Proactive Pain Management Tip - Teach "Touch"

When a dog is in pain, they are at increased risk of using biting to communicate. This is why the first step of pet first aid is always to muzzle your dog. Even the friendliest, gentlest dog will escalate to biting when they're in pain.

While this is technically aggression, Dr. Sarah Heath prefers to call this behavior "repulsion". The function of the behavior is to make a person or dog gtfo.

Of course, it would be wildly unethical to slap a muzzle on a dog in chronic pain. So how can we help our dogs?

One of my go to behaviors to add to a dog's repertoire is "touch". This is when a dog boops their snoot against the palm of your hand.

• It is incredibly easy behavior to teach. Not only does this make it accessible for you, but it means your dog gets "easy wins" that promote cognitive welfare.

• "Touch" can be used as a way to move a dog without any physical contact. Or you can use it as an opt-in behavior before a potentially painful event, like picking up your dog to put them in the vehicle or put on a harness.

• "Touch" is a question. How reliably, how quickly, and how enthusiastically they "touch" givse us answers about our dog's pain.