This is Part II of our case study about helping a dog after a loss (see August 24th blog for Part I). As usual, many of you came up with insightful and helpful comments. I benefit from your thoughtfulness every day, and I thank you for it. If you are interested in this topic, either personally or professionally, I encourage you to read the first post about Dogs Grieving as well as the comments. Here are some of my thoughts and comments about the most important things to do if a dog is behaving as though he is grieving a loss: 1. ACCEPTANCE. Easiest to say, hardest to do. By "acceptance" I mean accepting that you couldn't prevent the death or disappearance of another, and that you can't 'fix' the pain that your living dog may be going through. If your dog is truly grieving (and I Read More
First Case Study – A Grieving Dog
Lots of you liked the idea of doing some case studies, as well as reviewing and discussing photos and videos. I think it's a great idea, so here goes our first one: Here's Sleeves on the left, and Patch on the right. I'm sad to report that Patch died just last week and her sister Michaela died only a month ago. All three of them, "Boonie" dogs--or mixed-breed dogs as they are called on Guam where they were born, were raised together and were litter mates. The litter lost their mother at 4 weeks, and owner Cin bottle fed them and raised them together. Brother Sleeve appears to be devastated at the lost of both of his litter mates in such a short period of time (not to mention poor Cin, the owner). Sleeve appears to be grieving, and is described as "so sad" by Cin. Usually this Read More