Researchers have revealed that dogs show key signs of grief after the death of another dog in the same household.
This includes an increase in attention seeking, eating less and whining, according to the team from the University of Milan.
While grief has previously been reported in other animals including birds and elephants, this is the first time it has been confirmed in dogs.
Key signs of grief in dogsIn the study, the researchers set out to understand whether dogs show behavioural and emotional changes after the death of a canine companion.
The study found that the dogs displayed many key signs of grief, including:
- More attention seeking (67%)
- Playing less (57%)
- Less active (46%)
- More fearful (35%)
- More sleep (35%)
- Eating less (32%)
- More barking and whining (30%)
They enlisted 426 dog-owners in Italy, whose pet had died while they also owned at least one other dog.
The owners were surveyed on their own levels of grief after the death, their surviving dog's behaviour after the death, as well as the prior relationship between their pets.
The vast majority (86 per cent) of owners reported negative changes in the surviving dog's behaviour, with 32 per cent saying the changes lasted two to six months, and 25 per cent lasting even longer.
In terms of the specific behaviour changes, 67 per cent of owners said their dog became more attention seeking, 57 said their dog played less, and 46 per cent said their pup became less active.
Meanwhile, 35 per cent said their dog slept more and became more fearful, 32 per cent said they ate less, and 30 per cent reported an increase in whining or barking.
Almost all of the dogs (93 per cent) had lived with the other pooch for longer than one year, with 69 per cent reported to get on well with their companion.
Surprisingly, the length of time the two dogs had lived together did not influence the surviving dogs' behaviour.
However, having a friendly relationship was found to play a key role in the dogs' level of grief, according to the researchers.
Speaking to MailOnline, Dr Federica Pirrone, who led the study, said: 'Changes in some dogs' behaviour, like playing and sleeping, were affected by the quality of their relationship with the deceased one.
'In particular, a friendly and parental relationship between the two dogs was associated with stronger behavioural changes, while no association was found between behavioural variables and an agonistic/mutual tolerance relationship.'
If you think your dog is grieving, Dr Pirrone suggests that there are several things you can do to console them.
'It is advisable that they stay close to their dog, share activities with them and make them feel protected,' she advised.
'As mentioned in our study, a surviving dog's changes in behaviour were greater when they had a friendly or even parental relationship with the deceased one. Most likely this means that the surviving dog has lost an attachment figure, who provided safety and security.
'Therefore, making this dog perceive that they are still supported and protected can be extremely helpful.'
HOW DOES YOUR DOG CHANGE YOUR MIND AND BODY?
- Dogs have been shown to trigger the release of the 'cuddle hormone' oxytocin in their owners
- The chemical lowers your heart rate and blood pressure and relieves stress
- Our canines also cause our brains to disperse the 'pleasure hormone' dopamine
- This boosts your mood and long-term memory
- Eye contact and touch are potent triggers of oxytocin and dopamine
- This means social dog breeds like labrador and golden retrievers are more likely to illicit oxytocin release
- Breeds that are more independent of humans like Great Pyrennes may bring out a lower oxytocin response
- Dogs we perceieve as aggressive, such as bull dogs or German shepherds, initiate the fight-or-flight response
- This triggers the release of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline
- These chemicals raise blood pressure and heart rate and can suppress the immune system long-term
Reader Comments
We don’t chat much but I would like you to know that I always admire your intelligent comments and think you bring a lot to the community so thanks 🙏
I look forward to reading more!
This happens to humans too that have such a bond that they die within a short time of each other.
I learned today that a good friend, five years older than I (78) who always called me her sister, died in her senior citizen community. Another acquaintance-friend is in the hospital, and her family has been told that she won't survive. She's 96.
Both were fully vaxxed with boosters.
Bill Gates et al. are enjoying exceptional success with the Boomers and Greatest Gens. Unfortunately, these deaths won't matter when the theft of pension funds and financial insolvency of both the U.S. and Fed are revealed.
Thank you, again, for your kind comments.
I had a little daydream while chanting today. Without relating a long story, I pictured myself in the future cuddling a feral mother cat who lived in the barn and who had just given birth to her babies several days previously. I was able to rescue her before her birth and situate her in the house so her kittens and she would be protected during birthing. She was recovered enough to leave that space and leap over a fence to visit me in the garden. I found myself in heaven. I felt that I couldn't achieve any more satisfaction on Earth. A very wild, fearful cat had come to say "Thank you." That's my heaven.
Linda...can you help Eventide?
SOTT Focus:MSM Ignores Elephant in The Room, Gives Ridiculous Reasons For Major Increase in Vaccine-Related Health Conditions
In a previous article, I wrote about some alarming statistics showing increases in cardiovascular events among athletes, including heart attacks, strokes, and sudden deaths in 2021. The likely...Eventide You need an attitude check.
Pronto.
File your grievances in the Boss' office.
What a bunch of dumb words! And who would imagine such a dumb idea and play with it?!! In all sincerity, learn to ask in a more humane fashion. o-O
Im so sorry to hear this. They got my dad too, days after his 2nd jab. All entirely avoidable which makes it so frustrating! My niece(14) is jabbed, has just come down with glandular fever. I think to myself, could this be a sign of an ailing immune system? I haven’t said anything, I’m a bit of a pariah to my brothers wife because of my views on all this so I’m just watching from afar. My cousins daughter has just suffered a miscarriage, and yes she’s jabbed as well. Of course, they’re all oblivious and putting it down to chance. The vax hasn’t even entered their thinking and rather than further alienate myself from the family I bite my lip. Sometimes it is just easier to leave it alone, I tried hard early on but gave up. I’d rather have a relationship with them while there’s time and hope they come to the truth sooner rather than later. Of course I still drop the odd fact or hint but I can’t help myself in that respect.
This is the
beautyhorror of their plan, the people who don’t succumb immediately and suffer effects a few months later don’t correlate it to the jab.People will realise one day, but in how many years I wonder?
And your welcome, thank you 🙏
I’m sorry to butt in, but I think it’s just an honest mistake
Calm the Lioness in you down my sweet, save it for tits like rakarb and their selfish comments.
Eventide
Yes Si exactly like I said.
Projection.
Your other sentence is so well stated. I was new to the web in 2015 and have engaged in discussion with other posters at various points. I've learned my lesson. I've never found argument nor discussion at all satisfying on the web. I don't mind exchanging some pleasantries in a brief discussion of a topic, but as you say, in truth, we can't "understand" the other person in toto. I have found many posters make assumptions about me which, if we met in person, would completely dissolve.
Words are great in expositions or treatises because authors carefully define their viewpoint and usage of words and then continue to structure their argument. The basis of their interaction is predicated upon the written word.
How much more does that divide increase when we write about religious or spiritual viewpoints here? Gigantic. Each of us would have had to experience the other's spiritual experience to truly understand their words. Your and my experiences reflect our backgrounds, DNA, life's plan set before incarnation (my belief), and so forth which is why I often say here that we are each entitled to our own viewpoint, and each viewpoint is unique and structured for that person.
Even psychic or intuitive people don't agree. I've read psychic material which reflects both left and right leanings. Riddle me that! I end up realizing, again, we can only interact via a deep respect of each other's soveignity and individuality. For some, a traditional religion framework works. I've seen atheists who have a deep spirituality. I've seen people who are trapped by materialism in all major religions and with no religion. IOW, materialism is really their "God." We've all seen those who profess a deep love for humankind advocate the most inhuman and tryannical measures.
Well, enough. Sorry for the treatise.
You're a rarity, Eventide. Thanks for an enlightening and even-handed response.
Thank you for making me a DogSitter.
Why did you make your HumanFolk such blabbermouths?
History is full of untold stories, fascinating little incidents that are either deliberately suppressed (history is written by the victors, after all) or get swept up and lost in the broad stroke of the historian’s pen.
This is one such story.
It may seem incredible to you, but before you dismiss it with a contemptuous “hah,” remember that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. And with those wise words, I shall begin my tale.
Now, it just so happens that I am the proud and lucky companion of a beautiful dog (well, four beautiful dogs actually, but let’s stick to one story at a time, okay?) a Dachshund called Doreen. Doreen is a dog of aristocratic, nay, noble lineage as witnessed by her full name: Doreen Von Teckel Dupont Rothschild Fitzjames Stuart Saxe-Coburg Gotha Hohenloe-Langenburg De Alba. So how did such a noble girl come to be born in a humble peasant village in North East Spain (for Doreen came into life whilst I was living in Sitges, Spain…but one story…see above etc etc..)?
To answer that question we have to go back to 1938, to the exclusive Innere Stadt area of Vienna, Austria. It was here that Doreen’s Great Great Great Great Great Grandmother, Wilhelmina Von Teckel Dupont Rothschild Fitzjames Stuart Saxe Coburg-Gotha Hohenloe-Langenburg De Alba, kept a substantial house in Teckelstrasse, the most upmarket street in a very grand part of town. Wilhelmina was a great beauty and one of pre-war Austria’s most eminent society figures. Night after night, her house on Teckelstrasse would shine with bright light and echo with jolly laughter as she paid host to the great and good of European society, from royalty to politicians and from wealthy industrialists to stars of stage and screen. Everyone, but everyone, wanted an invitation to one of Wilhelmina’s renowned soirees .
On an autumn night in 1938, one of the visitors to Wilhelmina’s sumptuous home was a certain Adolf Hitler. Wilhelmina and Adolf met over canapés and a fine glass of Chateau Lafite Rothschild, 1929 (a very good year) and that was it, it was love at first sight. Before you could say “Dachshunds have lovely chunky paws,” Adolf had wined, dined and romanced Wilhelmina and whisked her off to his newly-built, secluded Eagles’ Nest retreat in the Bavarian Alps. The couple were very, very happy in their Bavarian love-nest and would spend night after night together. Wilhelmina, besides being drop-dead gorgeous, was also a dog of great intelligence and a charming conversationalist. What’s more, she was an incredible singer (an ability inherited by our Doreen) and would entertain Adolf into the early hours with her unique howled versions of the entire Wagner Ring Cycle and obscure German folk songs. The only slight fly in the ointment was that Adolf, though sweet and attentive to the needs of Wilhelmina (if a little harsh and aggressive to others), was not the brightest or sharpest knife in the drawer and his small brain was entirely taken up with only two things: love for Wilhelmina and a burning desire to conquer Europe. Night after night he would rant and rave at Wilhelmina (in between her Ring Cycle and folk song recitals) about how he was going to choke the Czechs, annex the Austrians, punish the Poles, bash the Brits and flatten the French.
This all became rather tiresome so Wilhelmina, as much to shut Adolf up as anything, decided to help him with his plans for European conquest as she knew well by now that Adolf was a few sandwiches short of a loaf and that, without her, his plans for conquest wouldn’t get as far as Munich, let alone France or England. So Wilhelmina applied her very formidable Dachsie brainpower to the conquest of Europe.
Within just a few days, Wilhelmina planned and strategized the annexation of Austria, the choking of the Czechs, the punishment of the Poles, the bashing of the Brits and the total flattening of the French. As we now know, Wilhelmina’s planning was spot on and the German war machine cut through Europe like a hot knife through butter. Unfortunately, the success of it all went to Adolf’s head and much as, many years later, Robbie Williams would decide he could write his own songs, Adolf decided he wanted his own input into this conquest malarkey.
And therein lay the seeds of the destruction of Wilhelmina and Adolf’s relationship.
You see, Wilhelmina had always said to Adolf, “Now, Adolf, all this conquering Europe stuff is all well and good but whatever you do, leave Russia alone, it’s far too big and full of tough people with an almost bottomless capacity for suffering.” Imagine her horror, then, when she woke up one morning in 1941, to discover that German troops had invaded Russia! She and Adolf argued furiously; she told him he had made a dreadful mistake that would lead to the end of all his dreams. Adolf flew into one of his apoplectic, spit-flecking rages and accused Wilhelmina of being a traitor; he promised that he would “grind her snout into the ground,” “pulverise her paws” and “exterminate all Dachshunds.”
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Read the full story at:
[Link]
I don't think I would survive long if I didn't have the companionship of a dog.
Only now am I getting the urge for another one.
Amazing animals.
Ken
Yeah I’m going to get one soon, I’m walking to Liverpool in July and it would be great to have a companion for the journey. It’s probably going to take me a week to walk so some company would be nice.
Peace!
Ken
Peace Brother!
Shall let you know when I get one buddy
I got about half of the pine straw spread out and I'll finish the rest of my work tomorrow I hope. I hope your walk is a wonderful one for you and one full of mystery and learning but one that is also uneventful in most ways because when travelling, especially rapid travel, an uneventful journey is what is most important. You just want to get from point A to B without any harm.
Walking is truly the best way to learn is what I think especially when walking down the trail.
I think the dog that makes sense for you could be a Jack Russel, but more likely a Cocker Spaniel. I prefer the American Cocker Spaniel breed, but they were over-bread and spaniel rage became a thing.....but I'm sure there is a good Spaniel dog out there just waiting for you Si.
Your friend Ken.
Well it’s my final road trip with my dad. He was born in Liverpool and before the vax done him in he said he wanted his ashes spread in the Mersey. We are both huge Liverpool fans and the club saying is You Never Walk Alone (YNWA) so I thought it would be a fitting tribute to l him if I walk him home and spread him in the river Mersey. It’ll give me time to reflect on our relationship and have some closure. I picked his ashes up on my birthday so I thought I’d walk up in time for my birthday. Exactly one year. That way we have one last road trip and one last birthday together. I hope he’s up there with our friend RC approving it. It’s funny because my father’s initials were… RC.
I don’t really have a specific breed of pooch that I want, I’ll know which one when I see it. I have a special connection with dogs 🙂
Your hombre, Si
Godspeed to you Si and may we meet in an Irish pub one day and laugh together in memory of good fathers.
Ken
A pint of Guinness shared with a mate sounds like heaven. Hopefully I’ll meet your pup whilst doing so.
God Bless you Kendo, you’re* one in a million bro.
*Thank goodness for the edit button, I can already hear Rowan telling me my your was supposed to be you’re!
Someone above said that RC's passed on? May he rest in peace and Buddha bless his soul..
SOTT Focus:MSM Ignores Elephant in The Room, Gives Ridiculous Reasons For Major Increase in Vaccine-Related Health Conditions
In a previous article, I wrote about some alarming statistics showing increases in cardiovascular events among athletes, including heart attacks, strokes, and sudden deaths in 2021. The likely...