Pain Assessments for Behavior | JW Dog Training & Behavior Consulting

Pain Assessments for Behavior Challenges

Is your dog dealing with multiple behavior challenges that seem tough to untangle?

Have you been putting in the work, but your dog’s behavior still isn’t improving the way you’d hoped?

Do you have a gut feeling that pain could be behind your dog’s behavior—but nothing obvious is showing up?

Already working with great trainers and want even deeper insight into what’s going on with your dog?

Many behavior challenges are influenced by physical discomfort. Dogs are incredibly skilled at hiding pain, and subtle changes in posture, movement, daily activities, or behavior are often the earliest indicators that something isn’t right. In many cases, a dog’s reactivity, anxiety, hyperactivity, fear, or aggression can be connected to discomfort in the body.

Research suggests that up to 80% of behavior cases involve some form of undiagnosed pain. Addressing possible pain isn’t separate from training, it’s an important part of any training plan. Training alone cannot resolve behavior that is influenced by physical discomfort.

At JW Dog Training, we help guardians investigate whether discomfort may be contributing to their dog’s behavior by bridging the gap between behavior work and veterinary care. Our goal is to help you gather meaningful observations and documentation so you can advocate for your dog with confidence and clarity.

Behaviors That May Indicate Pain or Discomfort

Pain doesn’t always look like limping or obvious injury. Often, it shows up as changes in behavior, movement, or daily routines. Some behaviors that are often associated with discomfort include:

Behavior challenges that don’t improve with training
Sudden or extreme fearfulness or anxiety
Unusual posture changes
Reluctance to be touched, handled, or groomed
Stiffness or changes in movement
Regressions in behavior without a clear cause
Hyperactivity and/or difficulty settling
Separation anxiety
Reactivity to noises
Any type of aggression

If you’re noticing one or more of these behaviors, a pain assessment can help determine whether physical discomfort may be part of the picture.

Your report will include detailed graphics and descriptions of abnormalities so your vet can make decisions about diagnostics and treatment.

Our Role in Your Dog’s Care

Pain & mobility assessments at JW Dog Training are not a substitute for veterinary care, and we do not diagnose medical conditions.

Instead, our role is to help you gather structured observations and documentation about your dog’s posture, movement, and daily functioning so you can share that information with your veterinarian.

Dogs often compensate for discomfort in subtle ways, and changes in behavior or movement can be difficult to describe or notice during a veterinary appointment. By organizing these observations into a clear report, we help ensure your concerns are communicated effectively and that your veterinary team has useful information to guide next steps.

Our goal is to support collaboration between you, your veterinarian, and your training team, so your dog’s behavior and physical comfort can be considered together.

Pain Assessment Service Options

All pain assessments are conducted by Kat Heckert, JW Dog Training’s Dynamic Dog Practitioner.

Kat specializes in helping guardians identify potential signs of discomfort through careful observation of posture, movement, and Activities of Daily Life (ADLs). She is trained to notice the subtle changes dogs often use to compensate for pain and to organize those observations into clear documentation that can be shared with your veterinarian. This collaborative approach helps ensure that behavior, health, and comfort are all considered when supporting your dog.

We offer two levels of pain-informed behavior support depending on how much investigation your dog needs. Our assessment options are outlined below.

"Kat analyzed and summarized what she was seeing in photos/videos of my dog. Turns out that despite appearing like a super happy, fun loving dog, X-rays show my crazy little man has painful issues in both knees and his lower back which, according to the ortho specialist, is probably contributing to his reactivity."

— Katie & Brooks

"Our dog Kali had been struggling with behavioral issues and anxiety almost from the moment we adopted her at just 7–8 weeks old. I stayed committed to her training, yet nothing really improved.

[Kat] gathered detailed information about Kali’s daily routine, carefully reviewed everything, and put together an in-depth report explaining possible sources of her discomfort. She even shared the report directly with our vet.

Because of her detailed assessment, our concerns were finally taken seriously, and today, Kali was diagnosed with hip dysplasia."

— Nursima and Kali