Sasha, my German Shepard is 6 yrs. Old this month. She's a happy healthy lover baby. I'm freaked out today... yesterday we were playing 'I'm going to get you' where we chase each other around the house and when she jumped off the couch to come get me she whined ( she is STOIC no whining, crying etc so this freaked me out) she flattened her ears and lay down. I felt every inch of her body and she gave no sign of pain.. just licked me.

Later last night she was going to get on the sofa, she had her front legs on the sofa and she was crying out... I put her hind legs up. Again she rolled over let me feel her legs, hips, shoulder, belly... not one flinch. I was very worried and didn't sleep well. She did not get in bed with me nor get on the couch once she'd gotten off ( SOOOO unsual normally she steals the blanket and rolls it into a great big pillow for herself on the bed).
This morning she seemed to be friskier, I wanted to see so I was taking her to the field to play fetch.. she leapt off the curb and yelped very loud and then we came inside. Prior she'd been eating grass. She very slowly came up and over the curb coming home.

I've been reading online and am so freaked out with all the Horrid things that it could be... this is my baby girl. I called the animal hospital as her doctor is not in (4th) July I hope he is tomorrow. They were nice but said it's so very hard with a "stoic" dog to tell what's wrong and even x-rays sometimes won't do it so her doctor may start her on antiflamitories (she takes joint/cartilidge etc... and omega 6 & 3 supplements).

Can this just be a simple muscle pull?

It could be just about anything - I've had dogs with pulled muscles; I had a dog with a disc problem in his neck (came out of the blue). Is there no emergency clinic in your area?

It could be any number of things, including just a pulled muscle. The other thing that comes to mind is a torn cruciate ligament, or even possibly hip dysplasia that was aggravated by playing.