Well, we know in humans, humans with a suppressed dopamine level, they will suffer from

things like inability to focus or depression, lethargy, possibly socially withdrawn, all of that

because of low levels of dopamine.

And the same can be seen in our dogs. So, dogs that are in physical pain or have endured

some chronic stress or have been sick, those dogs, their level of dopamine has been suppressed.

Their ability to create a dopamine hit is hampered.

And so, that's why you take a dog who is not feeling well and you ask them to tug or play a game with you,

they're going to be half-hearted or what you'll find is they might play one time, but the first time they fail and you get that

negative prediction error, they're tapping out. No. The little dopamine that's there shuts right

down. They can't work. I've seen that myself and my youngest dog, this, who's been dealing with

a gut issue since the day she was born. And so I have to be very, very particular about how I train her.

In addition, I'm going to share with you that there's nutrition that is involved in dopamine

production. So dopamine is relying on the amino acid tyrosine in order to be produced.

Now, tyrosine is naturally occurring in a lot of foods, including poultry, chicken, turkey. It's found in bananas, which by the way, also have dopamine in them. Funny thing, I love bananas. Maybe that's why. It's found in pumpkin seeds. My dogs routinely get one and a half teaspoons of ground pumpkin seeds. If you don't grind those pumpkin seeds, you will be

visiting them once again on their way out because they do not digest in your dog unless they've

been ground. Avocado is another source of tyrosine and you can feed your dog's small amounts

of avocado. Again, you know, you might want to check with your nutritionist or

your veterinarian before you change your dog's diet. But those are things that contribute to

the dog's ability to produce dopamine and to produce that dopamine spike. Now, what about

if we go on the opposite spectrum? There is such a thing as having too much dopamine. And you will

see that I personally believe that that was a struggle that my long-gone now dog Buzz struggled with.

And Buzz, you may know I wrote a book about him called Shaping Success. He was an awesome dog,

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