. Because a good behaviorist will always want to ensure that the dog has seen a vet recently and make sure that they've been assessed. And I will always recommend a comprehensive medical assessment alongside behavioral evaluations because that's what's in the best dog interest of the dog. Don't just assume it's a training issue, you know, and that it needs to be trained. Like it is important to ask the professionals which one this is, if the behavior is strange, and that way we can identify the root cause of your dog's behavior and it helps develop a personalized treatment plan for them, and ultimately it's critical for maintaining good welfare and ethical standards. So ultimately, I hope you've really enjoyed this. This is one of the first ones I've done minimal editing. If you are interested in learning more or you're concerned about your your pet, you can contact me anytime. I'm really nice, you can talk to me all the time. Um, and if you're not sure if it's medical and you do want to send me a message, if I do think this is a medical component, and any behaviorist should do this as well, they will tell you, I will tell you, and they will send you back to the vet in order to put your dog first. Because ultimately it's in the best interest of the dog, and a good behaviorist and professional will guide you to the best professional that is suitable for your dog's needs. Don't always assume it's a training issue if the behavior is strange. It could be something medical and there could be something else going on. Really hope you enjoyed this, guys. Uh, thank you so much for listening. And the blog is there if you want to read through a more cohesive. unless waffly narrative. All the best. Enjoy the rest of the evening. It's nighttime here, so I'm saying evening.