If you live with a pet, you might feel like you can almost read each other’s minds.

You might even have experienced your pet responding to your emotional state. Animals seem to have impressive skills at detecting our state of health too.

However, new research suggests that many dog owners are not skilled in recognising pain in their pets as they might like to think. This could have significant consequences for the behaviour, health and welfare of our pets.

As a migraineur, I am amazed at how my dogs cope with me when a migraine hits. They seem to recognise the pain, distress and incapcacity that comes along with a migraine and respond with more gentle interactions than usual. I hope that when the situation is reversed and they are unwell or in pain, that I too can recognise it.

So, how can you recognise if your pet is in pain and what should you do if you think they are?

It is easy to assume that an animal in pain will make some noise about it and show obvious physical signs. This might be the case if they are in acute pain as the result of severe injury for example. However, animals often disguise pain as a survival mechanism, and many signs of pain show only as subtle changes in behaviour.

Humans do seem to be able to recognise basic animal emotional states such as anger, fear or joy, through facial and body expressions. But we are less good at linking these cues to more complex emotional........

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