How to recognise signs of pain in your dog

Living with a pet can sometimes make you feel as though you can almost read one another’s minds.

You may even have noticed your pet reacting to how you feel. Animals also appear remarkably good at detecting changes in our health.

New research, however, suggests that many dog owners are not as adept at recognising pain in their pets as they might believe. That could have significant implications for our pets’ behaviour, health and welfare.

As someone who experiences migraines, I am struck by how my dogs respond when one comes on. They seem to recognise the pain, distress and incapacity a migraine brings, and interact with me more gently than they normally would.

I hope that, when the roles are reversed and they are ill or in pain, I can recognise it too.

So how can you tell whether your pet is in pain, and what should you do if you suspect they are?

Signs of pain in dogs

It is easy to expect an animal in pain to make a noise and display clear physical symptoms. That may happen, for instance, when severe injury causes acute pain.

But animals often conceal pain as a survival mechanism, and many of the signs appear only as slight changes in behaviour.

People seem capable of recognising basic animal emotions, such as anger, fear and joy, from facial expressions and body language. We are less skilled, however, at connecting those signals with more complex emotional states, including pain, anxiety and frustration.

A recently published study examined how well people could identify signs of pain in dogs. It used an online questionnaire completed by 530 dog owners and 117 people who did not own dogs.

Participants received a list of 17 types of dog behaviour and were asked to rank how likely each was to indicate pain, drawing on their existing knowledge and experience. In fact, all 17 behaviours listed suggest that a dog is in pain.

The signs included conspicuous behavioural changes, such as hesitantly lifting a paw, playing less and personality changes. Participants were good at identifying these prominent changes as being associated with pain.

They did not, however, recognise subtler indicators, including yawning, licking the lips and nose, and changes in facial expression such as looking away and blinking more often. Each can warn that a dog may be suffering.

Notably, people without dogs were more likely than owners to recognise that freezing or turning the head or body away is associated with pain. This suggests owners may become complacent when observing their dogs’ behaviour.

The link between pain and behaviour

Participants were also asked to consider whether pain could be relevant in three written cases involving canine behaviour. They were not told that two of the dogs had painful conditions: one with obvious outward signs and the other with subtler ones. The third case was not associated with a painful condition.

Dog owners identified pain as likely in the case involving clear movement problems, including hopping and lifting legs.

They did so more often than non-owners. In the case with subtler signs of pain, including restlessness at night and “shadowing” family members, owners and non-owners were equally able to identify the behaviours as signs of pain.

Owners who had previously cared for pets with a painful condition did seem better at recognising suffering, both through obvious changes in movement and through body language. This suggests that experience can be valuable when developing skills in understanding pet behaviour.

An interesting finding was that owners and non-owners differed in some specific ways in their recognition of pain. Nevertheless, owning a dog did not guarantee a better ability to identify subtle indicators.

Earlier studies have shown that different animal species can display pain differently. Rabbits, for example, often freeze, which could be interpreted as a response to fear.

Facial grimace scales are also being used increasingly to assess pain in a range of species, including cats and horses. These tools monitor tiny facial muscle movements, such as tightening around the eyes.

What should you do if you think your pet is in pain?

Being able to recognise pain in your pet is vital because it allows you to respond promptly. It may also help reduce the risk of dog bites, which are often associated with a dog struggling with chronic pain.

Pain can also make dogs more reactive to noise, causing them to flinch or bark loudly when a sound is sudden, unusual or loud.

Seek veterinary advice if a sudden change in your pet’s behaviour or movement makes you suspect pain. Soreness may show outwardly as lameness, lethargy or a reluctance to exercise or play, but subtler signs, such as changes in blinking, brief pauses or freezing, can easily be overlooked.

Research suggests that dog owners should watch for changes in sleep patterns, restlessness, clinginess and unusual licking or chewing of the body.

Even a dog’s ear position, coat quality or texture, or the way the coat lies against the skin, can change when there is underlying discomfort. A reluctance to be touched in particular areas may also indicate discomfort that a vet should investigate.

If a gradual or sudden change in your dog’s behaviour makes you think they need training or a session with a behaviourist, it is worth first ruling out pain as the reason they are acting strangely.

Jacqueline Boyd, Senior Lecturer in Animal Science, Nottingham Trent University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.