Are dogs mournful when their owners pass on?
Pets often experience the heartbreak of losing a human companion. While it might be easy to assume that pets don’t feel grief as profoundly, I want to show there are strong emotional ties between humans and their companion animals that should not be ignored.
As I began my work as an animal communicator, I engaged in many conversations with animals about this. My initial assumption was that dogs did not grieve. After many people came to me seeking better understanding for their pets, I started digging deeper into what animals were sharing with me – it took years of intuitive connections with animals for me to fully realize what pets were telling me: although they don’t experience mourning like us humans do, they need our support in understanding what’s going on and helping them adjust.
Stay close, because I’m about to outline three strategies you can employ when helping an animal deal with the loss of a human (plus one more important piece at the end that must be done to assist pets in adapting).
How Do Dogs Grieve: Preparing Pets for Loss
In order to properly support a grieving dog, you need to understand their relationship with us humans as well as any outside forces they encounter on a regular basis.
Pets connect with us humans (and all people in general) on two levels. First is physical: animals often show pain on the physical level if something hurts them or show jealousy; sometimes they even inform us they need food! On a second, less visible level comes emotional connection: when an animal tells us their foot hurts or lets us know they need feedings!
But there’s also another level, called Soul Level. Here they focus on sensing their owner’s emotions such as pain, joy and overall well-being; no longer discussing survival matters but rather discussing topics such as, “I know my human is sad”, or “I know my human is sick”.
As dogs develop deep emotional connections to their humans that transcend physical aspects, the Soul Level comes into play when preparing our pets for the death of a loved one and supporting their mourning process.
Grieving Dogs While grief is inevitable for our furry companions, there are ways you can help prepare your canine friend for its imminent departure.
1. Set out an explicit plan to help dogs grieve the death of their owner when the time comes.
As part of your efforts to help a dog cope with grief, the first step should be ensuring there is a plan in place when their human passes away. Make sure everyone involved feels good about this decision – that includes yourself.
If this plan does not feel right to you, or the animal’s human is unsupportive of it, then that will impede efforts to prepare everyone involved for what lies ahead – including your pet!
2. Engage in an open and honest dialogue with our pet mes Once we have our plan in place, the second step should be taking advantage of the fact that animals do understand what we’re telling them.
Talk to your dog calmly and reassuringly about their loss in a nonjudgmental and soothing manner, showing empathy while remaining present for them. No need to simplify things for them or talk like they’re children; treat them like adults before explaining what has happened.
Yes, it may be hard to imagine, but your pet will understand! Everything should go smoothly as long as you implement step number three.
For more insight into animal crossing-over, I recommend my book The Incredible Animal Afterlife which contains what I have learned from those crossing or already on the other side.
3. Dogs Understand Death; Here’s How You Can Provide Emotional Support
A third way that you can assist dogs during grief is to notify them as soon as their human dies – let them know the moment the momentous occasion arrives and then provide emotional support as appropriate.
People often mistakenly believe that pets need to see past over human to understand what’s going on; however, this is simply not the case. Do dogs understand death? Absolutely – as they have learned unconditional love on a Soul Level level which allows them to sense what’s happening around them. All you need to do when someone passes is let your pet know: “Yes, your human has crossed over.”
How Can You Assist a Grieving Dog and Adjust After Their Human’s Passing
If you weren’t able to prepare your pet prior to their human’s passing over, now is an opportune moment to do it. Talk with them about it and tell them: “Hello pet. Unfortunately this has happened; now let’s put together a plan so we can ensure you live an amazing life; here’s where I will share this plan with you.”
Once the person responsible has moved, and your pet is now alone in its new environment, it’s crucial that they lead the way into it. Introduce them gradually by gradually introducing new objects or people. When this has been accomplished, let your dog guide the way into his/her new space – for instance by bringing new people and items in to introduce the animal slowly into its new surroundings.
Allowing your pet to lead is key. This doesn’t mean leaving them there without assistance… rather take a step back and allow them to adjust to their new space on their own terms. They will show signs by doing certain things that let you know their preferences in their new environment – but they cannot do this if you are constantly watching or worrying about them!
Dogs do mourn when their owners pass, they just do it differently than humans do. So they need both emotional and energetic space in which to adjust to this new reality; giving them time and space can help. Help bring them home, set them up properly, then step away so they can do what needs to be done on their own.
Bonus Tip – Maintaining a Calm and Balanced Presence
It is also essential that you prioritize your own emotional well-being during challenging moments, because without calmness and balance you will make things harder on both yourself and the animal. If not managed well, animals won’t adjust as easily or the process will become much less smooth.
When speaking to or interacting with your pet, whether that involves discussing plans and communicating the plan directly, introducing them into new environments, or any form of interaction, make sure you and they both feel safe.
Do dogs grieve? Absolutely, just like we humans do. So to assist a pet through their mourning process, make sure you’re feeling okay yourself – grieve is present, but without becoming overwhelming; simply share the pain from within yourself rather than trying to fake smile and pretend everything’s fine when things aren’t. Our animals intuitively feel what’s going on – fake smiling won’t fool them; be open about your emotions if necessary and be honest about where in the process you are currently standing.
Grieving for Dogs Can Be Difficult. But Animal Communication Can Ease the Process Dogs do mourn when their owner dies, showing how profoundly connected to humans they are. By helping our dogs navigate this difficult period and supporting them during it, we can assist them through it more successfully and aid their transition after grieving the death of someone dear.
If you want to learn more about animal communication and supporting a grieving pet, I encourage you to become an animal communicator.
Starting off is never easy. I recommend enrolling in an animal communication course to learn intuitively how to connect with your pet, or reading my book “Animal Lessons: Unlock Your Pet’s Secret Messages”, which will guide you through uncovering all that your beloved companion has been teaching you throughout their lives and is the ideal tool to start you on this exciting journey!
