[David & Pinot]
For those who don’t know me, I have a Toy Poodle dog called Pinot Noir. He was on stage with me last year at Elevate when I chaired a discussion on the medical, community and individual benefits of owning a dog. A second dog called Jarvis also on stage, was trained by the Medical Detection Dogs charity to alert its owner Daisy Cottle-Bailey two minutes before she could faint. Daisy has Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, that's where the heart rate increases without warning before fainting and Daisy can faint around 20 times a day. Daisy keeps her Apple watch on the heart rate monitor but Jarvis always knows, two minutes before the watch, that Daisy could be about to faint. Those in the audience witnessed Jarvis in action, giving the trained signal so Daisy needed to leave the stage to go to a safe space the organisers had prepared. Dogs trained by the Medical Detection Dogs charity can already smell many different types of cancers and have their scent triggers trained for anaphylactic shock suffers as well as picking up on sudden low blood sugars, Hypoglycaemia. The charity is confident that this is just the beginning of what dogs can be trained to smell and detect.
Also on stage was Duncan Anderson from Southdowns Leisure where dog walking has been put on the exercise timetable. The K9 Circuits class allows for both dog and owner to exercise for 45 minutes and as many non-members take part as members. Duncan points out that dog walking is probably the best community builder. In New York there’s a high-end fitness studio called Dogpound which gets its name from celebrities taking their dogs to the gym. Thankfully I don’t have to go to NYC because I’m blessed that the 180 Health Club in the Strand, London, is dog friendly so Pinot gets to join me for pilates. There have been interactive puppy yoga plus pilates and paw classes for some time and now that ‘Doga’ is a thing, where you can do yoga with a puppy or your own pet, let’s see more of it on timetables and build your social capital around dog activities..
The more we understand dogs' emotional contagion and bonding, the process where a dog ‘catches’ the emotional state of its owner where the physiological responses often mirror their owners, Dogs heart-rate variability can synchronize with their owner suggesting that owner stress can transfer to the dog. Research studies show dogs can mirror human stress at a hormonal level picking up on cortisol changes. An emotional support animal can help alleviate symptoms of a diagnosed mental or emotional disability through companionship. Therapy dogs, or animal assisted therapy, have been used in hospitals, mental health units, hospices, nursing homes schools and care homes where studies show better physiological markers, including lower blood pressure, resting heart rate and lower stress levels after dog assisted sessions. Emotional support visits from a dog can ease fear, reduce loneliness and promote relaxation. Several studies show that dogs' stress levels and heart rate patterns shift in parallel with their owners during stressful situations. Over the past year we have had so many examples of why pets, and animals in general, matter in our lives. There’s growing scientific evidence that dogs can catch their human moods through emotional contagion, are highly sensitive to body language, tense, or relaxed, tone of speech, and your scents and body chemistry when you are stressed or calm, hurting or happy. I’m fond of admitting that I keep coming up against ‘borders of knowledge’ and dogs have just added another layer.
This year dogs Pinot and Jarvis won’t be joining me on stage for Elevates tenth anniversary. You however can join me at the Debate Stage on Wednesday 17th June at 10.20am for the debate on where the industry is going over the next decade. To help me Luke Carlson, Chair Health & Fitness Association (HFA) and Bas Moffat a former GB rower and World Championship medalist will be joining me. See you at Elevate.