01/07/2025
🙏❤️
I very often discuss the possibility of pain as a motivator for our dogs behaviour but unfortunately without obvious lameness or signs of discomfort, it can be difficult to believe this might be what's going on.
This is a great post on the value of a pain relief trial.
Imagine living in discomfort every day without the ability to tell anyone. That’s the reality many dogs face. They may not cry out, limp, or yelp, but that doesn’t mean they’re not hurting. Because of how stoic dogs can be, the only clue we often get is a change in behaviour and that’s where so many people go wrong.
Behavioural issues like aggression, reactivity, withdrawal, or anxiety are assumed to be purely emotional or psychological. But what if it's pain?
This is your wake-up call.
A pain trial involves a veterinary professional prescribing pain relief for a set period to assess whether there is a behavioural or physical improvement. It's a diagnostic tool, not a final answer. If your dog has had a behavioural issue for a long time, the pain trial should last at least 6 to 8 weeks to give enough time to observe any meaningful changes
Critically, it’s often used when there are no overt signs of lameness or injury, but the dog’s BEHAVIOUR suggests possible pain, think sudden reluctance to be touched, changes in posture, agitation, growling, or even withdrawal. Dogs don’t dramatize. They cope.
Let’s be brutally honest. If you don’t do a pain trial and the dog is, in fact, in pain, you risk:
- Prolonged suffering: Dogs endure silently. Pain can cause constant distress that no behaviourist or training technique will resolve.
- Worsening behaviour: Pain-induced behaviours can become ingrained and more extreme, including biting or phobia-like shutdowns.
- Misdiagnosis: Your dog may be labelled “anxious,” “aggressive,” or “stubborn” when in reality, they’re simply hurting.
- Unnecessary euthanasia: Tragically, some dogs are put down because their behaviour was misattributed to temperament or training failure, when the true cause was untreated pain.
The most common objections: “I don’t want to medicate my dog unnecessarily” or “I can't see any pain”
Here’s the reality: A properly managed pain trial is safe. A short-term use of analgesics is extremely unlikely to cause harm. The risk of side effects is minimal compared to the risk of ongoing undetected pain.
The danger of a pain trial? Almost none.
