17/05/2026
We had a lovely check in session with Connie and her owners today. When we first met Connie she was very reactive towards other dogs which left her owners feeling out of their depth and prompted them to get in contact. After meeting her we got to work with implementing training programmes that would help ease her reactivity towards other dogs.
We noticed that she had a slightly abnormal gait which needed further investigation. Connie was examined by her vet and was found to have a luxating patella and muscle wastage around the area, she was placed on a 6 week pain trial which has improved her reactivity significantly! Now why is this?
Well, research has shown that pain impacts behaviour but not always in the way that we think. When we think of a dog in pain, we assume they would limp, whine or even refuse exercise. Well, that is far from true, Connie (and the vast majority of dogs I've worked with that are experiencing pain) continued to run, play and enjoy her walks as normal. Her abnormal gait was very very subtle hence why her owners hadn't spotted it. So to the untrained eye she didn't appear to be in pain.
However, she was telling us she was in pain, the only way she knew how, by being reactive. Reactive behaviour has significant links to underlying pain. While sometimes the behaviour is learnt through trauma, a lot of the time there is in fact an underlying cause which is why I will always request clients have a thorough pain assessment with their vets. Remember, we can't train pain!
Now that Connie is doing much better, her owners will be discussing with their vets the next step to help Connie and manage her pain 🤍
