Why You Can't Train When There Is Pain

Training a dog or trying to modify an unwanted behaviour is a difficult, emotionally challenging and a time consuming process.

As pet parents, we can feel alone, frustrated, disheartened, as if we are failing our beloved pets.

We might be thinking our dog is bad, stubborn, unfixable.

But what if there was an underlying reason that was contributing to this struggle, and by addressing this, you could set both yourself and your dog up for success? 

COULD PAIN BE THE MISSING LINK?

Unfortunately pain is still often overlooked in cases where the signs are anything other than an obvious lameness or limping. As dogs are non verbal (on  the whole!!), they are unable to tell us when pain is playing a part in their lives and may be causing other changes in their behaviour or daily activities. In fact, they often go to great lengths to hide their pain, and being quadripeds,  are more able to offset weight, or overcompensate to other limbs or body areas to minimise pain and discomfort.

In his 2020 paper, Daniel Mills and his team of researchers, described how up to 80% of behavioural referrals can be attributed to or exacerbated by pain. This research and findings clearly indicate that pain is a huge contributor to behavioural changes and/or undesirable behaviour in our pets.

PAIN IS COMPLEX

Like with humans, pain is very much an individual experience, and involves not just a sensory element – where there is a neurological and physical reaction to a noxious stimulus, but also an emotional and cognitive element, where memories of previous experience and associated protective actions come in to play. It is therefore multi dimensional.

Pain, or more accurately, acute or adaptive pain is useful. Pain is essential for survival as it alerts the brain of the presence of a harmful stimulus and initiates the appropriate response to avoid it or remove the body from it quickly – like the reflexive withdrawal of your hand if you run it under water that is too hot.

Chronic pain, however, is very different and is considered maladaptive. Chronic pain exists when the pain signals extend beyond the actual time it takes for the body to repair and heal damaged tissue. When chronic pain exists, changes take place in the Central Nervous System causing the pain or pain perception to be experienced on an emotional and cognitive,  rather than just a  sensory basis.

COGNITION AND LEARNING

If we accept that dogs suffering from chronic pain are experiencing this maladaptive pain on an emotional and cognitive basis, it may be easier to understand why they struggle to learn or behave “normally” in this state.

Studies undertaken with humans have shown that cognitive impairment is often associated with the pain experience and can cause major difficulties in performing daily activities.

The definition of cognition is the brain’s “acquisition, processing, storage and retrieval of information”. 

 So since pain has a cognitive, evaluative component requiring learning, recall of past experiences and decision making, it may be hypothesised that difficulty in learning or difficulty coping with everyday situations could be a consequence of competing limited neural resources.

Imagine trying to learn something new or just get through a day at work with a bad headache – I’m sure most of us would struggle and would likely be a bit grouchy. 

In the presence of pain, it is often difficult to pay attention to our environment. The attention matrix is the name given to the complex group of neurons that give us the capacity to process information. In human studies, continued painful stimuli impact attention control mechanisms, decreasing task performance showing an overlap between pain pathways and the attention matrix. When an ability to pay attention is decreased, there is no surprise that learning, and therefore, training is compromised.

Pain, in any form, can also be a huge contributor to sleep deprivation. Dogs who struggle to settle and get comfortable or who pace during the night will most definitely not have sufficient sleep in order to allow their body and their brain to repair and reset ready for the next day.

Unlike humans who tend to sleep in one cycle during the day (monophasic sleep), dogs’ sleep pattern is polyphasic meaning they will sleep sporadically throughout the day, but an inability to settle comfortably for sleep will prevent them from reaching that REM state of sleep which is where the recovery process occurs. I know how grumpy I can be after a rotten or disturbed night’s sleep so it is no surprise that a sleep disturbed dog will be tired, grouchy and will struggle to concentrate, learn, or make appropriate choices.

SO HOW DO I  KNOW IF THERE IS A PAIN ELEMENT DISRUPTING OUR PROGRESS

As mentioned above, pain is complex, multi dimensional and individualised.

Dogs in pain will not normally vocalise or show visible signs of lameness until the pain intensity has exceeded their tolerance level and/or until any overcompensatory strategies have been exhausted.

It is the more subtle signs of pain that we need to be aware and mindful of when advocating for our dogs. Below are some of the more common behavioural changes that can be indicative of pain or discomfort, although this list is  by no means exhaustive and any sudden behavioural change should throw up a red flag that something is not right.

ALTERED SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

A reluctance to be around people, other dogs

Aggressive or reactive behaviour towards people of other dogs

Hiding or retreating 

Attention seeking behaviour – increased clinginess or playing the fool

Development of separation anxiety

ALTERED POSTURE, MOVEMENT AND BODY LANGUAGE

Excessive lip smacking, yawning, staring

Changes in head or tail carriage

Changes in eating  or sleep patterns 

Coat changes – pattern irregularities, changes to texture or colour

ALTERED ABILITY TO CONCENTRATE

Reduced impulse control leading to actions that are over the top or out of context

Inability to learn or retain and repeat 

Unable to engage

FORMING DISTRACTION BEHAVIOURS

Excessive licking or nibbling an area

Tail chasing

Obsessive behaviours

NOISE SENSITIVITY

Sudden phobia to a noise or noises that previously did not elicit a reaction

Can become generalised and the noise becomes a trigger even when pain is not present, or a place where a noise was heard becomes a trigger even when the noise is not repeated

So please remember, next time you are asking your dog to do something and they appear to have gone deaf, forgotten everything you have taught them, or regressed to a naughty pup or teen; it may not be that they don’t want to please you, but in actual fact they can’t – either physically or mentally.

By working alongside trainers and behaviourists, along with veterinary support, clinical canine massage therapists can help to identify if muscular or soft tissue dysfunction may be hindering your training or behaviour modification journey.

Visit www.k9-massageguild.co.uk to find your local therapist.