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You know that moment when something feels off about your dog, but you can’t quite name it? They’re eating. They’re drinking. They’re still wagging their tail when you get home. But there’s this nagging sense that things aren’t quite right.
Maybe they’re sleeping more than usual. Maybe they’ve stopped jumping on the couch they’ve always loved. Maybe they’re a bit slower to get up, or they’ve found a new resting spot you don’t remember them using before. You dismiss it. They’re just tired. They’re getting older. It’s probably nothing.
That instinct to dismiss is worth resisting.
By the time most dogs show obvious signs of illness, they’ve been unwell for weeks or months. Dogs are masters at hiding discomfort, a survival instinct inherited from their wild ancestors where showing weakness could mean becoming prey. The signs are there earlier than we usually catch them, but they’re subtle, written in a language most of us haven’t learned to read fluently.
That vague “something’s off” feeling you have about your dog is worth taking seriously. A study using the VetMetrica health monitoring system found that 27% of dogs whose owners assessed them as being in perfect health actually triggered health alerts when systematically evaluated. These weren’t dogs with obvious illnesses. They were dogs with subtle, chronic conditions like early arthritis that their owners had normalised as “just slowing down.”
Your gut knows before your conscious mind catches up. The question is what to do with that knowledge.
Starting with What You Know: Your Dog’s Baseline
You cannot detect an abnormal change if you don’t know what normal looks like for your individual dog. This seems obvious, but it’s the single biggest barrier to early health detection.
Most of us exist in a state of passive familiarity with our dogs. We know them generally, but we haven’t systematically observed and recorded what “healthy and normal” actually means in specific, measurable terms. When the vet asks “has anything changed?” we often can’t answer with confidence.
Building a baseline means moving from passive cohabitation to active observation. It takes less time than you’d think, and the payoff is substantial: you’ll catch problems weeks or months earlier than you otherwise would.
The Weekly Physical Check
This hands-on method takes about ten minutes once you’ve got the rhythm. Transform it into a positive, treat-based interaction so your dog learns to enjoy it. A dog accustomed to being handled calmly at home will be less stressed during veterinary exams, which makes those exams more accurate.
Before you touch them, observe. How are they standing? Is weight evenly distributed, or are they favouring a leg? Is their back straight or slightly arched? Watch their chest rise and fall to count their resting breathing rate. Count for 15 seconds and multiply by four. Normal resting rate is 10 to 30 breaths per minute. Consistently over 30 when sleeping (not dreaming) is worth noting.
Eyes and gums: Eyes should be bright and clear, pupils equal in size. Gums should be pink and moist. Press on the gum until it goes white, then release. Colour should return in under two seconds. Over three seconds is concerning. Pale, blue, or yellow gums need immediate veterinary attention.
Ears and mouth: Ears should be pink inside, clean, with minimal odour. Watch for redness, discharge, or foul smell. Check for foul breath (often the first sign of dental disease), visible tartar, or broken teeth.
Skin and coat: Run your hands over their entire body, not just a quick pat. Feel for lumps, sores, red patches, or areas of sensitivity. Note every lump’s location and size. Most are benign, but tracking them lets you notice growth. While you’re checking, assess body condition by running your hands along their ribs. You should feel them easily without pressing hard. If ribs feel like prominent knuckles, they’re too thin. If you can’t feel ribs at all, weight needs addressing.
Movement and posture: Gently run your hands down their spine and along each leg, watching for flinching or tension. For hydration, gently pull up the skin on the back of their neck. It should snap back immediately. Slow return can indicate dehydration.
Keep a journal or simple spreadsheet. Note the date, what you checked, and anything different from previous weeks. Over time, this log becomes your reference library of “normal.”
Tracking How They Feel
Physical checks catch structural changes. But chronic illness often presents first as a gradual decline in how a dog feels rather than obvious symptoms.
We’re demonstrably unreliable at subjectively assessing our dog’s health. Those owners in the VetMetrica study weren’t careless. They’d simply normalised subtle decline as aging or personality.
The solution is tracking observable behaviours across four domains, using specific questions rather than general impressions.
For energy and enthusiasm, ask yourself: how excited are they for a walk compared to three months ago? How bouncy when you come home? Do they initiate play? For happiness and contentment: do they seek affection, or have they become withdrawn? Do they seem content when resting, or restless and unable to settle? For activity and comfort: are they moving freely? Do they hesitate before jumping onto furniture or into the car? Are they slower to get up from rest? And for calmness: can they settle easily after activity, or are they pacing? Are they sleeping soundly, or frequently waking and shifting position?
You don’t need a formal scoring system. Note your observations weekly. The power is in detecting trends. A single week where your dog seems less enthusiastic might be noise. Three weeks of declining activity combined with increased restlessness at night is a signal worth investigating.
Making It Sustainable
The critical element isn’t which tools you use but that you use something consistently. A notebook works. A notes app works. Apps like 11pets or DogLog can help if you prefer digital tracking.
Monthly photos of your dog in the same position can reveal gradual changes in body condition you might not notice day to day. Short videos of their gait can be invaluable when discussing mobility concerns with your vet.
Choose a system you’ll actually maintain. The best system is the one you’ll use.
Behaviour as Health Barometer
Once you’re tracking baseline, you need to know what changes mean.
For decades, veterinary medicine treated behaviour and physical health as separate domains. A dog with aggression went to a behaviourist. A dog with a limp went to the vet. This divide was fundamentally wrong.
Research now confirms what progressive veterinarians have long suspected: many so-called behavioural problems are actually the first, and sometimes only, detectable sign of an underlying medical condition. When a previously house-trained dog starts having accidents, when a friendly dog becomes snappy, when an energetic companion becomes withdrawn, the assumption should not be “bad behaviour.” It should be “what’s changed physically?”
Punishing behaviour that stems from pain or illness doesn’t solve the problem. It erodes trust and increases your dog’s distress when they most need your support.
When Behaviour Signals Something Physical
The connection between internal health and external behaviour is physiological. Understanding the patterns helps you know what to watch for.
Endocrine disruptions like Cushing’s disease or Addison’s disease alter hormones that regulate mood and stress response. Dogs develop irritability, restlessness, and disrupted sleep-wake cycles not because they’re “acting out,” but because their brain chemistry has changed.
Digestive problems from dental disease to liver dysfunction manifest as reduced appetite and increased irritability. A dog with painful teeth doesn’t stop eating entirely at first. They start dropping food, chewing on one side, or taking longer to finish meals. Owners miss this because the dog is “still eating.”
Urinary issues including kidney disease and urinary tract infections create inflammation that shows up as house soiling, aggression, or pacing. The owner’s complaint is often “my dog isn’t house-trained anymore.” But house soiling can signal digestive diseases, urinary issues, cognitive dysfunction, and pain. This single behavioural change isn’t specific to one condition, but it’s a highly reliable signal that something’s wrong.
Reading the Signals
A dog who won’t jump on the couch anymore may be dealing with early arthritis or spinal pain. A dog who’s become clingy might be experiencing chronic discomfort and seeking comfort as a coping mechanism. When a previously well-trained dog suddenly pulls on the lead, this is rarely a training regression. It’s often a pain-avoidance posture.
A dog suddenly scared of stairs might be experiencing vision loss, vertigo, or joint pain. Constant grass eating typically indicates nausea or gastrointestinal discomfort. When a dog won’t let you touch their head, consider ear infections, dental pain, or headaches. A dog who stops greeting you at the door may be struggling with chronic pain, hearing loss, or mobility issues making the effort too difficult.
Any sudden change in behaviour in a mature dog with a previously stable temperament is one of the earliest and most reliable indicators of physical change. That’s not a training problem. That’s information.
Pain: The Most Commonly Missed Warning Sign
If there’s one thing veterinarians wish every dog owner understood: pain is the single most important, and most commonly missed, medical risk factor for behavioural problems.
A 2018 study investigated dogs with subtle musculoskeletal pain not obvious on standard examination. No limping, no visible lameness. But they all had one thing in common: behavioural changes. Snapping at family members during handling. Reluctance to go for walks. Sleeping in unusual positions or seeking out new resting spots.
Pain is the single most important, and most commonly missed, medical risk factor for behavioural problems.
Why Chronic Pain Is So Hard to Spot
Acute pain and chronic pain speak entirely different languages.
Acute pain is loud: the yelp when you step on a paw, the three-legged limp after a fall. It’s sudden, intense, and biologically designed to grab attention.
Chronic pain is a whisper. It’s the gradual stiffness that takes an extra few seconds to stand up. It’s the slight hesitation before jumping into the car that you’ve started to think of as “being careful.” It’s the dog who used to sleep on their side but now only sleeps curled in a tight ball.
Acute pain creates anxiety. Chronic pain creates depression. That withdrawn, less playful dog you’ve been attributing to “just slowing down”? They may be depressed because they’re in constant discomfort that their brain cannot resolve.
Research shows that chronic pain physically changes the brain, leading to neuron loss and reduced cerebral blood flow. Dogs with chronic pain often show cognitive changes, increased fearfulness, and reduced social interest before they show obvious physical signs like severe lameness.
What Chronic Pain Actually Looks Like
If your dog is experiencing chronic pain, you’re unlikely to hear them cry out. Watch instead for these patterns.
Stiffness after rest is the hallmark early sign of arthritis, especially noticeable when they first get up in the morning or after a long nap. Hesitating before jumping, reluctance to use stairs, a minor change in gait especially after exercise.
Activity level shifts show up as sleeping more than usual, inability to settle with constant position-shifting, reduced enthusiasm for walks even if they still participate when you insist.
Eating changes can be telling even when they’re still eating. Dropping food, chewing only on one side, taking longer to finish meals: these are often the first sign of periodontal disease, which causes chronic pain and systemic inflammation.
Social and emotional changes include withdrawing from family or hiding more often. Some dogs become clingy, constantly seeking affection. Irritability or uncharacteristic snappiness, especially when touched in certain areas, is direct communication.
Other indicators include excessive panting at rest, obsessive licking of a specific joint or area, seeking out hard cold surfaces like tile floors (which soothe inflamed joints), and reluctance to be groomed or handled.
The “Stoic Breed” Myth
There’s a widespread belief that pain sensitivity varies dramatically by breed. Chihuahuas are seen as sensitive. Labradors and Rottweilers are considered stoic.
A 2023 study found something that matters if you have a Labrador, a Staffy, or another breed perceived as “tough.” What vets perceived as pain sensitivity was actually emotional reactivity, not pain tolerance. A Chihuahua that’s anxious and vocal at the vet may receive more careful pain assessment. A Labrador that remains friendly despite chronic arthritis may be less likely to receive adequate diagnosis. Their friendly behaviour masks their suffering.
If you have a dog from a “tough” breed, you need to be particularly vigilant. You cannot rely on your dog to “tell” you when something hurts.
One critical safety note: if you suspect your dog is in pain, never reach for human pain medications. Paracetamol is toxic to dogs. Ibuprofen causes kidney failure. The only safe approach is getting them to a vet.
When “Just Old Age” Might Be Disease
The single biggest blind spot for dog owners is normalising pathological symptoms as “just getting old.”
The challenge is that normal aging and disease affect the same categories: social behaviour, activity level, cognition, elimination patterns. Since the categories overlap completely, the only way to differentiate is by tracking degree, speed, and combination of symptoms over time. This is exactly why baseline tracking matters.
Recognising Canine Cognitive Dysfunction
Canine cognitive dysfunction, often called “dog dementia,” affects 35% of dogs over the age of eight, making it extremely common and extremely under-diagnosed.
Normal aging looks like slowing down on walks, taking more naps, engaging in less strenuous play, showing some restlessness at night.
Cognitive dysfunction looks different. Disorientation is the key differentiator: dogs appear lost in familiar surroundings, stare blankly at walls, get “stuck” behind furniture, or wander aimlessly. Altered interactions show up as significant changes in social behaviour: no longer responding to their name, or sudden severe separation anxiety in a previously confident dog. Sleep-wake disruption means staying awake pacing through the night, then sleeping all day. House soiling in previously trained dogs represents a loss of learned behaviour and spatial orientation, not spite.
Physical signs not explained by arthritis may also indicate cognitive dysfunction: vision impairment, tremors, swaying or falling, head drooping. These signs combined with even mild cognitive symptoms warrant a veterinary conversation.
What Veterinarians Wish You’d Report Sooner
Vets regularly see preventable conditions that have escalated because owners didn’t recognise early warning signs, or hesitated to act on them. These are the changes they wish every owner would report immediately, rather than waiting to see if they resolve.
Watch for changes in eating behaviour, not just appetite. A dog who’s still eating but dropping food, chewing on one side, or eating more slowly may be showing early signs of periodontal disease, which causes chronic pain and systemic inflammation. Changes in breathing at rest need same-day attention: laboured, noisy, or unusually slow breathing when they’re not hot or excited, or excessive panting, can signal pain or cardiac distress.
Changes in toileting habits matter too. A previously house-trained dog having accidents, straining to urinate, or urinating frequently in small amounts isn’t having a training regression. These are signs of urinary tract infections, bladder stones, kidney disease, or pain. Any new lump or mass should be assessed promptly; the “wait and see” approach to lumps is dangerous.
And finally: trust your gut feeling that something is off. You know your dog better than anyone. That vague sense that “something feels different” is your subconscious detecting a deviation from baseline. Vets want you to act on this feeling, even if you can’t articulate what’s wrong.
For Australian dog owners: paralysis ticks on the eastern seaboard can present with subtle early signs (changes in bark, hind limb weakness, coordination problems) before obvious paralysis sets in. During tick season, these changes warrant immediate veterinary attention. Don’t assume you’ve found every tick. If behaviour changes, act.
Bringing It Together
The systematic approach isn’t complicated, but it does require commitment. You establish a baseline, monitor for deviations, interpret changes through what you now know about pain and behaviour, and act with data rather than vague worry.
When you call your vet and say, “I’ve logged a two-week decline in my dog’s activity levels, they’re now consistently hesitant at the stairs, and I’m concerned about early arthritis,” you’re taken seriously. You’ve provided a patient history that makes diagnosis more efficient and treatment more timely.
Early intervention is always simpler and less expensive than managing advanced disease. That stiffness you catch early might need anti-inflammatories and lifestyle adjustments. The same condition left until your dog can barely walk requires extensive diagnostics and potentially surgery.
What You Can Do This Week
Your dog cannot tell you in words when something hurts or feels wrong. But they tell you in other ways: through the slight stiffness when they stand, the enthusiasm they no longer show for walks, the new resting spot they’ve chosen, the subtle shift in how they interact with you.
Start this week. Do a baseline physical check: run through the nose-to-tail process described above and note what “normal” looks like for your dog right now. Start a simple log, even just a notes app on your phone, recording the date, observations, and anything that seems different. Rate your dog on the four quality of life domains (energetic, happy, active, calm) so you have something to compare against in the weeks ahead. Then watch for one week, noticing patterns you’ve been attributing to age or personality and questioning whether they might be something else.
The next time you have that sense that something’s off, you’ll know what to do. You’ll check your baseline data, note the specific changes, and act. The difference between catching something early and waiting until it’s obvious can mean everything for your dog’s quality of life.
That nagging feeling you started with? It’s not paranoia. It’s attunement. Trust it.
