The gut contains many beneficial bacteria and chemicals that are essential for

• Self-control
• Energy
• Mood
• Happiness
• Motivation
• Contentment
• Trainability.

Knowing that the gut influences mood brings diet into the spotlight regarding behaviour. That’s why this fabulous organ is sometimes known as the second brain. The type and composition of your dog’s food intake dramatically influences mood, feelings, actions, and behaviour!

Behaviour results from internal and external factors working together in harmony. Hormones and neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that do many jobs inside your dog’s body, one of which is creating feelings.

Feelings result in mood, and mood results in behaviour, which feeds back information based on outcome and creates more chemical messengers. These chemicals create feelings and moods, which feed further information to the brain. That causes further chemical release, which creates feelings, mood, and behaviour… you get the idea.

Physical behaviours and emotions are part of a cycle that drives each other. This process is known as biofeedback. It’s a natural way of creating balance and regulating stress and excitement. It allows your dog to respond appropriately to threats, promoting behaviour that offers a reward, internally or externally.

When you’re working on your dog’s behaviour, focusing on the result is just one small way of changing behaviour patterns. However, focusing on the physical action doesn’t directly address the emotion beneath.

Let’s examine the gut and what occurs beneath the fur – beyond the visible signs of aggression, restlessness, fear, or phobia. Diet plays a huge part here; wholefood feeding is the gold standard. This natural diet promotes gut health and offers plenty of storage space for the following chemicals, each with its associated benefits:

• Opiates – responsible for happiness
• Dopamine – motivates
• acetylcholine – for memory and concentration
• Endogenous benzodiazepines – tranquilising
• GABA – counters activity and relaxes.

One superstar opiate-like substance is serotonin. Around 90% of your dog’s serotonin is in the gut’s protective lining, known as the epithelium. Serotonin is responsible for the balance of mood.

Looking at this list of attributes, it’s clear why a dog lacking these chemicals struggles with the balance of mood, excitability, inability to settle, stress, depression, memory problems, and focus. These chemicals and others work together to create an adaptable, trainable, calm, focused, happy, relaxed, and eager-to-please dog at their best.

However, these critical chemicals can only work efficiently if the epithelium is healthy. Epithelial health relies on beneficial bacteria and little finger-like projections called villi.

The secret to supporting these gut-friendly bacteria and villi is acidic conditions in your dog’s digestive system. Low digestive pH (acidic) is the best way to wipe out harmful bacteria and set the friendly bacteria up for success. If the gut’s pH is at the optimum low level, healthy bacteria can flourish while villi regenerate and thrive.

The consumption of wholefoods promotes these optimal conditions.

References

• Bosch, G, et al. Impact of nutrition on canine behaviour: current status and possible mechanisms. Nutrition research reviews. 2007; 20(2):180–94.
• Bosch, G., et al. Effect of dietary fibre type on physical activity and behaviour in kennelled dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 2009; 121(1):32–41.
• Bosch, G. Can diet composition affect behaviour in dogs?: Food for thought. Wageningen University and Research; 2009.
• Bosch, G., et al. Dietary nutrient profiles of wild wolves: Insights for optimal dog nutrition? British Journal of Nutrition. 2015; 113(S1):S40–54.
• DeNapoli, JS., et al. Effect of dietary protein content and tryptophan supplementation on dominance aggression, territorial aggression, and hyperactivity in dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. 2000; 217(4):504–8.
• Dillitzer, N., et al. Intake of minerals, trace elements and vitamins in bone and raw food rations in adult dogs. British Journal of Nutrition. 2011; 106(S1):S53–6.
• Lizé, A. and Lewis, Z. The microbiome and host behaviour. Microbiomes of Soils, Plants and Animals: An Integrated Approach. Cambridge University Press. 2020; 12:98–121.
• Sechi, S., et al. Effects in dogs with behavioural disorders of a commercial nutraceutical diet on stress and neuroendocrine parameters. Veterinary Record. 2017; 180(1):18.