How do help my dog cope with the loss of our older dog

[robb]

Hi

We lost our old girl 2 weeks ago and our young ***** (2 and a half) has just started to behave strangely and is obviously missing her mate. We gave her some rescue remedy originally and changed her routine but now she has become very clingy, follows us around all the time and only settles at night when we are all sitting in the same room watching TV.

Also she has started waking up much earlier than normal, she's always told us when it was time to get up but used to go thru the night, now she she's awake after 4-5 hours. We did try taking her to sleep in our bedroom but again she just wanders from one side of the bed to the other and will not settle,

Has breaking the routine added to the problem, it was suggested by our vet? Is there anything we can do, we were thinking of taking her away for a few days but wonder if it may make things worse?

Any suggestions about what else we could do?

Thanks

Rob

[Mattie]

I am sorry you have lost your old girl, I have 2 living on borrowed time at the moment and will have to face this soon.

Keep up with the Rescue Remedy, grief takes quite some time to get over.

Changing your routine won't have helped either, she was already feeling vunerable and then everything changed. If my dogs wake me up early, I check they don't want to toilet then tell them to go back to bed. At first they kept pestering me but now they go back to bed when told until it is time to get up.

[Gershep1]

Hi

We lost our old girl 2 weeks ago and our young ***** (2 and a half) has just started to behave strangely and is obviously missing her mate. We gave her some rescue remedy originally and changed her routine but now she has become very clingy, follows us around all the time and only settles at night when we are all sitting in the same room watching TV.

Also she has started waking up much earlier than normal, she's always told us when it was time to get up but used to go thru the night, now she she's awake after 4-5 hours. We did try taking her to sleep in our bedroom but again she just wanders from one side of the bed to the other and will not settle,

Has breaking the routine added to the problem, it was suggested by our vet? Is there anything we can do, we were thinking of taking her away for a few days but wonder if it may make things worse?

Any suggestions about what else we could do?

Thanks

Rob

I'm so sorry for your loss, Robb.

I don't see any reason to change your youngster's routine. In fact, keeping things as "normal" as possible probably helps. If she isn't used to and love travel, taking her away might stress her more. Dogs certainly grieve, they often become clingy, it takes a while for them to adjust, and they pick up on our sorrow. But thankfully, in most cases, they recover faster than we do. Give the Rescue Remedy only if she shows a lot of unusual stress, such as excessive panting or hyperactivity for no physical/health reason; otherwise, she doesn't really need it.

If she changed her sleeping habits when your other dog was alive, what would you do? I'd say treat her the same, calmly telling her to get to bed, quiet down, whatever your usual reaction would be. The natural response is to indulge them and try to comfort them, but that can seem weird to them too and you don't want to set up a behavior problem that could go on and on. Keeping the same boundaries is part of a stable living pattern for her.