Circular Thinking--Behavior, Neurology and the "Ambipawed" Dog

Well, here's a new anxiety for Stella's list--grooming anxiety. She is usually an absolute angel on the grooming table--endlessly patient, and easy to work on. Last night she had a bath and blow dry. She always enjoys her blow dry. I scissored her ears and face, and she was as calm as could be.

Today, I put her on the table and turned on the clippers, and she shrank into a tiny ball. I have never, ever seen her do this, and I have been grooming her since she was a puppy. I had to do a really quick job with the clippers, as I had already made a path through an inch of fur on the middle of her back. Her cut is not even, and I didn't get to scissor her legs, but I had to let her off the table after she defecated. She ran into the garden and hid. Even a half an hour later, she was miserable when I put her top knot up, and usually she is just fine with that process. I'm at my wit's end. Everyday life seems to get harder and harder for her. Last night, she startled when I turned the page of a book.

I have been giving some thought to the possibility that she has seizures, and I really cannot decide if what I am seeing in her are behavioral responses to fear (freezing, retreat), or are focal seizures. The autonomic responses would be similar (trembling, increased heart rate)?? It seems very hard to sort out. What I'm not seeing is behavior that seems suddenly different. Stella can be playing one minute and fearful the next, but I can usually detect a noise stimulus. She can sometimes recover in the presence of a reward (food), which would suggest that her problem is primarily behavioral. The whole question starts to feel very circular to me though--how does one separate behavior from neurology?

For example, if, as some research suggest, the dog's paw preference ("pawdedness"??) is correlated with their susceptibility to phobias, aren't we talking about neurology? My very random trials with Stella and Douce suggest that she may have less of a paw preference than he does (she is "ambipawed"?). If true, this would correlate with her noise phobia. But I haven't done the recommended hours of trials.

Oh, just someone help me find a way to make this little Shih Tzu feel better!