Do Dogs Grieve When Another Dog Dies?

Recently, listener Deborah wrote to me about her two dogs, Greta and Oyster. The family adopted Greta two years ago, when they already had Oyster. Deborah says it was “love at first sight” for the dogs, even though Greta’s afraid of other dogs in general. Deborah brought her dogs to work, and a colleague’s dog, Lucy, would hang out in her office with Greta and Oyster.

Sadly, Oyster died, and now Greta’s afraid to pass Lucy in the office hallway. It seems as if Oyster gave shy Greta confidence, and Deborah wonders how she can best help Greta now that her companion is gone. This week, a look at how dogs react when a housemate dog dies, and what you can do to help them adjust.

Do dogs feel grief?

Most dogs recover quickly from the death of a housemate dog.

Probably most people assume that if housemate dogs are friends and one dies, the surviving dog will feel grief, or a canine equivalent. In my experience, this isn’t necessarily so. Our dogs Muggsy and Izzy were the best of friends. They’d greet each other eagerly after any separation, and they played and napped together. Conflict was rare. For a few weeks after Muggsy died, Izzy would respond to the sound of Muggsy's name by alerting and looking around. But she ate and slept normally and enjoyed her outings to the park as much as ever.

Last year, Izzy herself died at a ripe old age. Our dog Juniper had never known life without her. The dogs hadn’t played much, because their styles weren’t compatible, but they had a good relationship. Juni never really seemed to notice that Izzy was gone. Pretty shallow, right?

Dogs don’t understand death

I’m not so sure it’s shallow. Dogs probably don’t have the cognitive ability to understand permanence or death. Behaviorally healthy dogs take separations in stride—they don’t lose their marbles when we take one dog to the vet for a checkup and leave the other one at home. They do fine when we go on vacation and leave them with their friend the dog sitter. I believe that often, as far as Dogalini’s concerned, the late Zippy isn’t home right now, and that’s all there is to it. The longer Zippy stays away, the more Dogalini gets used to the new situation and accepts it as normal.

Dogs are exquisitely sensitive to human body language and tone.

However, dogs are exquisitely sensitive to human body language and tone. And we humans understand death and permanence all too well. Our distress at losing a beloved companion shows itself in our voices and our movements. Our dogs may respond with anxiety when we cry. Familiar routines may suddenly have changed. Like all animals, including us, dogs are most at ease when their...

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