Do dogs mourn?

[Chad C]

No doubt about it!

[Mudslinger]

I firmly believe that a lot of animals mourn the loss of another especially if they have been raised together their entire lives. Years back we had to go put down a buffalo a gentleman had raised from a calf along with a longhorn steer and when the steer died, the buffalo laid down a couple of days later and would not eat, drink or get up and he had us come put him down as he was having the longhorn mounted and was gong to have the buffalo mounted also.

I am dreading the day one of my Rotties passes and just leaves me with one and i am sure it will not be long after that that the second one goes. They act totally different if one is gone for a while, but everything returns to normal once they are back together.

[txfireguy2003]

I will definitely say YES, they do. Even though I've never experienced it personally with dogs, let me tell you a couple of stories. The first comes in about 15 years ago when one of our horses contracted EPM (a disease that causes degeneration of the spinal cord and eventually paralysis) an went down. She went down for some time and we tried and tried, had the vet out to the farm to try and get her up, but no luck. After about a week of bottle feeding her, layed out on the corral dirt, miraculously she got up! The other horse, a full blood thoroughbred race horse had been moping around the whole week, but that morning when Dolly got up, that race horse was running around the pasture faster than I've ever seen her run, and prancing and dancing, it was obvious to all who witnessed it that she was overly happy to see her buddy get up off the dirt. Unfortunately, a couple weeks later Dolly went down again and never got up, the race horse was never the same after that.

The second story is more recent, doesn't involve death, and is actually somewhat funny in retrospect. My lady's dog, an older Jack Russell, has a toy that he loves, it's a ball of rope. He's had about three over the last couple of years. After he got the first one he played with it so much that is started coming apart and we would cut off the tails as they came out. After a while, it got to where it was nothing but a long piece of rope and we threw it out. That dog, who was well housebroken, began to pee and poop in the house, "marking" every piece of furniture he could find. I still have stains on my carpet from him. That went on for about a month until we finally talked to his previous owner who asked if we had taken one of his toys away. We said yes and they said to go get him a new one. We did, and the peeing stopped! This same dog had an issue with a friend we had staying with us for a while. They were best buddies. When the friend left, Roper moped around for weeks.

So, with that said, I believe animals do exerience sadness and grief, why would dogs be any different? And why would the loss of a beloved family member be any different except worse than the loss of a toy?

[kirk]

Sorry for your loss, I dread that day. I picked up my lab from the kennel today and she won't even look at me. She stays mad for about 3 days every time I have to drop her off. So yes, they definitely have emotions......of all kind.

[Bill]

I was told it's important that the remaining dog or dogs be allowed to smell the one that had just died, it helps them adjust. I don't know but I've done it that way. When out Golden had to be put down last summer, I wanted to take one last picture of she and the other dog, and the other dog would not go near her unless we held here there- and they slept together for years. Go figure.

[quackerback]

i have a heeler and we have lost 2 other dogs and she has acted sad after both were gone. they may not understand what has happened, but they know that the other dogs are not there anymore.

[nando]

Watch where the Red Fern grows. If you can make it through the movie, it will offer alot of explanation on the subject.

I loved that movie when I was a kid!

Sorry to hear about your Lab, I had to put my 15 year old lab down this Summer as well.

[Codie]

I think they feel something but THIS I don't agree with.

I am right there with you

[gatt40]

No doubt, they mourn.

[xman59]

absolutely, we had a chocolate lab that lost a whole litter of puppies in less than 24 hours... you never heard such moaning and wailing for three days, she cried wouldnt eat a bite and barely drank,,

[Mark44]

lost my older dog last week ... came home and he'd gone on to the Next Hunt. knew it was coming but still hard. now his son is howling so mournfully in the back yard every now and again. it's hard for him too.

[muddydog]

Yes they mourn, animals are alot smarter than we think.

[buckybill]

Neighbors dog a couple of houses down can. The dog went to howling and just making the saddest sounds I ever heard. I finally went to check about it because it sounded like the dog might be hurt and they may be out of town or something. Got to the house and the husband had passed. His wife said the dog started mourning the same day her husband passed. They can tell.

same thing happened to my girlfriend after her husband died. she said his dog would sit in the living room and howl and whine. did this for about a week.

[GILBERT]

WHen my grandfather died his dog went into the living room sat down next to his chair and didn't move for three days. Less than a week later we found him out in the barn next to Papa's favorite thinking spot -- dead.

A very similar thing happened when my grandfather died. The family cemetary (At the ranch i grew up in) was approx 1/2 mile from the house. When we buried "POPO", his dog "Filabras" ( don't ask...POPO named him that??) would not leave his burial spot. The following day my grandmother found him there wimpering with his head laying over POP's burial sight, and brought him home. An hour later he was gone, and again Grandma found him with his head laying on POP's burial spot again. She brought him home again, and this time tied him to a fence post. Durimg the night he chewed threw the leather riata, and again was found laying on top of POP's burial sight. 2 or 3 more times the same thing happened until Grandma decide to let him be. For close to 2 weeks "Filabras" kept vigilance over POP's burial sight . He was found dead, again laying on POP's burial sight.

Of course dogs mourn,

GILBERT

[Porterhouse]

i believe they do. Sorry for the loss