Do you know about positive stress? 🐕

Everyone knows about stress in unpleasant situations. But have you heard of positive stress? I'll give you an example:
If I'm allowed to go to the beach with my big ball I'm the happiest dog in the whole universe.

But the whole universe around me disappears and there is only me and the ball left. Or even just the ball ;).

I'm playing and playing but I'm getting overwhelmed by my old instincts within my body which were important for hunting and - yes I have to say it - killing.
In my body, the hormones adrenalin and cortisol are secreted, which helps to deal with stress and to react in dangerous situations. But those hormones also block other important functions and thus can make you permanently sick if your body doesn't recover from it.
While playing ball my body makes no difference between playing or real hunting. I'm under stress.
And at the point when my human sees the stress in my face - which is unfortunately after around 10 minutes excessive playing - I'm told to deliver the ball to my human and rest a bit.
They told me it takes about 8 hours until my body gets rid of the cortisol in my blood. And that it is so important for me to get rid of it because otherwise I can overreact in harmless situations - like meeting other dogs.

This is my stress face - can be confused with my happy face - but if you look carefully you can see the whole expression that I'm under stress.

Now that means no more ball playing and resting for my health and the health of everybody around me ;)

I hope you liked my short explanation about positive stress - there is a lot more to talk about this subject - but I'll keep it short - I need time for playing ball and resting :) - and maybe I will make another post in the future with more details about it.. .. Yours truly ..Marley🐕