Contractions?

I’ve been having contractions about 5 minutes apart for going on an hour now, however only a couple have been “painful” ish. They are definitely more uncomfortable than I have experienced so far, but not what I would call truly painful. I guess my question is how do you know when they are the real thing? My doc said to call when they are painful, but I have a fairly high pain tolerance... so I feel like that’s not really a one size fits all rule 🤷‍♀️. I live an hour and half from the hospital and have two dogs that I have to board as “emergency” after hours at the vet, so I am trying desperately to avoid a false alarm 🙄 also, for reference, I went to my 39.5 check up on Wednesday and cervix was posterior and closed... is it possibly to still be in labor?