PUPPY LOST BOTH BROTHERS FROM HIS LITTER .HE IS 5 MONTHS OLD WILL HE ALWAYS REMEMBER HIS BROTHERS?
Byafter being ill also he survived .1 puppy got sick and died within 24 hours .the other 2 puppies just cried and grieved all night .the next day the other puppy was sick he lived 3 days with a lot of care and meds.he passed and the now only one left went crazy…he got violately sick shaking all the things humans do after such a severe lost will he remember his brothers they were so close never ever apart from each other till now…how long will it take for him to start feeling better you can see the saddness in his eyes very heart breaking…i love him so much he fought very hard to stay with us and not to go with his brothers now he seems so sad anything that will help??/i’ll try anything to ease his pain..it makes me sad that he choose to be with us and now he has to go through all this pain…to top this off his mother dog just died of cancer all this within a 3 week time…first one died on 6-28-2010,the second on 7-1-2010,the mother on 7-18-2010…poor baby i just don’t know what todo it is hard as a family we loved each one sooo much it’s hard for us i can only imagine what it is like for him…my pain is nothing compared to his……….getting another dog is totally out of the question….i won’t do that again unless just an emergency need.
10 Comments
August 27th, 2011 at 1:15 PM
He might seem mopey for a week or so. Not any longer. He never looked at the other dogs as his brothers. They were just other members of the pack. He will look for them, and then decide they are gone and he will go on with his doggie life. Dogs don’t have family ties. They don’t think that way…people do.
August 27th, 2011 at 2:00 PM
Your puppy will go through the grieving process but WILL forget and will learn to be happy again – it may take a few weeks or a couple of months but it will happen. Just make sure you give your pooch lots of love and affection during this time.
August 27th, 2011 at 2:25 PM
No, he is not a human, he is a dog with a very poor short-term memory. His litter dying of parvo or whatever it is they had will not burn into his retinas and replay over and over like a cheesy disney movie. Dogs are pretty darn resilient!
Are you sure he isn’t sick? Please take him to a vet and have a full workup done, especially if you did not get the litter into the vet when they were dying. If he’s shaking and trembling he’s probably lonely, as any puppy is lonely when nobody is around, and he may be cold without the warmth of his littermates that he’s accustomed to.
Your dog isn’t traumatized, don’t worry about that. He’s probably sick, though, and cold and lonely. Keep him in a crate or box when he isn’t out and about playing. Put an unwashed t-shirt of yours into the box so he has a familiar scent, and perhaps place a warm water bottle (not hot, do NOT raise his core temperature) in there for him to snuggle up. Should make him feel better.
He is not in any emotional pain. He’s a dog. They don’t share the same deep emotional bonds that we do, they simply act and react.
Be very careful with the love and affection thing. Google NILIF training and read up on how to interact with a timid dog as well so you understand why you should avoid coddling him when he’s moping, shaking, and sad. Trying to soothe and comfort him as if he were a child is psychologically confusing to a dog, they do not understand that uniquely human behavior because it is not something they do.
August 27th, 2011 at 2:29 PM
You are humanising this way way way too much.
Your puppy is NOT feeling all that you think he is feeling.
Stop molly-coddling him and jolly him through this. If a puppy goes to a new home as most do then yes they are stressed for a couple of days, but if this pup has stayed within his home but lost siblings and mum, then it isn’t a lot different.
You don’t need to do anything to ease HIS pain, but you need to ease yours obviously. Dogs do feel emotion but not to the degree that your pain is nothing compared to his.
Come on – pull yourself together and just get this little dog out and about and enjoying life.
August 27th, 2011 at 3:27 PM
I don’t think dogs really remember anything that happened five minutes ago in the sense that humans do. The pup may have a conditioned reflex of being part of a group and so will always want to be part of a group. Dogs are basically pack animals. People are too sentimental about dogs.
August 27th, 2011 at 3:47 PM
You are really humanizing your pup. You cannot see the sadness in his eyes. He is not sad, you are and you are projecting that feeling onto him. Dogs are wonderful, extraordinary creatures, but they do not feel human emotion the way we do. He will not remember his littermates, and he will not remember his mother. He was very sick himself, and very young. If dogs even did remember things as you and I do, he was too busy fighting for survival.
If your dog was old enough to have interaction with pups and Mom, he may “remember” contact with animal, he may remember things like bite inhibition…he absolutely does not remember his sibs. Dogs can shake and react as you have described ..to a change in their lives. They shake because they are no longer a part of a pile of dogs…that shaking removes the energy, and they move on.
I can feel YOUR pain…this was an awful thing to have happened. But it is you who are suffering, not your dog.
Do you know your dog can feel YOUR pain? He does understand your energy…which is very sad, and he is probably reflecting that back to you.
You need to take a deep breath and move on. And let your dog move on as well. There is a lot of joy left to be had in his life…let him find it! (And you find it too)!
August 27th, 2011 at 4:27 PM
I hate to say dogs don’t have family ties, because in my opinion, I believe dogs are capable of feeling love and loss and happiness and sorrow. Dogs don’t feel love like we do for our signifigant others, but I believe they do feel the same kind of love we feel for our families and friends, and for them. Dogs are more emotional then we think. There have been stories of dogs dying of a broken heart when their loved ones pass away, or saving another dogs life because they love them. The emotions aren’t as complex as ours, and your puppy won’t greive for the rest of his life like a human would with this kind of loss, but the emotions are there.
Your baby will grieve for a while. He misses them. They were his world. Dogs that stay with their littermates or mother become very dependant on them because they are pack animals. There will be long nights where he can’t sleep and cries, but this will pass and in time he will forget them completely. Just make him more of a part of your own family. Start taking him out more to socialize with other dogs. Try a dog park weekly, or puppy play groups, or doggie day camp. Start to take him out with your family and include him as much as you can. Spend more time training him and walking him and playing with him.
He will forget, but it’s not like he has no emotions. He’s hurting right now.
August 27th, 2011 at 4:37 PM
Dogs have short term memories and will not remember. A human infant or small child would rarely remember either.
August 27th, 2011 at 5:26 PM
That’s sad I know how you feel I know this is sad to for you but take it to the pound and he will always remember.
August 27th, 2011 at 5:42 PM
Please don’t attach human emotions to a dog, they are not capable of them. Of course he won’t always remember his brothers.
EDIT: EMMA, WTF are you talking about? Take it to the pound and he will always remember? HUH?