DOGeriatriaWarm Home For Your Senior Dog

The death of your loved one evolves with the intense emotions of grief. Your dog became a true family member, more than just a best friend; furthermore, “he may symbolize many things to each of us. It may reflect the ideal mate or parent, ever faithful, patient and welcoming, loving us unconditionally” (here).
Your dog was part of your life for many years; therefore, you might find yourself doing your daily care routine for your dog even after he dies because you are so used to it. This could be an uneasy feeling of emptiness to cope with, but just remember that it is natural and is an accepted phase of grief. Try to get a framework through the day that will help you to change your customs. “Custom becomes second nature” – baal hasolam.

With owning a dog, it is almost certain that you will need to cope with his death because a dog’s lifespan (approximately 13.3 years) is shorter than a human’s. In this post, you will acknowledge the natural phases that a person lives through after losing his good old friend, and will gain some tips to cope with your loss.

Inscribed here, grief is a healing process and an emotional suffering we feel after a loss of some kind. Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross divided the grief into 5 phases, which are shown in this video:

• First phase: Denial
• Second phase: Anger
• Third phase: Bargaining
• Fourth phase: Depression
• Fifth phase: Acceptance

In order to cope with death and help you go through these phases of grief, it is suggested you do the following:

• Try talking to friends who own a dog and share what you feel.
• Memorialize your dog: write a poem (you can visit my dog loss quotes post to get some ideas), write him a letter, make a sculpture of him\her, make a photo slide show of your best photos, open a website to memorialize him, gather all your photos and make a scrapbook. You can even write your funniest stories next to the photos.
• In some cases, getting another dog can fill the emptiness after the loss of your loved dog, but don’t rush into it. Let some time pass and get a new dog when you feel you are ready.
• Call your local humane society to see if there are any support groups for pet loss.

In some cases, we need to deal with our children’s emotions when losing a pet, as described in the next video (even though the video is about a fish that died, we can still learn a lot about children and adults’ reaction to the loss of a pet). In the next few months, I’ll post an article about childrens’ coping with loss.