What’s Wrong With Your Dog?
The Puddle Predicament: Rebellion or cry for help?
Finding a wet patch on the rug usually sparks frustration, but before you correct the behavior, pause. When a house-trained dog suddenly breaks protocol, it is rarely an act of defiance. It is almost always biological.
Scolding a dog who physically cannot hold it is ineffective and damages trust. Play detective before you play disciplinarian by looking for these specific markers:
The Medical Red Flags
Straining: Squatting frequently but producing only drops suggests inflammation or a UTI, not a full bladder.
The "Clear" Danger: Dark urine looks scary, but clear, odorless urine is often more alarming. It can indicate the kidneys have lost the ability to concentrate urine—a sign of kidney disease, diabetes, or Cushing’s.
Volume Overload: If the water bowl is emptying faster than usual, the accidents are likely due to simple volume overload.
The Hidden Triggers
The Pain Factor: Arthritis or hip dysplasia can make the physical act of standing up and walking outside agonizing. If accidents happen near their bed, pain is the likely culprit.
Canine Dementia: Senior dogs may physically be able to hold it but forget where they are or lose the neural signal that they need to go.
Submissive Urination: If your dog pees while tucking their tail or greeting you, this is fear, not spite. Scolding validates that fear and makes the problem worse.
The Verdict Assume innocence. Sudden regression is a medical emergency until proven otherwise. Use a soup ladle to catch a sample and get a urinalysis. Only once the vet rules out infection, crystals, and diabetes should you consider retraining.
Excitement, nonsense, and failure mode
Midnight: Which ball
Nonsense: This could be anyway
Stay or go: My dog failed beginner training too
Culture
Renting Sweat vs. Owning Muscle
Walk into most gyms and you’ll see an invisible border. On one side, the rhythmic hum of treadmills and the cardio crew, focused on sweat and endurance. On the other, the clanging of iron and the strength squad, focused on load and leverage.
For decades, we’ve been sold this binary choice: Are you training for heart health, or are you training for muscle? Do you want to be lean, or do you want to be strong?
It’s the wrong question. The "Cardio vs. Weights" debate isn't just tired; it’s scientifically flawed. Treating these two modalities as opposing forces is like trying to build a house and arguing whether the foundation or the roof is more important. You need both to weather a storm.
Here is a fresh look at the tools in your physiological toolbox.
The Engine Room: Cardiovascular Training
We often reduce cardio to a simple calorie-burning equation—x minutes running equals y calories torched. But its true value lies in efficiency.
Cardio is engine tuning. It optimizes how your body takes in oxygen and delivers it to working tissues. It strengthens the actual pump—your heart—and increases capillary density, building deeper supply roads into your muscles.
The Immediate Perk: Cardio is a potent, immediate mental pressure valve. Aerobic activity floods the brain with endocannabinoids (similar to the compounds in cannabis) that reduce anxiety right now.
The Limitation: Its effects are largely transient. The calorie burn stops almost the moment you step off the elliptical. You are renting fitness, not owning it.
The Infrastructure: Resistance Training
Lifting weights is often misunderstood as purely aesthetic—something for bodybuilders. In reality, it’s about building your body's chassis.
Resistance training is the only way to significantly alter your resting metabolic rate. Think of muscle as "expensive" tissue; your body has to "pay" significant calories just to keep it alive, even while you sleep. By adding muscle, you upgrade your body's operating system to burn more fuel 24/7.
The Hidden Superpower: Longevity. While heart health is crucial, the primary driver of disability in older age is frailty—the inability to get up off the floor or carry groceries. Strength training is your 401(k) for functional independence later in life.
The Limitation: It doesn't provide the same sustained "engine flushing" cardiovascular benefits that sustained aerobic work does.
The Verdict: Synergy, Not Rivalry
If you exclusively run, you build a highly efficient engine placed inside a fragile chassis that breaks down over time (hello, runner’s knee). If you only lift, you build a fortress that runs on a weak generator, leaving you winded walking up stairs.
The magic happens in the middle.
Stop looking for a winner in this debate. The goal isn't just weight loss; it's capability. A truly capable human should be able to move something heavy and move themselves over a distance without collapsing.
The takeaway? Cross the aisle. If you’re a runner, pick up a kettlebell twice a week. If you’re a lifter, end your session with 15 minutes of breathless work. Your heart and your muscles aren't enemies; they're business partners.
Chuckle
The fib is A. Swimming is a non-weight-bearing exercise. Your bones don’t experience the gravity or impact required to stimulate new density because the water supports your body.
What did you think of this week's Fido Fly newsletter?
Your feedback helps us to create exactly what you want.
 |
 |
 |
Was this forwarded to you? Sign up to receive your own weekly copy. It’s free to subscribe.
Looking for previous editions of Fido Fly? They are all safely stored here.
