Measurement of chronic pain in companion animals: Priorities for future research and development based on discussions from the Pain in Animals Workshop (PAW) 2017

•The estimation of chronic pain in companion animals is a fundamental requirement to advance therapeutic development.•To date, most work has centered on owner-completed questionnaires and limb use measures in osteoarthritis.•Recent areas of research have extended to developing measures of quality of life (QOL), activity and sensory function.•Across all these areas, more data on validity are needed, and studies should be extended to other painful disease states.•To facilitate future advances, a collaborative (industry, academia and private practice) approach is proposed.