If you live with a pet, you might feel like you can almost read each other's minds.
You might even have experienced your pet responding to your emotional state. Animals seem to have impressive skills at detecting our state of health too.
However, new research suggests that many dog owners are not as skilled in recognizing pain in their pets as they might like to think. This could have significant consequences for the behavior, health, and welfare of our pets.
As a migraineur, I am amazed at how my dogs cope with me when a migraine hits. They seem to recognize the pain, distress, and incapacity that come along with a migraine and respond with more gentle interactions than usual.
I hope that when the situation is reversed and they are unwell or in pain, that I too can recognize it.
So, how can you recognize if your pet is in pain and what should you do if you think they are?
Signs of pain
It is easy to assume that an animal in pain will make some noise about it and show obvious physical signs. This might be the case if they are in acute pain as the result of severe injury for example.
However, animals often disguise pain as a survival mechanism, and many signs of pain show only as subtle changes in behavior.
Humans do seem to be able to recognize basic animal emotional states such as anger, fear, or joy, through facial and body expressions. But we are less good at linking these cues to more complex emotional states including pain, anxiety, and frustration.
The recently published study assessed how good people are at recognizing signs of pain in dogs. This was carried out via an online questionnaire completed by 530 dog-owners and 117 non-owners.
Participants were given a list of 17 types of dog behavior. The study participants were asked to rank how likely they thought these behavior types were to indicate pain, based on their prior knowledge and experience. In reality, all 17 types of behavior listed suggest a dog is in pain.
The signs of pain provided included obvious behavioral changes such as hesitant paw lifting, reduced play behavior, and changes in personality. Participants were good at recognizing that these prominent behavior changes were linked with pain.
However, they didn't realize more subtle indicators such as yawning, lip and nose licking, and changes in facial expressions including looking away and increased blinking. These are all warnings that a dog may be suffering.
Notably, participants without dogs were actually more likely to recognize that freezing or turning the head or body away are associated with pain than dog owners. This suggests that dog owners may become complacent in their observations of their dog's behavior.
The link between pain and behaviour
The study participants were also asked to assess the potential relevance of pain in three written canine behavior cases. The participants were not told this, but two were suffering from painful conditions, one outwardly obvious, and one more subtle. The third case was not linked to a painful condition.
Dog owners noted that pain was likely in the case with obvious signs of movement problems – hopping and lifting of legs.
This was higher for dog owners than non-owners. In the case where pain signs were more subtle (night restlessness and "shadowing" family members), there was no difference in the ability of dog-owners and non-owners to identify the behavior as signs of pain.
However, the dog owners with previous experience of pets with a painful condition seemed to be better at recognizing signs of suffering. This applied to overt changes in movement as well as body language. This suggests that prior experience can be valuable in developing skills when it comes to pet behavior.
What is interesting from this study is that there were some discrete differences between dog owners and non-owners in recognizing signs of pain. However, owning a dog was no guarantee that someone would be better able to identify subtle pain indicators.
Previous studies have shown animal species may show pain in different ways. For example rabbits often freeze, which might be considered a fearful response.
Facial grimace scales are also increasingly being used to assess pain for a range of species including cats and horses. These assessment tools track minute muscular movements in the face such as tightening eyes.
What should you do if you think your pet is in pain?
Recognizing signs of pain in your pet is critical so you can respond quickly. This may also help reduce the risk of dog bites, which are often linked to the dog struggling with chronic pain.
Pain can lead to increased noise reactivity too, where dogs flinch or bark loudly in response to sudden, unusual, or loud noises.
If you suspect your pet might be in pain because of a sudden change in their behavior or movement, seek veterinary advice. Soreness can manifest outwardly such as lameness, lethargy, or a lack of desire to exercise or play, but it can be easy to miss more subtle signs such as altered blinking, momentary pauses, or freezing.
Research indicates that dog owners should be alert to altered sleep patterns, restlessness, clinginess, and unusual licking or chewing their body.
Even changes in a dog's ear position, coat quality, texture, or how their coat lies on their skin can indicate underlying discomfort. Reluctance to being touched in specific areas of a dog's body might also be a sign of discomfort that needs veterinary investigation.
Related: Gifted Dogs Learn New Toy Names by Eavesdropping on Their Humans
So if you think your dog needs training or a session with a behaviorist because of a gradual or sudden alteration in their behavior, it's worth ruling out whether your pooch is acting strangely because they're in pain first.
Jacqueline Boyd, Senior Lecturer in Animal Science, Nottingham Trent University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.