I believe they can> A few years ago my mother and sister and I visited a Wolf Sanctuary. While we were there one of the wolves approached my mother and put one of his paws on her shoulder. These wolves were very large so it was a little alarming for my mother. The owner of the sanctuary asked my mother if she had been having any problems with that shoulder............in fact my mother had been in quite a lot of pain with that shoulder. The owner explained to us that the wolf sensed my mothers pain and was trying to heal her injury!!!! It was an awesome experience!!!!