Great story! I'm very happy for your friend, and his pooch. It's incredible that the dog acted normally once he was home again.

resilience, which is such a valuable skill, can also be just nature doing its thing

We all have these skills, but we have been untaught them, via messages that say only experts have the knowledge and wherewithal to effect improvement. If we are told that mere resilience is not enough in cases like this dog's, then we won't even try to access our own thoughts that might help us out. I'm not saying that right, but I think you know what I mean. We could all do this, just as this dog did it. We could find food and water, we could stay away from danger, we could survive.