Social Pain in Dogs – Frank McMillan DVM

Here’s the link to the webinar by Frank McMillan DVM on “Social Pain in Dogs.” Fascinating and important. Having long promoted a view of dogs as emotional and sentient beings, this is a topic near and dear to my heart.

Lots of eye opening information, some of it heartbreaking. Such as the experiment that saw puppies willing to travel across an electrified grid and receive mild shocks rather than be separated from a person they are attached to emotionally. It was clear from the research in many species that a) social pain is actually more damaging to the animal than physical pain; b) social support increases a dog’s pain tolerance — we really do need to be there for them in tough times.

BUT… in creating dogs capable of forming these deep connections, we are also obliged to understand that we are creating dogs who are more sensitive to social pain.

This concept of social pain deserves deep consideration. You can catch Dr McMillan’s presentation here: