Do Dogs Mourn?
Do Dogs Mourn?
I believe they know when something just isn’t right or as it should be. Our chocolate lab we had to do a 72 hour vet check because a nosey older lady would not leave our family alone. Which is another reason I’m done with city living I’m packing it up and moving to a wide open field of nothing but open visions.
There is so much land the ideas what I can do is endless but no neighbors in many ways its solitude in others in an emergency your nearest neighbor is over 5 miles away there are no stores, no pay phones nothing but a field of dreams waiting to unfold.
In March one of my neighbors not really a direct neighbor because we don’t even live on the same street its just her back yard so happens to be adjacent to mine. As I started telling you in brief in a different blog, we had been here in the city for six years and our dogs were still puppies but the last two of the pups a lady had. I told my kids to get small dogs you keep in the house but yaya and her siblings pouted like two year olds but we want them both.
They weren’t in the house two weeks and outdoors I kicked them both to the curb with their over grown ox selves. Well in the back yard oh they were freeeeeeee to roam like pure hunting dogs one was a golden retriever (Shadow) and the other a chocolate lab (Meeko) brothers do or die fool, partners homies, best buds for life thing. Monkey see monkey do some of the time. Well one day Shadow got out the back yard by climbing the very back gate of a different neighbor but he always came back unhurt.
After much scolding it didn’t seem to faze him so yaya had it she tied her dog up, While the only reason my son tied Meeko up was to eat when he was sure his sister’s dog was done he’d untie his. Oh Shadow didn’t care if he was tied up in fact as long as he had a warm body to cuddle with and his teddy bears and brother he was cool. Then in March 2014 this nosey lady started calling the city animal people on us complaining that the dogs are tied up mine you we erected that $800 sixty-foot wood privacy fence how would she possible know which dog was tied up? She already knew Shadow been tied up for years but he wasn’t the one protesting Meeko was.
Have you ever heard of a dog who is suppose to be a guard dog afraid of the dark? Well the patio light blew out or something is going on with the wiring it comes on when it feel like it and Meeko is not a dog who like thunderstorms, fire crackers or lights out he has to see what is lurking about. Well he started discovering he can climb a fence. We boarded it and he still went over the chairs, then he learned how to be a gymnastic dog yep he tweaked the fence between me and a neighbor on the drive way side he scaled that fence he jumped down got low walked over to my son and said is that the best you can do. We were at our wits end and here comes animal control you guessed it she complained now their both tied up. My question is if she was sooooooooo concerned about their safety why didn’t she bother to call the law out way before this year?
Because of her insistent busy body calling we were told to turn both the dogs loose so in June Shadow got out the yard when we went to feed them supper he was long gone well into the dawning of the next morning except he came back hurt. I told the Lord if somebody took him he don’t belong to them he’s ours let him go.
If this lady took him deal with her mightily in Jesus’ name. If he’s laying somewhere hurt have the angels carry him back home. Just don’t let him dies out there somewhere all alone we’re his family and Meeko is looking for his brother frantically even climbing a chain link gate tore his tee-shirt up he just wanted to know where is Shadow? So Shadow came back early the morning of the 8th of June he seemed okay at the first he had so much fur who could really tell but wherever he was he was muddy so yaya gave him a bath. We didn’t know he was hurt he limped a tiny bit but oh he was walking like a champ see I’m okay. Meeko was okay but by night fall he knew everything was not in the least bit alright. Shadow was not playing with him it was no longer boys will be boys ride or die fools; Shadow was slipping away and the morning of the 9th of June he died in the night and Meeko stood watch from afar off. We buried him and from that day since he’s never been the same.
We took him to two different vets, the one said oh he just need to go to obedience school he’ll be okay, another said oh he’s suffering from anxiety he just need some pills he’ll be just fine so we tried that for a while it’s the same as like putting a child on Ritalin he turned into a sleeping zombie just so he wouldn’t bark. The city said we had to bring him in the house or fined for tying him back up. We tried to explain look Sirs we already have one missing dog and he’s a big dog over 70 lbs and in case you haven’t noticed we do live across the street from a elementary school all we’re doing is trying to prevent something bad. In the house or we’re going to fine you. So we brought this huge dog in the house in under a month its like solitary confinement he wanted to find his brother. He took out half my son’s room with his front paws alone. He flattened a whole dresser, he destroyed boxes and anything else even the windows blinds we called them to come get him. They said we can’t.
Then call a different vet oh he’s in mourning for a loss companion. Another vet said oh you need to put a shock collar on him that’ll straighten him out so my last ditch effort and I really couldn’t afford it I went to Walmart and bought a Large size Dog Kennel to put his destructive behind in it because the animal control lady really wasn’t making no sense if I can’t tie him up OUTSIDE why is it OKAY for us to tie him up INSIDE? Then she mentioned something about a kennel. You can put him inside of a kennel. I can’t afford a $300 outdoor kennel so I said Lord there has got to be another way cheaper. Then my oldest girl said Walmart sales indoor kennels. And after a long beat up day you don’t know the half of it. I walked to 7-11 ALONE in severe pain slowly pushing my walker to use the ATM, and slowly back so the cat could eat and some transmission fluid so I could go get my car inspected (IT PASSED Weeeeeeeeeeeeee) Then it ran out of gas on my oldest girl, then it needed a jump she called me 3x’s.So I called a friend of my husband who is a ex-army buddy who works on car’s to please go help her I can’t move.
He came got me, in case we needed a battery at last he jumped it and off we went to the post office and Walmart. I got that cage hours after I became a full member because yaya said I got the money let’s do this so we are officially full time on WA. And Meeko is in his new kennel and just maybe my son can start cleaning up his bedroom or I should say what’s left of it and we know we don’t have to tie him up cause he is not ever going to be able to destroy that metal phew finally a product tougher than he is and built for war. And now today my husband’s friend is coming to give me a hand with my right blinker on the van so I can drive it to go get inspected.
So yeah dogs do and can mourn if their owners die or another pet they grew accustomed to , played dearly with he’s off all medicine and seems content he protested to being tied up now he is free to roam in that big kennel he shuts up no need for something as inhuman as a shock collar to behave.
Dee~
Man you really don't actually understand your dogs, from a dog point of view...you attach human emotions to them which are simply not real. those emotions are human interpretation of dog behaviour based on human experience. I'm not actually saying this to upset you, but to possibly help you & your dogs present and future.
Chaining up any dog is simply unnecessary and actually quite wrong, no wonder they tried to escape over the fence. By nature they are pack animals, who in the wild would explore with their pack most of the day.
To have happy well behaved dogs, who don't try to escape you need to do 2 things. 1) include the dogs in your family life, with boundaries of course, but allow them to be in YOUR pack with humans as the alpha pack leaders. 2) walk your dogs, I mean at least a good hour in the morning and in the evening...if they are tired and content, negative energy will be released and they will be quite happy to laze around all day without trying to escape.
I'm not saying you are a bad person, you quite obviously love your dogs but it's important to understand the dog to give it the best life...and yeah you're right dogs do miss other pack members for a short while. I call it pining, which can go on for a few weeks at most...n the most part they pick up on body language of people so can read our emotions in that way...if you are happy and confident, walk the dog and be assertive, this pining will pass a lot quicker. Hope some of that helps you in some way.
All the best :)
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These dogs did go on walks in the evening we don't know why they started scaling a chain link fence,Heck we didn't even know big dogs like this even knew how to climb any fence.I knew they couldn't stand small dogs and would out of nowhere willful attack them.They almost killed a small indoor dog of ours who wasn't even bothering them
The animal people said its fine to separate the two dogs at meal time and we did this.However one day my son went out fed the dogs fell asleep Meeko was barking his head off. So we explained why he was tied up.We never got into any trouble over nor fined for it it we simply didn't know such a law existed.The man just said YES we could restrain them during school hours or meal time *we showed them how the attack each other.So YES we could tie just one while they ate "Meeko". That dog ate 3x's a day very high strung energetic always on the go hi protein vet ordered food.
We were almost done putting up our privacy fence at the very back, the first thing I asked the kids since it had a lot of trees in the way have they ever seen the dogs CLIMB this end of the yard? No never, always a first right? Well I told the fence guy hey start here first then work his way up from the problematic spot corner to corner.Well we paid the dude for the work he ran off never finished the yard.Thankfully since I paid for my own wood he left it and I finished the other 60ft myself.All I lacked was the wooded section 75ft unsecured.
I was out measuring a building we're getting ready to upgrade lo and behold guess what those neighbors directly behind us own? Two small dogs that's why Shadow/Meeko started figuring how to get out the yard,They also have two small children I saw provoking these 70+ lbs dogs.I wasn't trying to be mean we bought these dogs beds, toys, they had great vet visits otherwise their healthy as they should be.I was trying to hurry to erect that back fencing with the smooth side facing us so they couldn't hoist themselves over.
When your only means of support is social security funds are tight its unfornuate Shadow got out the yard around dinner couldn't be found.Thanks about the word "pining" never heard of it.Meeko is fine now but he still don't like smaller dogs.
She was fine around people and kids, but small animals and occasionally larger dogs sent her crazy. I had to cycle with her, 3 miles in the morning and 3 at night just to burn off the negative energy. without that she had the potential to be a dangerous dog. Well in fact for those reasons she was a dangerous dog.
We had to put her to sleep after an incident with a baby lamb...she slipped her collar on a farm and hunted down this poor lamb. had she killed it instantly and painlessly I would have put it down to her hunting instincts of the breed, but unfortunately she literally torn off it's scalp and played with it for a good 5 minutes before killing it.
In that time I wrestled with her to get her to stop and she was so agile she just gave me the run around and I couldn't keep a hold of her. The hardest thing I've ever done was go to the vets to end her life. But being a responsible owner I was well aware of the consequences had the same happened to a child...with kids it's the high pitch noise and excitement or fear that triggers the hunting reflex in a dog.
Which brings me back to your situation. You are not much different from many other dog owners and I really don't mean that in a negative way. It's clear to me you took on 2 large breeds with the very best intentions.
The problem for most owners, and I can bet yourself included, is that they don't realise the energy of these large breeds. Labs are working dogs, without the regular high energy burning workouts they go crazy.
The aggression to smaller dogs happens because they don't know any other way to release that pent up energy, so it ultimately comes out in a negative way...in fact this can relate to any dog, with any behavioural issue. When a dog is tired, it becomes a bit more docile, easier to train, easier to manage and a lot happier for it too.
With Meeko, a few things might help you. If at any point you get the chance to buy a tread mill for cheap, that'll work wonders. coax him onto the mill with food, be calm and assertive with him making sure he uses his nose to sniff the food..that'l get him on the treadmill and with a few tries he'll be fine walking on it.
15 minutes at what you would consider a brisk walking pace will burn enough energy for you to take him outside on the lead. 20 minutes locally round your block would finish his workout nicely, but at a brisk pace. If he shows signs on the walk that he wants to attack another dog, tug the lead hard but keep walking...never allow the time for him to stop and fight your authority, keep moving forward so his eyes are on you...pass the obstacle in this way and when clear still moving put a treat in line with his nose....the scent of the treat will distract him from the other dog and reward him for following your lead.
WOW that was long sorry. I just love dogs and if I can show people ways to improve thing for themself and their dog, then it was worth the effort. Anyway, you don't have to take my advice, but I suggest try some of those tips for a month. I can 100% guarantee you will see some improvements even without the tread mill, although a mill will make it easier on you and the family.
thanks for reading lol :)
