How to help them grieve?

[Lexi Rae]

im so sorry for your loss,, your thread just broke my heart..

[celstu1]

I am so sorry to hear of your loss of Charlie. My heart and prayers go out to you! RIP sweet Charlie.

I wish I had some advice with your babies, it will probably just take a bit of time, maybe some extra love and hugs will help ease it a little bit.

[mizzwanned]

I'm so sorry about Charlie I can tell you from my experience..when Sophie died London was depressed. And sadly she still shows signs of it. I don't think anything will help unless i get another female her size to play with. After her death she slept a lot, didn't eat as much, i had to make her. I made sure to walk her everyday, i take her to meetups, dog parks so she can socialize and that helps but temporarily, then when we get back home she would just be sad again. She was so used to having sophie to play with cause Teddy doesnt play with her like sophie did. Now i take her out a lot more and never leave her alone, i take her bike riding with me, upstate, everywhere and i guess that is helping some. But she has her moments when she looks really sad or looks around as if she expects to see sophie The only thing that will help is time and make sure to keep yours busy with playdates.

[mizzwanned]

Originally Posted by zekie's mom

You are all probably going to think I am crazy, but when a pet or human dies the existing animals need to smell and spend time with the dead body. They then understand what has happened and no longer look for that member to return to them.

You're not crazy..but i did that with Sophie's body cause i read about it on here. We brought her body so they can smell it and say goodbye...however it was really weird...idk how they smell after they pass to my dogs but Teddy was really hyper and kept trying to hump her, we had to hold her up high so he couldnt get to her. And London was barking at her and also really hyper. Afterwards she would still look for her so i dont think that helped any.

[JoeyP]

As with everyone ... I am sorry for your loss

That said, we have to be careful about placing human emotion on animals that we keep as pets
Yes .... dogs do miss their counterparts but are they grieving as we understand what grieving is? Probably not
They just miss the dog that is no longer there
Dogs make connections with each other that we don't really understand
They live and die in small closely knitted groups
and when two or more dogs live and play together for a long time
The dog or dogs left behind don't understand their place in the order of things anymore
and to them that is very upsetting

The other thing you need to be aware of is that dogs are keenly intune to your emotions
They will react to the way your feeling even Before you realize that's the way you were feeling
So if your feeling sad or depressed they are going to def react to that

[Miao]

I am so sorry that Charlie had to be let go. I don't have any advice to offer you but I am hoping time will heal your heart. I believe that time will put Sam and Martin back in routine once again. Although my cat had known our late Shih Tzu for about 7.5 years before our dog had left us and she'd curl up to our dog to sleep and to groom her, she adjusted fine. But our situation was different because our cat had gotten used to our dog being back and forth between houses quite often.

[LuvMySissy]

Twalla, I am so sorry for your loss. I hope that Sam and Martin will recovery soon.

[dogbert]

We actually went through this a year ago when I had to put our 10 yr old Lhasa Poo to sleep. Only it was the cat who was lost without her not another dog. Sassy had never lived with us without Millie and she just kept waiting for her to come home. She would come to the door every time we walked in and look at our feet. One time she even leaned around to look behind us to see if Millie was there. She'd meow and walk the hallway, look on our bed etc. I took all of Millie's stuff away thinking I'd never get another dog. I kept her favorite toy in my dresser drawer. Sassy would sniff where her kennel was and food dishes. She found the kennel in the basement and would sleep on top of it sometimes. In time she came around to her old self again, but like us she needed her time to grieve.

[Zanders' mom]

Very sorry to hear of your loss. I hope time helps to heal your sad hearts.

[manolos mom]

RIP Sweet Angel

[mybabe88]

Originally Posted by zekie's mom

You are all probably going to think I am crazy, but when a pet or human dies the existing animals need to smell and spend time with the dead body. They then understand what has happened and no longer look for that member to return to them.

That's true. I saw is on discovery channel, hippos do it and a couple other animals they named do it as well...so why not dogs?