Do dogs grieve? How do dogs react to the death of their owner?

Do dogs grieve? How do dogs react to the death of their owner?

  1. 2 months ago
    Anonymous

    Unless the dog is able to interact with your corpse by sniffing it then they won’t know you’re dead. They will assume that you left and never came back (which may equally induce depression and anxiety.)

    • 2 months ago
      Anonymous

      Can confirm. Had an old dog and a young one. When we euthanized the old one, the younger didn't get to see the body. She searched for him for about a week. We got another dog a few years later. Fast forward a few more years, and we put dog number two down due to kidney failure. This time, dog three saw and sniffed the body. She was mopey for a few days, but didn't go searching. However, she now now reacts with more enthusiasm than usual towards dogs of the same breed as dog two, as if she remembers her friend and misses her.

  2. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    Yes he will miss you terribly
    Don't do it OP

  3. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    I have a farm and I have multiple dogs on it. Usually everytime I arrive there they run up to me wagging their tails. sometimes they even jump up to me. Almost two years ago now one of the dogs got run over by a reckless driver and the other dogs witnessed that happening. My poor dog cried out in pain for a while and the other dogs saw that. After we drove him to the vet they didn't get to see my lil guy again. For a few days they wouldn't run at me wagging their tails but they'd somberly just walk up to me with their heads down. They would eat less and they just had less energy about them.
    I don't know if you'd call that grieving but I imagine that's the closest a dog could get to it.
    I don't imagine a dog could fully understand that a human died in a hospital far away from it and was buried at a cemetery though. I think the dog's owner would have to die a pretty obvious death in front of the dog for the dog to get it.

    • 2 months ago
      Anonymous

      I imagine canines possess a capacity for assuming that someone died if they don't get to see them anymore. There's no reason for a pack member to leave the pack, so his disappearance is probably usually interpreted as death.
      Since humans are seen as pack members a dog will be sad when the human is gone. It's why apartment rat breeds yap non-stop, because they have separation anxiety stemming from this instinctual assumption.

  4. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    >Do dogs grieve?
    I was looking into this not too long ago
    https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/canine-corner/201303/which-emotions-do-dogs-actually-experience

    Dogs share some basal emotions with humans (all mammals do). Picrel shows their emotional development with age, which stops at the equivalent of a toddler's development. And because they have a much smaller prefrontal cortex than humans do (among other reasons), their emotions are not nearly as complex. However, because they co-evolved with humans, they do form stronger social bonds with us than they would with other cross-species (and vice-versa). Anecdotally, some dogs have been known to "grieve", but the difference between a long vacation and the death of their owner would be unknowable to them. They do form new bonds with new owners, in many cases stronger than with the deceased (or estranged) former owner.

    • 3 months ago
      Anonymous

      >Picrel

      • 3 months ago
        Anonymous

        What's after Contempt? Are there other things? I know what they are obviously (I'm a human) but I want to know if you know

        • 3 months ago
          Anonymous

          After Contempt is Buyer's Remorse, Gormlessness, Ennui, and Gruntle.

      • 3 months ago
        Anonymous

        Dogs feel guilt/shame (they’re the same thing).

        Probably no form of disgust

      • 2 months ago
        Anonymous

        tell me youve never had a dog, without telling me youve never had a dog

        • 2 months ago
          Anonymous

          I have a dog. Tell me you're retarded.

      • 2 months ago
        Anonymous

        Dogs absolutely feel guilt and shame

        • 2 months ago
          Anonymous

          Cite your sources please.

        • 2 months ago
          Anonymous

          They just fear punishment.

          • 2 months ago
            Anonymous

            guilt is fearing punishment.
            shame is fearing punishment.

            • 2 months ago
              Anonymous

              Shame is more like constant stress from past punishment causing you to fear future punishment

  5. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    If they're present around the corpse of the owner. I don't think they care once they can't see the body.

  6. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    Animals are nothing but biological automatons. They do not "grieve" or "feel sad" or have any other emotional response or activity. All they care for is immediate rewards related to food.

    • 3 months ago
      Anonymous

      You’re thinking of women

    • 3 months ago
      Anonymous

      Demonstrably incredibly false.
      You're an animal btw.

    • 3 months ago
      Anonymous

      Retard

    • 3 months ago
      Anonymous

      They're just like me fr fr

    • 2 months ago
      Anonymous

      >giga autist projects his own failings onto animals
      Many such cases.

  7. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    I'm sure there's been studies on it, but I would imagine so. I had a really smart guppy fish that I swear he was grieving when he lost his buddy. They're very very social, so I thought he just needed some more tank mates, so I got three more guppies for him to pay around with, and it did help. But almost every day for about four months, he would always go back to the side of the tank and explore around the area where his buddy used to like to pick at the algae that grew there. He would just search for a few minutes before giving up and then being a bit stand offish with the other fish for a while after, sometimes like an hour, before going back to being playful which was his usual attitude.

    • 3 months ago
      Anonymous

      Fish are known to make friendships like pets.

      Reptiles, fish, and amphibians are capable of complex emotions even if not as up to our plane.
      He likely is grieving, and so do plenty of other animals like cats and dogs

  8. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    They feel sad.
    Primates and some mamilians do feel grieve over death.

  9. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    Healthy dogs would try to take control over the rest of their pack aka family and behave increasingly aggressively until either you do their bidding or reassess your dominance. Modern dogs are the canine version of manchildren with peter pan syndrome so they'll behave like lost puppets calling for Mommy, even if they're 14 yo and ridden with arthritis

    • 3 months ago
      Anonymous

      You're a moron and I hope this is bait for your sake

      • 3 months ago
        Anonymous

        Ever tried to present a counterargument while discussing to someone, instead of insulting him, asshole?

  10. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    I don't think they grieve in the same way we do. All the videos we see of dogs 'grieving' could easily be down to them becoming stressed since someone they bonded to is now gone, and they don't know why or how.
    >BUT THATS WHAT GRIEF ISSSS
    Not really. Grief, as we know it, is an incredibly complicated experience that different people go through differently. If i begin to explain ill go off topic lol.
    But dogs dont have a 'higher' understanding of things as we do.
    I don't think it's necessarily wrong to say dogs 'grieve' in passing, or as an easy shorthand to say 'this dog is visibly stressed and unhappy because someone they like has gone'. But I don't think anyone can make the argument that dogs go through a true grieving period.

    • 3 months ago
      Anonymous

      Dogs are social creatures. Communal bonds mean a lot to them especially with very important people like their owner. So yes, I do believe they understand loss like humans (and elephants) do.

      [...]

      Reductionism is a disease of the mind.

      • 3 months ago
        Anonymous

        Applying human emotions and understanding of concepts onto animals is always a mistake.

    • 3 months ago
      Anonymous

      Nonsense. You're mistaking verbal formulations of the mind for the mind. Every emotions humans have, higher mammals will also have. The unique part of humanity is our ability to attenuate to the mind, not the mind itself.

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