The first time I noticed something was off with my beagle, Scout, she didn’t cry. She didn’t limp. She just stopped jumping onto the couch, and I chalked it up to her turning eight. Three months later, an X-ray showed arthritis in both hips.
That’s how it usually goes. Dogs are built to hide pain. A dog that limps in the wild gets left behind, and that instinct is still running the show in your living room. So the signs are quiet. They look like laziness, or like a dog who is simply getting older.
A study in the Journal of Small Animal Practice screened 500 dogs for osteoarthritis and found that 38% of them had it, undiagnosed. Fewer than half of those dogs had ever been brought to a vet for limping. Which means the odds are decent that a dog you live with right now is carrying pain you haven’t noticed yet.
Here are 10 signs your dog is in pain that owners miss most often, and what each one usually means. None of these require a medical degree. They require you to slow down and really look at the dog in front of you, which is harder than it sounds when you see them every single day. Vets see this constantly. A dog comes in for a nail trim and leaves with a diagnosis. The owner wasn’t neglectful. They just didn’t know what to look for.
Signs your dog is in pain when they move
- Limping that comes and goes
A limp that vanishes after a few minutes looks like nothing. It’s often the opposite. Intermittent lameness is one of the first things vets look for with soft tissue injuries and early joint disease. If your 25 lb terrier is fine on Monday and favoring a back leg on Thursday, that’s a pattern worth writing down. Keep a note on your phone with dates. I’ve found vets can do much more with two weeks of notes than with a vague “she’s been a bit off.” My own note is titled Scout log, and it’s three lines a week at most. When her vet asked whether the limp was worse in the morning or after a run, I had the answer in ten seconds.
- Stiffness after rest
Watch how your dog gets up. A young dog pops up like a spring. A dog in pain takes a beat first. They might stretch their back legs out or shift weight forward before taking the first slow step. This is textbook for arthritis. The American Kennel Club lists difficulty moving as one of the clearest signs a dog is in pain, and it’s the thing owners report most once they know to look. One tip that changed how I watch: film your dog walking away from you for fifteen seconds. Lameness shows up in the rear view long before it shows up in your gut. There’s also a real difference between a dog who is stiff for two minutes and one who is still stiff half an hour later, and that gap is exactly what a vet needs to hear from you.
- Refusing to jump or use stairs
A dog who used to launch onto the bed and now waits to be lifted is telling you something. So is a dog who stalls at the stairs, or hops up them with both back legs together like a rabbit. Bunny-hopping usually points at hip or knee pain. Don’t bribe them through it. Steps are a brutal test because they load the hip at a steep angle, and a dog who climbs up fine but won’t come down is giving you real information. If you need to get them into the car, a foldable ramp like the PetStep runs around $120 and saves a lot of painful hops.
Changes in eating, drinking, and daily habits
- Eating less, or eating strangely
Pain kills appetite. A dog with a sore neck may not want to lower their head to the bowl, so they’ll stand over it and stare. Try raising the bowl to chest height on a stack of books and see what happens. If they eat fine that way, you’ve just learned something useful, and you’ve also made dinner less painful for a dog who still has to eat. Dental pain is the sneaky version of this one. A dog with a bad tooth often keeps eating, but they’ll chew on one side and pull back when something cold touches the tooth. Lift the lip and look at the back molars once a month.
- Drinking and bathroom changes
Dogs in pain often drink less, because walking to the water bowl hurts. And a dog with spinal or hip trouble may struggle to squat. Accidents in the house from a well-trained adult dog are rarely about discipline. They’re usually about mobility. Rule out pain before you decide you have a behavior problem on your hands. Keep half an eye on the bowl level as well, because a sudden jump in drinking points somewhere else entirely, like kidney trouble or diabetes. I jot the date in my phone whenever the bowl level looks off, and that habit has saved me twice from forgetting to mention something that turned out to matter.
- Licking or chewing one spot
Dogs self-soothe by licking. When it’s aimed at one joint or one paw for weeks on end, it’s often an attempt to manage discomfort underneath. You’ll see a stained, thinning patch of fur. Some of that is allergies, which is a whole other article. Some of it is pain. A hands-on exam separates the two, and it takes about five minutes. Hot spots and lick granulomas are the visible end of this road, so by the time the fur is gone the habit has usually been running for a while. A bitter deterrent spray can break the cycle while your vet works on the cause.
Behavior changes that look like attitude problems
- Snapping or growling when touched
This one breaks my heart, because owners usually read it as aggression. A dog who snaps when you touch their ear, lift them, or reach for their collar is often guarding a painful spot. In my experience, the dogs labeled “sudden biters” are frequently dogs with an undiagnosed ear infection or a bad tooth. A dog who has never growled at you before and does today needs a vet visit, not a correction. Don’t wait for a bite to take it seriously. A growl is information, and it’s the polite version of what your dog is trying to tell you.
- Withdrawal and hiding
Pain makes dogs want to be left alone. If your shadow of a dog has started sleeping in the closet, or stops getting up to greet you at the door, pay attention. Cats hide illness by hiding, and dogs do their own version of it. Look for a dog who is suddenly being unusually good in a way that’s out of character. Quiet can be a symptom. I’ve watched owners read this shift as a dog getting mellow with age, and sometimes it is. Often it isn’t.
- Restlessness and pacing at night
A dog who can’t settle, who circles the bed or shifts position every twenty minutes, may be hunting for an angle that doesn’t hurt. Night pacing is a common early sign of joint pain and of abdominal discomfort. Set up a cheap camera for one night. I did this with Scout and learned more from eight hours of footage than from a month of guessing at her mood. If the pacing comes with heavy panting and your dog won’t lie down at all, that’s the emergency column, not the wait-and-see column.
The sign that means call your vet today
- Panting, trembling, or a hunched back
Heavy panting at rest, trembling that isn’t from cold, or a back arched like a Halloween cat are different from the slow signs above. They usually mean acute pain, and acute pain moves fast. Add a hard or swollen belly or a sudden yelp when you pick them up, and you’re in call-the-emergency-vet territory, not mention-it-next-month territory. You can read more about how pain shows up in dogs at PetMD.
Here’s a quick way to sort what you’re seeing:
| What you’re seeing | What it often means | How soon to call |
|---|---|---|
| Limp that comes and goes | Soft tissue strain or early arthritis | Within a week |
| Stiffness after rest | Joint disease, most likely arthritis | Within a week |
| Won’t jump or do stairs | Hip or knee pain | Within a few days |
| Eating less, head held low | Neck or dental pain | Within a few days |
| Snapping when touched | Localized pain, possibly ear or tooth | 24 to 48 hours |
| Panting at rest, hunched back | Acute pain, possibly abdominal | Same day, emergency |
And no, I’m not suggesting you diagnose any of this yourself. What I am suggesting is that you arrive at the vet with dates and descriptions in hand. That’s a very different appointment from “something’s wrong and I’m not sure what.” One last thing worth saying out loud: dogs don’t fake pain and they don’t exaggerate it. If your gut says something is off, that instinct is data, and it’s worth acting on even when nothing on a checklist lines up. A dog’s pain scale doesn’t match yours, either. Something that would send you groaning to the couch can show up in a dog as a slightly slower walk on the same route you take every day.
Frequently asked questions
Can I give my dog ibuprofen or another human painkiller?
No. This is the one thing I want every owner to remember. Common drugs like ibuprofen and acetaminophen are toxic to dogs, and the margin between a helpful dose and a dangerous one is razor thin. Even aspirin, which used to get handed out freely, should only be given on a vet’s instruction because of bleeding and stomach risks. If your dog has already swallowed something, call the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435 and get off the internet. The good news is that there are safe prescription options, including NSAIDs designed specifically for dogs, and your vet can pick one that suits your dog’s liver and kidney values. That’s a conversation worth having instead of raiding your own medicine cabinet.
How do I know if it’s pain or just old age?
Slow isn’t the same thing as old. This is the question I hear most, and the honest answer is that “just old age” isn’t a diagnosis. Pain is. When dogs with osteoarthritis were treated and then retested, their ability to walk and climb stairs improved measurably within 30 days on a validated pain index. That kind of rebound doesn’t happen to a dog who is simply getting older. In my experience, a dog who slows down over one month is telling you something different than a dog who has been a little slower for two years. If your vet does confirm arthritis, ask about a joint supplement such as Dasuquin alongside whatever your vet prescribes, and mention your dog’s weight, since extra pounds on a sore joint are one of the few things you can actually control at home. Every extra pound a dog carries is one more pound that hip has to haul up the stairs ten times a day.
If you take one thing from all of this, take the habit of watching your dog get up. Do it every morning for a week, and note how many steps it takes them to move normally. That baseline is worth more to your vet than any list I could write, and it costs you five quiet minutes at the start of your day.
Sources:
- American Kennel Club — akc.org
- PetMD Dog Care Guide — petmd.com/dog
- ASPCA Animal Poison Control — aspca.org
Related: Essential Dog First Aid Kit: What to Include for Emergencies
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute veterinary advice. Always consult with a licensed veterinarian for medical concerns about your pet.