Your dog may be in pain and you don't realize it: Here are 17 signs

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Do you think you always know when your dog is in pain? According to a new study , many signs go unnoticed, even by the owners of their four-legged friends.

Scientists have identified 17 signs of pain in dogs, and some of them are much less obvious than you might think. The study involved 647 people, including dog owners and people who don't own dogs, to see how well they could identify behaviors associated with pain.

Among the main signs are: a change in personality, cautious paw lifting, unstable mood, less desire to play, withdrawal from others or decreased activity. These are easier to notice.

But there are also much more “silent” signs, such as nose licking, yawning, sniffing the air, increased eye blinking, or increased self-care. These are often interpreted as stress or normal behavior rather than as indicators of pain.

Interestingly, being a dog owner doesn't necessarily mean you're better at recognizing pain. While owners are more likely to identify obvious signs like lameness, they fail to recognize other signals.

In some cases, people who didn't have dogs were more likely to associate certain behaviors, such as freezing in place or turning their bodies, with pain, perhaps because they didn't automatically interpret them as stress.

The study also showed that personal experience has an impact: those who have experienced pain themselves or have had a dog with health problems are more likely to recognize "hidden" pain.

Why is this important? Because pain can make a dog more unpredictable and increase the risk of aggression. When early signs are not recognized, situations can become more dangerous.

The researchers' message is: small changes should not be ignored. Even a small detail in behavior can be a signal that something is wrong, long before obvious symptoms appear.