re: Do you think dogs experience Grief when their owners die?

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Lsupride87

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You don’t have to work so hard at letting the world know you’re a waste of skin. We already know

Yes, very much so.

I’ve seen dogs not eat for a week when people take them on vacation. Are they grieving?

If I don’t take my dog to the pond when I get home from work to retrieve his bumper he will whine all night and be almost despondent

Is he grieving?

Absofrickinglutely.

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I’ve seen dogs not eat for a week when people take them on vacation. Are they grieving?

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Could be. If you've ever worked in a kennel or with animals, they can experience "depressive" behavioral changes like not wanting to eat, sleeping more, etc. for a period of time when they're not with their owner. They can then express behaviors like excitement when you return.

Also, grief, even for humans, isn't just the death of someone close. You can grieve a lot of different changes. You're trying to quantify grief as just the death of someone near.

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But there's lots of research out there that shows dogs and other animals show significant behavioral changes with the loss of an owner or peer and that it definitely mimics "depressive" symptoms that would be commonly associated with typical human grief behaviors.

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I understand. Notice how with a dog it will be from something that goes missing or arry in their daily routines. Something that gets flipped upside down in their daily life

If a human loses a relative or loved one they haven’t seen in years that has nothing to do with their life or routine currently they still have profound sadness

One is a true state of sadness, one is a state of “so much has changed for me personally”.

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If a human loses a relative or loved one they haven’t seen in years that has nothing to do with their life or routine currently they still have profound sadness

One is a true state of sadness, one is a state of “so much has changed for me personally”.

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Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they lean into other behavioral responses that don't look like sadness.

You're trying to uncomplicate grief response, it's not that simple.

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But there's lots of research out there that shows dogs and other animals show significant behavioral changes with the loss of an owner or peer and that it definitely mimics "depressive" symptoms that would be commonly associated with typical human grief behaviors.

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But is that because of the loss of a particular person or the loss of a routine? Change in routine can produce anxiety, sure. Along with that can come regressions in behavior. But grief? I don't know.

But I do know that 95% of the respondents in this thread will anthropomorphize the dog's reaction as grief.

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But is that because of the loss of a particular person or the loss of a routine? Change in routine can produce anxiety, sure. Along with that can come regressions in behavior. But grief? I don't know. But I do know that 95% of the respondents in this thread will anthropomorphize the dog's reaction as grief.

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This 100% is my entire take

i think they experience "loss". Grief is a pretty complicated emotion and as much as i love dogs, they just don't process the world that way.

So they experience and can outward react toward loss in routine, structure, and pack member. Dog do have individual personality and they may express this in different ways. We as humans are notoriously bad about anthropomorphizing animals and their behaviors we we say they are grieving. i think they certainly "miss" this now absent component to their life though.

but thats just over complicating things and its just easier to say they grieve