Pain Misunderstood: When Pain Looks Like “Neurotic” Behaviour
- Jan 26
- 4 min read
Pain Misunderstood: When Pain Looks Like “Neurotic” Behaviour in high drive dogs
This is a follow-on from my last blog, and again — it comes straight from experience, and a deeper educated understanding of the physiological systems of the canine body.
One of the most damaging misunderstandings I see in working and high-drive dogs is this:
Pain is often mistaken for temperament.
When it is not recognised, pain gets relabelled as:
Neuroticism
Anxiety
Poor nerves
Too much dog
Hard to train
And once that label sticks, everything the dog does is viewed through that lens.
Pain Does not Always Look Like Lameness
We are very good at spotting obvious injury.
We are much worse at recognising:
Low-grade, chronic pain
Compensatory movement patterns
Neurological discomfort
Visceral or systemic pain
Especially when the dog is young, fit, athletic, and driven.
Instead of slowing down, many dogs speed up. This is especially true for high drive high performance dogs. Whether it be Stock dogs, services dogs, sporting and even terriers, any dog breeds built to be stoic, built to show NO weakness. Obviously, this is not limited to these breeds but it is more predominant.
Why Pain Creates “Neurotic” Behaviour
Pain keeps the nervous system switched on.
A dog living with unmanaged discomfort is rarely relaxed, because their body is constantly scanning for threat or instability.
This can look like:
Hypervigilance
Inability to settle
Overreaction to pressure
Poor frustration tolerance
Struggles to retain new learning material
Explosive responses that seem disproportionate
From the outside, it’s easy to say:
“That dog has anxiety.”
“That dog over works it’s stock”
“That dog has explosive behaviour and no stamina”
“That dog is useless”
From the inside, the dog is saying:
“I don’t feel safe in my body/ with my body in pain.”
“The quicker I get this task done the quicker I get to rest’
“I will hurt them before they hurt me”
My Experience with Ivy-May
This was something I learned the hard way. Alongside her nutritional issues, Ivy-May was also in pain, her tail notably broken and not formed correctly, but it was not until she was being desexed at 2 yrs and X-ray's were done, did I know the extent to her hidden pain.
A Stoic Working Lines Kelpie from a sheep stud, there was no dramatic pain, No other obvious injury only an odd trotting gait. She has Spondylosis Deformans in her spine at her T2-T3-T4, and L6 -L7 -vertebrae to Sacrum, deformed and broken Coccygeal vertebra and hip dysplasia with some remodeling of the femoral head. The spondylosis is also negatively affecting her femoral nerve and her Sciatic Nerves.
She has many of the pains that can hide behind drive and intensity - and gets missed because the dog keeps working anyway.
When her pain was finally identified and properly managed, another layer of her what was called “neuroticism” disappeared.
Her intensity was Not trained out. Not suppressed. It was Resolved.
Training Cannot Fix Pain and this is where things often go wrong.
When pain-driven behaviours are treated as behavioural problems, the solution offered is usually:
More obedience
More control
More pressure
More repetition
For a dog already coping with discomfort, this does not build resilience. It builds shutdown, reactivity, or burnout.
Pain + Fuel = Behaviour
Pain rarely exists in isolation.
Layer pain on top of:
Inappropriate nutrition
High thermogenic load
Excessive arousal
Inadequate recovery
And the dog has very little chance of emotional regulation.
This is why behaviour, nutrition, and physical soundness cannot be separated.
Before We Label the Dog
Before we decide a dog is:
Mentally weak
Unsuitable for work
Too anxious to cope
Untrainable
We need to ask better questions:
Is this dog physically comfortable?
Is their pain being recognised — or masked by drive?
Are we asking for regulation from a body that cannot find it?
Final Thoughts
Pain does not always make dogs quiet. Sometimes it makes them frantic.
Sometimes it makes them loose stamina and sometimes it makes them look “neurotic,” when what they really are… is uncomfortable.
If we listen to behaviour as communication instead of a flaw, dogs like this do not need fixing. Some need relief.
Every dog is Unique, and sometimes small tweaks can make a big difference. If this blog spoke to you, mention it and get $20 off a full consult. I also offer a no cost 15-minute chat to see if I can help your dog thrive, with full sessions normally $80.
For more info on Spondylosis and the previous relevant blogs
Chevelle Williams, CMFT, HCN, CCFC
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