[CorkyMax]

Pasted here from the 'net'----------

How Your Dog Reacts To Pain
All pain-relieving dog medicines are called analgesics. Pain perception depends partially on species, breed, age, gender, time of day, and your dog's individual temperament. Young dogs tend to have a lower threshold to pain. Older and debilitated dogs with health problems may not show as much response to pain - but they feel it just the same. Hunting and working breeds of dogs are more resistant to expressing their pain than toy or miniature breeds. When you take your dog in to an animal hospital, your dog is usually worrying about the visit and strange environment, and will often ignore the pain that you noticed at home.

Pain may lead to over-grooming the area that is painful. This can lead to hair loss and self-mutilation of the area. Some dogs tremble and move with their stomachs tensed up. Others tremble all over. Some will show lameness of an affected leg, while other dogs become aggressive, pant or grimace.

Any sudden behavior change in your dog can be a symptom of pain. Excessive salivation, licking of the lips, dilation of the eyes, rapid breathing and increased heart rate may all be attributable to pain. Some dogs in pain also eat less. Some become restless and do not sleep well. Some dogs stop grooming and appear dejected and depressed. Pain can cause an increase in body temperature, respiration, heart rate, and blood pressure.

Pain alone can actually change the results of blood chemistry analysis. Dogs in pain may have elevated blood sugar. Their blood cortisol and white cell levels often increase. Pain can also interfere with the immune system, increasing the risk of infections, and slowing the healing of wounds and surgical incisions.

[Todd]

thanks for sharing. i think a lot of us should take this information into serious consideration. Here's some info from the web as well on how to evaluate your dog's pain threshold;

Test 5: After the last test, the tester will cuddle and calm the puppy in his lap. Get the puppy to relax as much as possible. Fondle the ears and tail and paws and pet the tummy. When the puppy is relaxed, sneak a paw in your hand and give him a sound pinch between the webbing of the front paw (do not use yoru finger nail). Immediately try to establish eye contact and pretend you did it accidently and ask for forgiveness. This test will give you a good indication of the puppy's pain threshold, as well as his willingnes to forgive. A dog with a low pain threshold and who is a screamer will make a very poor obedience dog, incapable of taking corrections. The very tough dog with the high pain threshold could be just as much of a nightmare to try to train, since one would have to use extremely rough training methods to make an impression. Training this kind of dog could also give the trainer a reputation as a "killer trainer," which no one needs.

*Sometimes it's important to perform a small test like this to eliminate any additional pain a dog with a low pain threshold may experience in the future. Just be careful not to hurt your babie!

[Lunareclipse]

Originally Posted by Todd

thanks for sharing. i think a lot of us should take this information into serious consideration. Here's some info from the web as well on how to evaluate your dog's pain threshold;

Test 5: After the last test, the tester will cuddle and calm the puppy in his lap. Get the puppy to relax as much as possible. Fondle the ears and tail and paws and pet the tummy. When the puppy is relaxed, sneak a paw in your hand and give him a sound pinch between the webbing of the front paw (do not use yoru finger nail). Immediately try to establish eye contact and pretend you did it accidently and ask for forgiveness. This test will give you a good indication of the puppy's pain threshold, as well as his willingnes to forgive. A dog with a low pain threshold and who is a screamer will make a very poor obedience dog, incapable of taking corrections. The very tough dog with the high pain threshold could be just as much of a nightmare to try to train, since one would have to use extremely rough training methods to make an impression. Training this kind of dog could also give the trainer a reputation as a "killer trainer," which no one needs.

*Sometimes it's important to perform a small test like this to eliminate any additional pain a dog with a low pain threshold may experience in the future. Just be careful not to hurt your babie!

I can understand the pain threshold thing. Buster yipes like I'm killing him when I give him a small leash correction. And Luna doesn't respond at all to swat on the rear end or a leash correction. I have stepped on her tail and she didn't even look at me. I have stepped on Buster's foot before and yiped and peed all over the kitchen. I have to use completely different training methods with those two. Sammie has been the easiest to train. When I tell her she's bad, she takes it to heart. She learns to do something after being shown how to do it once or twice. Shame she has hip dysplasia. She would have been great in obedience. For Buster, the world is his playground and people are nothing but trampolines. And for Luna, she's oblivious to everything and would have made a great hippie.

[Todd]

Originally Posted by Lunareclipse

I can understand the pain threshold thing. Buster yipes like I'm killing him when I give him a small leash correction. And Luna doesn't respond at all to swat on the rear end or a leash correction. I have stepped on her tail and she didn't even look at me. I have stepped on Buster's foot before and yiped and peed all over the kitchen. I have to use completely different training methods with those two. Sammie has been the easiest to train. When I tell her she's bad, she takes it to heart. She learns to do something after being shown how to do it once or twice. Shame she has hip dysplasia. She would have been great in obedience. For Buster, the world is his playground and people are nothing but trampolines. And for Luna, she's oblivious to everything and would have made a great hippie.

You say she has hip dysplasia, is she currently on any medications for that or supplements? What is her diet?