How long does it take for a dog to get over the death of another dog?

If anyone read my other thread, we put one of our beagles down yesterday. She was tough, but she could no longer even stand or walk anymore so it was time to let her go. It still doesn't even feel real but that's another story. We have two other dogs. One is only a 2 yr old pomeranian. The other is another older beagle who lived with the one we just put down for around 7-8 years.

Maybe it's in my head, but he keeps moping around the house as if he's looking for her. What should have been a ten minute walk was a twenty minute walk around the neighborhood. Do you guys think it'll get better with time? I feel worse for him than I do my family now

I think, like people, its going to vary greatly.

(((hugs)))

I agree.

We lost Phoebe towards the end of March (this year, so about 4 months ago) She was going on 13 years old, she was here when we got Orson at 3 months old. He's 6 years old now, and he had never known this home without her.

I catch him going to Phoebe's spot under the desk in the family room, sniff around and get a longing look in his eyes. He normally comes to me for loving/reassurance right afterwards. I know he misses her too and it's so hard because he doesn't have many ways to share those feelings

Just keep loving them through it......it's all we can do. (((HUGS)))

I don't think it's all in your head. They've done studies that show animals miss their companions.

Like others said, it's going to vary...and all you can do is give extra loving to them to help reassure them and comfort them.

First, I am very sorry to hear of your loss.

My dogs have never seemed to care when another dog is gone. I always imagined it must be harder on a dog that was used to being in a pair and then suddenly they're the only one, or maybe my dogs just aren't that close. I just chalked it up to the fact that we've always had a group of dogs so maybe that's why they never seem to care, but I really don't know. But like others have said, time is different for everyone. I'm really not sure how long it might take as I've never experienced a dog missing another dog... but I hope your guy feels better soon. Poor pup.

I would say it depends, too.

When I brought Jackson home, my moms 4 year old cockapoo dog was living with us. She hated him for the first few weeks but then grew to love him. They became the best of buddies.

Jackson was almost a year old when she got run over by a car. I let him sniff her body before we buried her, and he was very confused. For about two weeks, he seemed really depressed and confused as to where she was. But then he got it over fairly quickly.

Our dogs were used to other dogs coming and going because we fostered. But many of them react to a "Where's the puppy?", since we usually relied on the older dogs to keep the younger ones happy while we were busy doing whatever. I've heard from one forever home, however, that the dog missed Zander like CRAZY when he got to them. Makes sense, that particular dog and Zander were very close.

Zander didn't react much when he came to this house with me and there weren't any dogs. He was always goofy, dorky low man on the totem pole, so I think he enjoys his quiet old man time now, rather than getting constantly bugged by 5 or more other dogs.

On the other hand, when my adopted dad died, Macie looked for him for months. Any glace or sniff of any of his things had her in a panic trying to find him. She'd cry all day, pace the house, go off her food.

Every dog is different, but it will all take time.

Thanks for all the replies! I've been trying to get our other beagle out more and giving him more exercise to keep him active and such. I read online that it helps them move on (not to mention it's good to walk them anyway). Being that we buried her in the backyard, I'm a little surprised our other beagle hasn't sniffed his way over there yet, even in his old age. Either way I feel like it's not as bad as I thought originally.

My mother has a little mutt named Radar. When we adopted Radar at 6 months, we already owned a beagled named Lilly. For the next 11 years, the running joke was that Lilly was queen, and Radar was her toadie. He washed her, ran with her, brought her treats, and would even bark for her if she wanted to go outside. He literally did everything for her.

Lilly eventually died of cancer, and we were sure that Radar would be utterly devestated without her. He wasn't. He looked for her for about the first day, then seemed to forget she had ever existed.


On the other hand, my own Argon lived as a single dog for a year since his adoption, when I took in a foster dog, Neon. Argon is someone DA and never seemed to care much for Neon one way or the other. After 4 months, Neon died of a fast growing cancer. Argon was crushed. He looked for Neon fofr weeks, laid in his bed, and acted like his world had ended. It was so strange.

My answer? There's no guessing.

They do all vary, it seems. When my old Lab, Bonnie died, Lyric, my Dobe would go off into the woods on my property several times a day for maybe 10 minutes at a time. It seemed he was looking for her because he didn't disappear like that normally. Inside the house, he seemed restless...would lie on his chair or couch for a while, then get up, go down the hall into the bedrooms and back to his chair again. He seemed a little depressed, but not so obvious that I could be sure. Anyhow...all this went on for about 2 weeks, then he seemed more back to his old self.

The Chihuahuas, although they had lived with Bonnie much longer than Lyric had, didn't show me any definite signs of depression or of missing her.

When Lyric died, the Chihuahuas were a little mopy, but no strong signs of depression..no searching for him or anything. It's very strange how they can all differ so much.

I hope your fella will be okay soon. They do seem to get over it eventually though.

When Buffy died, I thought I was going to lose Bimmer too. He grieved HARD. He wouldn't eat unless I stood there and begged him to. He'd eat for me, but not for himself.

When we brought Shiva home, he came out of it some, but not fully. He didn't really recover and begin to live fully again until I brought Kharma home. She was bred from the same father as Buffy and her dam was bred from the same mother, different sire and even though she's definitely an individual you can tell she's closely related to Buffy. Kharma brought the spark back into his eyes.