Canines Discovered to Grieve When Another Pet Dog Dies in Same Household

A dog's death brings a lot of negative emotions for its owners. However, the sadness and grief could be much worse if a household consists of more than one dog.

Surviving Dogs Grieve the Loss of House Companion

According to a new study, other dogs left by a departed member of the place could show signs of grief. The observed phenomenon happens if the pets live and develop in the same home.

The study was led by scholars from the University of Milan. According to the experts, some of the negative emotions exhibited by the furry pets whose friends left behind are loss of appetite, being an attention seeker, and excessive whining.

Grief is an emotion that was reportedly present in animals as well. The species that express the same woe include elephants and birds. The recent study shows the first-ever evidence of grievance in Canis familiaris.

The study included several observations that could tell how the dogs feel when someone from their companions dies. The data had several changes in their expressed emotions and the shift in their behavior following the departure of a friend.

The investigation of grief in dogs was made possible through the help of 426 dog-owners located in Italy. Each of the subjects had one pet canine that died while owning at least one other dog.

The authors laid out a survey for the participants to measure and review each level of grief they had experienced upon the death of their pets. Alongside the pet owners, the data information from the surviving dog's behavioral reaction and relationships with other pets were also collected from the survey.

The majority of the participants, which raised to 86 percent, reported a behavioral shift in the surviving dogs. Of the total subjects, 32 percent said that the changes from their pets continued for two to six months following the death of a separate dog. The remaining 25 percent reported a much longer period.

Whining, Less Eating, and Fear, Among Behaviors Observed in Surviving Pet Dogs

Specific behavior changes of the surviving dogs were also collected from the investigation. According to the study, 65 percent of the subjects had dogs that became more attention-seeking. Fifty-seven percent said their pets played rarely, and 46 percent said their dogs became less active.

On the other hand, 35 percent of the owners reported that their dogs became more fearful and had a longer sleeping time than usual. Thirty-two percent of the owners said that their dogs lost appetite, and 30 percent increased on expressing noises such as whining and barking.

Ninety-two percent of the dogs included in the investigation lived with other pets for more than a year, while 69 percent were reported to have friendly ties with other dogs of the house.

The length of living together did not affect the surviving dogs' behavior towards the death of a member.

University of Milan's Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science expert Federica Pirrone, who was also the lead author of the study, said in a DailyMail report that a friendly relationship between the owners and across the pets is the common factor that drives the level of grief in survivors.

The grief, according to Pirrone, is much higher if the surviving dogs had a stronger relationship, either friendly or parental, to the deceased one. The author advised that owners can share their activities with their pets, keep close to them, and make them feel protected to support them in their grieving process.

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports, titled "Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) grieve over the loss of a conspecific."

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