Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2025.1569351 formatted version of the article will be published soon You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers: If you already have an account, please login You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here Introduction: Diagnosing maladaptive pain in dogs with behavioral complaints is challenging as clinical signs are often non-specific and may be absent during examination This paper supports veterinary teams in distinguishing behavioral changes that stem from a behavioral disorder Methods: The medical records of ten client-owned dogs referred to the authors' behavioral practice were selected to identify challenges in recognizing maladaptive pain and to highlight diagnostic tools A Toolbox approach was used for assessment Behavioral signs were categorized as green (adaptive) or red (maladaptive) flags to facilitate differential diagnosis and guide treatment decisions Results: All dogs (n=10) were diagnosed with altered socioemotional functioning the Toolbox approach indicated maladaptive pain Multimodal treatment led to recovery in 6/7 dogs an acute worsening of signs suggested maladaptive pain Treatment led to partial recovery in 2/3 dogs Diagnostic challenges fell into three categories: bias in observation Conclusion: Diagnosing maladaptive pain in dogs with behavioral problems requires a comprehensive approach and implementing multimodal treatment strategies can improve quality of life Received: 31 Jan 2025; Accepted: 18 Apr 2025 Copyright: © 2025 Kwik, Bosmans, Mottet and De Keuster. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms Veterinary Specialist Behavioral Referrals Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Monstera adansonii is a common house plant that can be purchased for as little as $12 at any home & garden store but a rare specimen recently sold for a whopping 1,799 euros ($2,200) Belgium recently sold a rare monstera adansonii specimen for a small fortune The plant in question was only 15 centimeters tall but featured an extremely rare mutation that caused its perforated leaves to grow yellow or white This type of plant is virtually impossible to grow so collectors are willing to pay a high premium to get their hands on it an anonymous plant collector who had been looking for this rare specimen of monstera adansonii for a while bought it within 30 minutes of it going on sale Photo: Claessen Ochideeen  “It is a very special specimen that cannot be cultivated,” said Arne Schurmans (24) “In very exceptional cases it occurs as a kind of mutation of the common monstera adansonii We were very surprised that the plant was sold out so quickly The client was a collector who had wanted one for a while We would not have given it to an ordinary customer just like that.” the mutated monstera adansonii also has some particularities in terms of maintenance It it is extremely sensitive to sunlight and should not be misted Rare house plants like this monstera adansonii have become extremely popular during the covid-19 pandemic others just dedicate more attention to their collections and that really drives up demand of special specimens Photo: monsteramania “We are trying to respond to the plant hype that has been going on since the corona crisis and the demand for special plants We recently had the Philodendron pink princess too It has really become all the rage,” Arne Schurmans said regular monstera adansonii plants of similar size as this $2,200 mutant can be purchased for as little as $12 from just about any plant center of or even home & garden stores More than 600,000 tried to complete five-round challenge – but only three men triumphed Three men have come close enough to solving GCHQ's taxing Christmas puzzle that they have been declared the winners The five-round challenge started last year with a complex grid-shading teaser released in a Christmas card from Robert Hannigan the director of the British intelligence and security agency The three winners have been named as David MacBryan, 41, from Edinburgh; US-born Kelley Kirklin, 54, from London; and Wim Hulpia From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox MacBryan, who is originally from Dublin, told the BBC: "The more puzzles you do the better you get at doing puzzles – and I have done a lot of puzzles The men beat more than 600,000 other amateur cryptographers to win the final prize – a GCHQ paperweight and a copy of a biography of Bletchley Park codebreaker Alan Turing signed with a personal message from Hannigan - as well as "major bragging rights" "Many people worked in virtual teams over various web forums to tackle many of the questions together with some syndicates developing small computer programmes to test possible mathematical combinations and reach a solution more quickly," said GCHQ in the foreword to a document containing a complete set of the solutions One of the cryptographers who helped to design the puzzles said it was difficult to judge how hard to make it without knowing how many – or few – people would have a go maybe hundreds of thousands of people were actually looking at it GCHQ has denied the puzzle was a recruitment tool but said the winners were "welcome to apply for jobs" The 23-page answer sheet can be downloaded via the GCHQ website The British intelligence and security agency GCHQ has released a Christmas card with a cryptic twist Alongside the traditional Christmas nativity scene GCHQ director Robert Hannigan has placed a complex grid-shading puzzle within the card Those not on the agency's Christmas card list can attempt the brainteaser on the GCHQ website Successful codebreakers will uncover an image in the grid that leads to a series of tougher challenges Any member of the public who completes all the stages of the puzzle is being asked to send their answer to GCHQ in January A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com one of three winners of the GCHQ Christmas puzzle David McBryan from Dublin has proved that he is more than capable of joining the elite ranks of the UK's national intelligence and security agency by winning its Christmas card cryptology challenge The challenge consisted of five rounds and saw David beat 600,000 people to become the closest person (along with two other competitors) to fully solving the series of challenges set by director of the UK Government Headquarters (GCHQ) Robert Hannigan in his Christmas card The other two 'winning' competitors were US-born Kelley Kirklin (54) from London and Wim Hulpia (40) from Lovendegem in Belgium The compendium of word and number puzzles took a team of eight GCHQ cryptographers two months to compile and included subjects as diverse as knowledge of phonetics The cryptographers chose the three winners based on the quality of their reasoning The organisation has denied claims that it uses the challenge as a recruitment tool but said the winners said the possibility of winning was "driving him along" as he attempted to outsmart the other competitors "I thought I had solved it but a news report came out a few days ago saying nobody had," he said when speaking to the Irish Daily Star "So I went back and had another look and figured out what I missed but I was too late at that point "But it seems everyone else missed it as well and I was joint closest." McBryan is a former Fifteen to One fame show winner who now writes questions for the show He describes himself as a professional quiz master and told the BBC: "The more puzzles you do the better you get at doing puzzles - and I have done a lot of puzzles Join the Irish Independent WhatsApp channel