Dogs certainly do feel pain but are usually stoic to showing their pain, with the exceptions of sudden or unexpected pain. Brushing/pulling out mats in the hair can certainly be painful to humans or dogs and if done with enough force, can bruise the skin but most dogs will suffer through it gamely, steeling themselves against the pain as they are largely helpless in the hands of the groomer unless they choose to react if the pain gets bad enough. Dogs are predators in the wild so showing pain would be showing their weakness and could get them attacked, killed, shunned or abandoned by their pack so they are genetically programmed not to show it but they do hurt all the same.
Plucking the hair out of the ears of terriers usually doesn't hurt them when the technique is gentle. Most people use their fingers and powder to pick the hair from a terrier's ears.
__________________  Jeanie and Tibbe One must do the best one can. You may get some marks for a very imperfect answer: you will certainly get none for leaving the question alone. C. S. Lewis |