I was talking to a friend of mine that I hadnt heard from in awhile and he told me that he had lost his Grandfather over a year ago. They had got a dog for him in the last year of his life and the dog would sit with him on the porch in the evenings with other family members. When his Grandfather was unable to take care of himself towards the end they placed him in a retirement home and he passed away in less than a week. Shortly after he passed the dog started acting strange and stopped eating. They found the dog dead laying under the porch swing that his Grandfather would sit in every evening. He thought it was weird how the dog died suddenly. I mentioned this to another friend of mine and he said it is very common for a dog or a cat to die suddenly after the owner passes on. He said he has even heard of a dog refusing to leave the owners side after they have passed at home. Any of you experienced this?

Not unusual at all. Dogs are committed.

There is a documented thing with animals called "separation anxiety". Some dogs are pretty affected and perhaps this dog was very attached and suffered greatly and it aggravated a pre-existing condition. It can happen with dogs.

Look up Greyfriar's Bobby. He guarded his master's grave for 14 years.

my yellow lab is very attached to me. If we go anywhere longer than a couple of days, my son or mother in law will Face-Time the dog so I can talk to him. 👍

Common among dogs. They are pack animals, and form very close emotional ties. Chìmps also can die soon after their best friends or mates die, just from refraining from eating.

Dogs love unconditionally.

Not sure about that dog, but I can guarantee my Dad's blue healer will soon join him if he passes first.

Its been a few years, but the black dog under my left arm did that. He was the cow dog at the ranch, Grandpa died, and a couple months later so did the dog, and he was only 8 years old...

I lost my wife in Aug of 18 and 5 weeks later our/her Boxer.I had taken her to the vet twice and after lots of test ect he told me the same thing twice, he said she has a broken heart and there is nothing he or I could do about it. A few days later I found her on her moms pillow. Now they both sit on the mantel together.

Sad and beautiful at the same time...

Our dog has been depressed for 6 months. She just stares out the window waiting for her alpha who isn't coming back. If a similar looking truck drives anywhere near, she jumps up but then sighs, whines and lays down I don't think she will last long no matter how hard we try to keep her happy. It's really sad.

I need to get back home. To see my dog!

Huntress there is a very good chance that if are more dominant towards your dog he will feel more secure again and return to being a happier dog

Dang, I need to get another dog, havent had one in years....

Get that dog out for walks 2-3 times a day, spend a lot of time with training, get the dog busy and involved and you can bring her around.

God, on a night that i picked weeds off my dogs grave, I read this...

We had one that started grieving after the older dog she had been raised with passed on. Went on about two years. Bringing another pup home snapped her out of it.

Next to family members, my dog is the best person in my life. Thats why she my avatar. Hell of a hunter and tracker also.

I can't comprehend how people hate dogs. (like Deflave)

We are a 1 dog family right now (Stella the Wonder Doodle) but have a new pup arriving in mid-July. We usually run a 3 dog house.

Life is richer with dogs, and I trust my dog's nose, sight, and hearing around the house with my life.

Anyone I come across who is a dog hater, or who my dogs hate, I just choke up on the leash and walk on...

I have been talking to a relative of mine who lives in another state and her dog was getting old and health was declining. Her and her husband made the decision to put him to sleep. The day they loaded him into the car, her other dog started barking at them, she said it was like he knew what was going on with the other dog and was upset. When they came back the remaining dog refuses to leave her side.

It’s safe to say flave hates you more than he hates dogs

I have heard of this happening. That is how loyal dogs are, they follow their human friend right into heaven.

next time place an unwashed shirt in a plastic bag and have your son bring the shirt to dog and let her sniff it , hopefully smell of you will help with anxiety.

send me $20 if it works.

He likes going with me to trash other peoples’ deer stands. He chewed up a whole bottle deer repellent while I was away for 2 weeks. That stuff was $43 from the home depot

one of my uncles who hunted raccoons with dogs told me that when he would lose track of a dog in the woods at night he always kept an old coat that he had worn and would lay it on the ground the last place he saw the dog and most of the time the next morning the dog would be waiting by the coat

That's a good idea.

I lost a very expensive dog once right about first ice. I was scared to death the dog was going to fall through and freeze to death before I could find him.

The coat trick is used by lots of houndsmen. I think anyone who hates dogs is a waste of oxygen a human could be breathing. Be Well, RZ.

Did your husband die? If so, I am very sorry.

If not, I am confused. There can only be one alpha and that is always a human, never a dog

Well none of my dogs have seen me die yet. But I damn near died when they did. We lost two that were very special this year. Their urns are on the shelf in the living room waiting to be buried with me.

Yep, Grandpas cow dog at the ranch simply died a very short while after Grandpa passed, dog was only 8 years old and in good health...

There was a thread a couple of days ago about "crazy dog people". I didn't comment and I'm still reluctant to do so, but here goes...

Dogs are just parasites that some people welcome to use and make them feel better about themselves.

Unless you believe in God.

My dad had a Norwegian Elkhound and they were inseparable. Wolfie slept in his dog bed on Dad's side of the bed. Any time Dad went out, the dog would be beside him on the truck seat. Everybody in our small town knew about "Dad and Wolfie." Dad passed almost 33 years ago, and Wolfie died 3 months later. I buried the dog in Dad's favorite Carhartt jacket.

It isn't just dogs that die of a broken heart, widows and widowers die from broken hearts too. Here is an interesting study on that strange condition.

© Science Daily, Oct. 2018


"Grief can cause inflammation that can kill, according to new research from Rice University.

The study, "Grief, Depressive Symptoms and Inflammation in the Spousally Bereaved," will appear in an upcoming edition of Psychoneuroendocrinology. It examines the impact grief has on human health. It builds on previous research from the lab of Chris [bleep], an assistant professor of psychological sciences at Rice University and the study's lead author, who studied risk factors for inflammation.

Rice researchers conducted interviews and examined the blood of 99 people who spouses had recently died. They compared people who showed symptoms of elevated grief -- such as pining for the deceased, difficulty moving on, a sense that life is meaningless and inability to accept the reality of the loss -- to those who did not exhibit those behaviors. The researchers discovered that widows and widowers with elevated grief symptoms suffered up to 17 percent higher levels of bodily inflammation. And people in the top one-third of that group had a 53.4 percent higher level of inflammation than the bottom one-third of the group who did exhibit those symptoms.

"Previous research has shown that inflammation contributes to almost every disease in older adulthood," [bleep] said. "We also know that depression is linked to higher levels of inflammation, and those who lose a spouse are at considerably higher risk of major depression, heart attack, stroke and premature mortality. However, this is the first study to confirm that grief -- regardless of people's levels of depressive symptoms -- can promote inflammation, which in turn can cause negative health outcomes."

This finding is an important revelation in the study of how human behaviors and activities impact inflammation levels in the body, [bleep] said, and it adds to a growing body of work about how bereavement can affect health. His initial work showed why those who have been widowed are at higher risk of cardiovascular problems, bodily symptoms and premature mortality by comparing inflammation in spousally bereaved individuals to matched controls.

"This work shows who, among those who are bereaved, are at highest risk," [bleep] said. "Now that we know these two key findings, we can design interventions to target this risk factor in those who are most at risk through behavioral or pharmacological approaches."

The study was co-authored by Rice psychological sciences graduate students Ryan Brown and Michelle Chen; Kyle Murdock, an assistant professor of biobehavioral health at Pennsylvania State University and a former postdoctoral research fellow in the [bleep] laboratory at Rice; Levi Saucedo, a research assistant at Rice; Angie LeRoy, a postdoctoral research fellow at Rice; Lydia Wu, a fellow in psychological sciences at Rice; Luz Garcini, a postdoctoral research fellow at Rice; Anoushka Shahane, a Ph.D. student at Rice; Faiza Baameur, a postdoctoral fellow of pharmacology at Vanderbilt University; and Cobi Heijnen, a researcher at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

This work was supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute."

L.W.

At least dogs are smart and loyal enough to not bite the hand that feeds them.

Or Hachikō, an Akita that was born on November 10, 1923, at a farm near the city of Ōdate, Akita Prefecture.[3] In 1924, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University, brought him to live in Shibuya, Tokyo, as his pet. Hachikō would meet Ueno at Shibuya Station every day after his commute home. This continued until May 21, 1925, when Ueno died of a cerebral hemorrhage while at work. From then until his death on March 8, 1935, Hachikō would return to Shibuya Station every day to await Ueno's return.

Ten years that dog waited, ten DOG years! Imagine your entire life, devoted to your master's return? Humans, in comparison, understand nothing of commitment.

Akita's are amazing dogs..... mine

When my Lab died, the Doxie was depressed for several months, until we met another Lab on the trail. DJ invited him to go rabbit hunting, the Lab was all for it. When his owner tried to leave, DJ would bark when they went out of sight, and the Lab would come running back..finally the owner had to put him on leash to get away from the little fugger!

DJ was no longer depressed after that. There were Black Labs still in the world! I'm not altogether convinced that Lab was not a brother one litter removed to mine...

Same Lab that died on the Doxie - we got him 3rd hand when he was about 2., He had been through obedience school twice. He would take direction from us under advisement....

We left him in a kennel for 2 weeks while we went on vacation, after we had had him for a bit over a year...Was like you turned a switch when we got back.

When the Doxie died, the following Lab was depressed for months.

There are also instances of other inter-species best friend- say an elephant and a dog, reaction similarity.

As interesting as the topic is what I find most interesting is that you can type [bleep] and it’s not [bleeped]. 😁

Never mind, TRH has some Jedi voodoo.