[bvisness]

The "watchdog" on the robot is simply checking for new inputs from the driver station while the robot is running. If the code lags or you lose connection so that new inputs can't be sent, the "watchdog" isn't "fed" new inputs, and it automatically stops the robot's movement. This is a basic safety feature to ensure that the robot doesn't keep driving and kill someone if you lose connection.

The way to improve the problem? Just fix your communications, like you did, and make sure that your code isn't slowing down to the point where it can't get new inputs often enough.