10/22/2026
🐾 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐃𝐎𝐆 𝐌𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆. 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐌𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃 𝐀 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍.
𝐴 𝑑𝑜𝑔 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑓𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙’𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐼 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑣𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑓𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑢𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠．
➡️ Let me start by saying this: vets have an incredibly important job. They are trained to diagnose and treat illness, injury and disease. We need them, and good vets are worth their weight in gold.
🤨 However, there is one particular area where, in my professional experience, veterinary understanding is still seriously lacking.
🤔Tʜᴇ ᴄᴏɴɴᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ʙᴇᴛᴡᴇᴇɴ ᴘᴀɪɴ, ᴘʜʏsɪᴄᴀʟ ᴅɪsᴄᴏᴍꜰᴏʀᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ᴄᴀɴɪɴᴇ ʙᴇʜᴀᴠɪᴏᴜʀ.
Throughout my long career working specifically with reactive, nervous and anxious dogs, I’ve encountered only a handful of vets who truly understood this connection.
And those vets? They were PHENOMENAL.💕
They understood that:
🐾 Pain doesn’t always show up on an X-ray.
🐾 Normal blood results don’t mean a dog isn’t experiencing discomfort.
🐾 A dog doesn’t need to limp, cry or scream to be in pain.
🐾 Behavioural changes can be symptoms of an underlying medical problem.
🐾 A dog who suddenly becomes reactive, anxious, irritable or reluctant to do certain things might be communicating that something physically isn’t right.
These vets didn’t simply look at test results. They looked at the whole dog.
✅They were willing to investigate further.
✅They understood the value of appropriately supervised pain-relief trials, additional diagnostics and specialist referrals.
✅Most importantly, they recognised that behaviour itself could be a clinical clue.
Not once did these vets dismiss concerns with:
“The dog is fine. They just need more training.”🤨
𝑈𝑛𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑢𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦， 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑣𝑒𝑡𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑒．
Over the years, I’ve worked with countless dogs whose behaviour strongly suggested underlying pain or physical discomfort.
And the response from their vets?
“The X-rays are clear.”
“Blood tests are normal.”
“There’s nothing wrong with him.”
“He’s not limping.”
“It’s behavioural.”
“He needs training.”
And that was that.
Except it wasn’t.
Because the dog was STILL struggling.
✧Still reacting.
✧Still showing signs of discomfort.
✧Still communicating, through their behaviour, that something wasn’t right.
And I was left trying to convince their humans to go back to the vet. To ask more questions. To request further investigations. To discuss a properly monitored pain-relief trial where appropriate.
⍟Sometimes that meant a second opinion.
⍟Sometimes it meant changing vets altogether.
And here’s the part that matters.
In the cases I’ve personally worked with where I strongly suspected undiagnosed pain or discomfort, further veterinary investigation eventually identified an underlying medical problem.💯
These weren’t dogs who simply needed someone to teach them to sit, stay or stop barking.
They were dogs who needed MEDICAL HELP.
And no amount of behaviour modification would have resolved the underlying cause of their suffering.
🤔So why is this still happening?
I’ve spoken to vets on both sides of the Atlantic, in the UK and the USA, about this very subject.
And something I’ve repeatedly heard is that the relationship between chronic pain and behaviour receives insufficient attention during their initial veterinary education.
The exceptional vets I’ve worked with had developed their understanding through additional professional education, excellent mentoring, specialist interests or their own determination to explore the subject further.
Of course, veterinary education varies between universities and countries, and there are vets with excellent knowledge of behavioural medicine.
But in my experience, that knowledge is far from universal.
And that is a serious animal welfare concern.
We have an increasingly substantial body of veterinary research demonstrating the relationship between pain and behavioural problems, including aggression, fearfulness, altered activity and reactivity.
⚠️Yet dogs are still being labelled as stubborn, difficult, disobedient or badly trained when they may actually be struggling physically.
➡️This is why dog professionals need to keep pushing for medical investigations FIRST.
This is why, if you contact me about your reactive dog, I ask questions about their health.
◎Their movement.
◎Their posture.
◎Their sleep.
◎Their appetite.
◎Their history.
◎Changes in their behaviour.
◎Whether they struggle with handling, certain activities or particular movements.
And this is why I might ask you to return to your vet, even when you’ve already been told your dog is perfectly healthy.
Not because I think I know more about veterinary medicine than your vet.
I don’t. I’m not a vet, and diagnosing medical conditions isn’t my job.
ꧮ But understanding canine behaviour, recognising possible indicators of discomfort and knowing when something warrants further medical investigation IS part of my professional responsibility.
ꧮ And sometimes that means advocating for a dog whose symptoms have been dismissed because they don’t fit the traditional picture of pain.
𖥤 A clear X-ray doesn’t rule out every painful condition.
𖥤 Normal blood tests don’t rule out pain.
And the absence of limping certainly 𖥤 doesn’t mean a dog is comfortable.
𖥤 A carefully considered pain-relief trial, when clinically appropriate and supervised by a vet, can sometimes provide valuable additional information. It isn’t a definitive diagnostic test, but it can be part of a wider investigation.
Here’s what I want every dog owner to understand.
💯 Behaviour is information.
Your dog cannot tell you:
“My back hurts.”
“My hips are uncomfortable.”
“I’ve got a headache.”
“My stomach hurts.”
“It hurts when another dog bumps into me.”
🙌 Instead, they may bark. Lunge. Growl. Withdraw. Become irritable. Avoid touch. Refuse activities they previously enjoyed.
And sometimes, what looks like a training problem is actually a medical problem.
That doesn’t mean every reactive dog is in pain. Or that every behaviour problem has a medical cause.
💁🏼 But it DOES mean we have a responsibility to consider and investigate physical causes before assuming a dog simply needs more training.
💯 Because you cannot train pain away.
💯 And you cannot expect a dog to feel safe, comfortable and emotionally settled while an underlying medical problem remains unaddressed.
➡️ So if your dog’s behaviour has changed, or something about their behaviour simply doesn’t feel right, please don’t be afraid to ask questions.
✅Advocate for your dog.
➡️Ask what has actually been ruled out.
✅Ask whether further investigations or a referral might be appropriate.
And if your concerns are repeatedly dismissed without adequate investigation, there is absolutely nothing wrong with seeking a second veterinary opinion.
Good veterinary medicine and good behaviour work should complement each other, not compete.
Your dog deserves both. ❤️
