Can Dogs Grieve?

I asked myself this question a year ago when we loss Pete one of our three dogs at the time. Pete just couldn’t seem to grasp certain doggie concepts, like pee and crap outside. We would take him out but he thought that was time to run, jump and play, something his previous owner conditioned him to do.

What I liked about Pete, he was teaching the oldest member of the family Destiny how to run, jump, play with toys, to have fun. We thought that would never happen. They would spend hours romping around, a far cry from what she thought were her previous duties, which  was to guard my husband at his computer.

And one day Pete was no more. For the next couple of weeks I watched Destiny dealing with grief, pacing back and forth, looking in every room for Pete. She didn’t whine the loss but her wanderings spoke loud and clear that she missed her playmate. This went on for about a month, walking, and sniffing around, wondering where her friend was. By a month and a half she had bounced back to her old self again, back to guarding my husband at his computer.

There are steps to grief. Animals grieve differently than we do but what is noticeable is the change in their behavior.

Human emotions are much more complicated and some people grieve for many years. I met this lady who still wanted to die at the loss of her daughter. This had been awhile. Remembering her made me think of the Brown family and the murder that has plagued OJ Simpson. Years later they are still stuck in grief and it has turned to bitterness and anguish.

I can’t tell you if my Destiny was grieving her loss but her actions for a few weeks made us aware that she too suffered a loss.

Have you read the Story of Hope? Great story the courage of one dog facing a death sentence at www.print2publish.com.