I want to tell you about my senior girl, Eve. She is the happiest, most joyful gal I’ve ever met. Her motto is “Puppy for life, never grow up!” She never complains, just enjoys life and doesn’t make a fuss. But she’s 13 years old and so, naturally, life becomes a little achier, slower, and things just don’t work like they used to. I noticed her occasionally licking her front legs, but aside from that minor sign, nothing else indicated anything out of the ordinary. She was still happy-go-lucky Eve.

And then I started learning about pain in dogs and how it’s not as easy to spot, unless of course it’s extreme pain.

Dogs have pains just like we do

Dogs experience pain much like we do, physically, mentally and emotionally, but the difference is that they can’t tell us about it. And if you think about it, unless we’re in extreme pain, we don’t always have obvious physical signs either. But we can talk about it!

Researchers have discovered that most dogs are in some kind of pain, at all times, without their owners having any idea! When I found this out, I felt really, awful that my dogs may be suffering, and I wasn’t doing anything about it!

If I didn’t know that my dog was in pain, though, how was I supposed to help them?

So I decided to learn the subtle signs of pain in dogs and also how important it is to put your hands on your dog regularly to check for any super subtle signs of underlying pain.