[Help] My 11 year old boxer died and my 8 year old Saint Bernard has had a sudden change in behavior

[mika2020]

@rrk93 I don't know how dogs grieve dogs, but I know if they "experience" the loss of someone, IE they are in the room when it happens, they recover really quickly. Our dog seemed to easily let go his main companion, but he was in the room when it happened.

 

[invisiblenothing0]

@rrk93 Get another puppy give it something to take it's mind off of that give it something to nurture and take care of

 

[cz1611]

@rrk93 I usually have a sudden change in behavior when someone close to me dies too.

 

[transontung90]

@rrk93 Are you surprised your dog is sad? All mammals love their family. And nothing fixes death except time.

 

[j316love]

@rrk93 I’m so so sorry for your loss. This is horrifying to me. I grew up with 3 greyhounds that we adopted different years but all were born the same year. It was so awful losing them so quickly within each other that my husband and I implemented a 4 year plan (every 4 years we get another dog). We now have an almost 5 year old and almost 1 year old. But their bond is so amazing that now I’m devastated just imagining the (far future, please!!!!) day our older boy goes. Fuck.

 

[bob71154]

@rrk93 I’ve had 5 dogs at one time...it was a blast. Yes, difficult to walk all 5 (mainly due to the stubborn doxies, who always wanted to go the OPPOSITE way every body else did) but my hubs would help and sometimes I just took the 2 smaller dogs separately. Now I have 3 but if the need to foster arises, we’re in. I have a 1 year old 120 lb Great Pyrenees, an 11 yr old Basset and (the guy that runs the club) a chihuahua/Yorkie mix with a napoleon complex......it’s the little one that causes ALL the shit....he has no clue he’s the little dude. Yep, we look ridiculous walking all at once but I’ve met so many great dog loving neighbors on walks and our appearance is definitely a conversation starter. In fact, I met one of my best friends (in my 60yrs) while walking my Basset (she was walking her black lab). Our dogs were the same age and became great buds. When my friend died, her will stated she wanted her 4 yr old lab to live with us. We had him for 8 wonderful years. He passed December 31st, 2018....

Anyway, we had just one dog (lab) for some time back when we were renting a house that didn’t have a fenced yard. When we finally bought a house with a large fenced yard, we added 2 (extremely stubborn) dachshund puppies, which were my hubs xmas gift that year. Our lab was 11 by that time so not all that interested in the pups, which is why I got 2, so they could play together. Since then we’ve always had multiple dogs. I agree that I feel better leaving the house not only because the pups have each other but also leaving them “to guard” the abode (basically to bark their fool heads off).....

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@rrk93 c'est la vie(Such is life).

You can try and distract him with another dog, works sometimes. They usually get better at it over time, as time is a good healer.

Really not a whole lot you can do but watch. I really think people give dogs way too much credit in how smart they are, because we just compare it to our own intelligence and not that of a dog, but they know when something is dead.