Unfortunately, it’s the nature of pet ownership to lose your beloved fluff ball. The average human will live eight decades, but a dog’s lifespan is much shorter.
According to the American Kennel Club, dogs live for an average of 10 to 13 years, depending on the breed.
That means that every human who welcomes a sweet pup into the family will have to eventually face the tricky proposition of losing a furry best friend.
In fact, it can be really hard to prepare for that moment.
That’s why we put together a list of important things all pooch-owners should know for the day their beloved dog dies.
#1: The Grief Will Hit Hard
You might be surprised by how hard you are hit by grief.
It’s easy to think that you will be able to cope with the death of your pet, but people often discover that they are just as devastated by the loss of their dog as they would be by any death.
Even though humans know intellectually that they’ll have to say goodbye to their beloved dogs eventually, it doesn’t make it any easier to face the reality.
#2: You Might Feel Guilty
Guilt is a totally normal emotion to experience as you’re processing your loss and grief, but people are sometimes taken aback by how strongly they blame themselves.
People worry that perhaps there was something more they could have done early, they worry that they made the wrong decision, or that they missed a sign that their pup was in pain or unwell.
These worries are totally normal, but try not to let them take you over. At some point, you have to trust that you did everything you could for your sweet pup, and he loved you for it.
#3: Your Vet Will Be More Of A Comfort Than You Expect
During your dog’s lifetime, the veterinarian is just the person who gives your pup shots and diagnoses infections.
After you pup dies, the veterinarian might become your best friend for a while.
That’s because vets see this kind of loss every day, and they often know exactly how to support and comfort a grieving pet parent.
Vets can also help you with details like figuring out how to lay your dog to rest; many vets offer cremation services and memorial boxes.
#4: Grief Can Spike Unexpectedly
Laura Caseley for LittleThings
After you lose your dog, you’ll probably spend a few days mourning before slowly starting to feel better.
When that happens, it’s easy to think that the worst of your grief is behind you, though that often isn’t the case.
Sometimes, grief will reemerge as fresh and painful as the day your dog died. Know that the grieving process is long and complex, and let it take its natural course.
#5: You Might Have To Make The Choice
Laura Caseley for LittleThings
For many dog owners, the most difficult part of losing their pet actually comes before the pet passes on.
Many owners find themselves in the painful position of choosing to end the dog’s life, and having him put to sleep.
When you adopt a dog, you have to be prepared for the possibility of making this choice.
If your dog is elderly, in pain, and unable to comprehend what’s happening, it might be your responsibility to help him avoid unnecessary pain and suffering.
#6: It’s Worth Asking For Paw Prints
Laura Caseley for LittleThings
After your dog passes away, your vet will usually offer to help with the remains, often by cremation.
Before that happens, you might want to ask the vet to take your dog’s paw prints for you.
Many vets are happy to help you through your goodbye by giving you one last memento of your beloved pup.
Even as you move on, having his paw prints is a lovely way to remember a loyal and beloved friend.
#7: If Possible, Be There
Laura Caseley for LittleThings
We don’t always have a choice in how our dogs pass on.
If it’s an accident or completely unexpected, you might not be with your dog at the end.
However, if you can choose to be with your dog, definitely do it, though it might be painful for you.
What’s important is that your dog will feel loved and unafraid with you by his side holding his paw.
#8: Remember, You Gave Your Pup The Best Life
Laura Caseley for LittleThings
Eventually, as the weeks and months pass, you’ll find yourself healing. You’ll never stop loving and missing your dog, but you’ll know that your pup is in a better place now.
Most important of all, you will know that, while he was here with you, you gave him the best life ever.
He loved you to pieces, and we bet he wouldn’t have traded one second of the life the two of you had together.
September 25, 2017
by
The Animal Health Foundation
By Dr. Jean Dodds at Hemopet in Garden Grove, CA
Depending on where you live, many businesses are now increasingly pet-friendly such as clothing stores, hotels, pet supply stores, photography studios, etc. For people who use and need service dogs for medical purposes or assistance, this can be a blessing and sometimes a problem. Compounding the problem is the definition of what is considered to be a service animal.
According to the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) website, “A service animal is defined as a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. The task(s) performed by the dog must be directly related to the person’s disability.” [The new ADA regulations also contain a specific provision which covers miniature horses.]
Under the ADA, service dogs allow people with medical conditions or disabilities to function and participate in society such as going to movie theatres, the grocery store, work, restaurants, etc. A service dog may pull a wheelchair. Another example is that a service dog can help a person with epilepsy by detecting and then keeping the person safe during a seizure. Of course, many of us frequently see guide dogs for people with visual impairments.
Businesses and other entities do have rights that protect them if a particular service animal behaves in a way that poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others or is not under the control of the handler.
Additionally, businesses can ask two specific questions about service animals – that do not violate or interfere with the civil rights of people with disabilities – and are then protected from litigation. The ADA website states:
Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?
What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?
Staff are not allowed to request any documentation for the dog’s training, require that the dog demonstrate his/her task, or inquire about the nature of the person’s disability.
Some states have regulations to protect people with disabilities that do not infringe on their civil rights. Colorado passed a law last year that imposes fines on people who misrepresent ordinary dogs as those specifically trained for the purpose of assisting someone with disabilities. California takes the law further. Service dogs must be registered with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which provides standardized identification tags. Anyone in California who falsely claims an animal to be a service animal can be charged with a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for six months or a fine up to $1000 or both.
Fair Housing Act
Depending on the title within the ADA law, ADA is overseen by the Department of Justice (DOJ) or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The Fair Housing Act (FHA) – which is managed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – defines assistance animals, “An assistance animal is nota pet. It is an animal that works, provides assistance, or performs tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability, or provides emotional support that alleviates one or more identified symptoms or effects of a person’s disability.” The FHA states, “Persons with disabilities may request a reasonable accommodation for any assistance animal, including an emotional support animal.”
So, FHA is more all-encompassing to ensure fair housing for everyone. It covers people with disabilities who need a service dog to perform tasks and people who need animals (any type) for emotional support. It overrides “no pets policies” by landlords.
FHA provisions are also built in in case the animal may be considered a danger to others or property. Property owners – if the disability is not apparent – can ask for documentation from a physician, psychiatrist, social worker, or other mental health professional that the animal provides emotional support that alleviates one or more of the identified symptoms or effects of an existing disability. The law does protect civil rights because landlords cannot ask for medical records or the nature of the disability.
Psychiatric Service Dogs
Before we move on, we wanted to touch upon Psychiatric Service Dogs (PSD), as approximately 15 states have statutory definitions of either disability or service dogs that are intentionally worded to exclude PSDs. If a person with a disability and a fully trained PSD qualifies under the ADA, they would still have regular protections under the ADA, but no additional ones provided by the state. These dogs are performing a specific task, such as:
Providing safety checks for, or calming, individuals with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Sensing an anxiety attack and taking a specific action to help avoid the attack or lessen its impact.
Reminding a person with mental illness to take medications.
Preventing or interrupting impulsive or destructive behaviors, such as self-mutilation.
It is certainly sad that psychiatric disorders are considered “murky” or go unrecognized in this day and age.
Air Carrier Access Act
The Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) was enacted to protect the civil rights and health of people with disabilities who use service animals, people with Emotional Support Animals (ESAs), and people with PSDs to be able to bring the animal into the cabin. This law falls under the aegis of the Department of Transportation.
For service animals, airlines can do the following:
Request the credible verbal assurances of a qualified individual with a disability using the animal.
Look for physical indicators such as the presence of a harness or tags.
Observe the behavior of the animal.
For ESA and PSD, airlines can request specific documentation and/or 48-hours advance notice that cannot be older than one year. It must state a mental or emotional disability that is recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and a need for an ESA or PSD for air travel or at a destination. It must be written by a licensed mental health professional who provides care to the person, dated, with type of professional, and jurisdiction or state in which the license was issued.
Airlines are never required to accept snakes, reptiles, ferrets, rodents, and spiders. Additionally, they can refuse an animal if it is not properly behaved. However, an animal cannot be refused if it just makes the crew or other passengers uncomfortable.
Conclusion
Some people sadly take advantage of the ADA, FHA and ACAA.
Regarding ADA, three loopholes appear to exist in the federal law:
The ADA does not require that service animals be certified or licensed. Certification could be considered a barrier to entry and therefore discriminatory.
A service dog does not have to be professionally trained, but can be personally trained. A professional training requirement may be considered a barrier to entry.
Some state and local laws define service animal more broadly than the ADA.
We have to remember that “trained for a specific task” is not the same as well-behaved – and this is where the ADA standards can fall apart.
As noted above, businesses have certain rights. However, businesses are reluctant to deny access to misbehaving service animals or ask if the animal is a service dog because they may pose their questions poorly. Then, they could be prosecuted for violating civil rights. People with disabilities who use well-behaved and trained service dogs are becoming rightfully angry and upset when people are taking advantage of the law.
In addition to the life-saving, emotional and functioning assistance service dogs provide, we need to remember the cost and number of years it took to get the dog to be specially trained. For instance, the full cost to breed, raise and train a service dog to help a child within the autism spectrum can be over $20,000. A guide dog for a person with a visual impairment is around $50,000.
Today, people with well-behaved and trained service dogs are pointing to people with ESAs or PSDs for making life more difficult for them outside of the home and on public transport and planes. In fact, the Advocates’ Service Animal Proposal wants to limit the rights of people with ESAs on planes. But, it is not a problem created by responsible people with legitimate ESAs or PSDs. It is only people who take advantage of the laws, as they are harming the civil rights and protections others desperately need.
W. Jean Dodds, DVM Hemopet / NutriScan
11561 Salinaz Avenue
Garden Grove, CA 92843
It’s sound advice given frequently: Supervise your dogs and kids while they are together. Breeders warn parents, “Don’t leave the dog alone with children, no matter how friendly the breed.” Veterinarians advise, “Never leave a dog and a child in the same room together.” Dog trainers explain, “All dogs can bite so supervise your dog when you have children over.” Everyone knows the drill. So why doesn’t it work? Why are there an estimated 800,000 Americans seeking medical attention for dog bites each year, with over half of these injuries to children ages 5-9?
Note the good intentions of the kids.
Note the closed mouth and half-moon eye of the dog.
Intervene.
The bites are not a result of negligent parents leaving Fido to care for the baby while mom does household chores, oblivious to the needs of her children. In fact, I’ve consulted on hundreds of dog bite cases and 95% of the time the parent was standing within 3 feet of the child watching both child and dog when the child was bitten. Parents are supervising. The problem is not lack of supervision. The problem is no one has taught parents what they should be watching.
Parents generally have not received any education on what constitutes good dog body language and what constitutes an emergency between the dog and the child. Parents generally have no understanding of the predictable series of canine body cues that would indicate a dog might bite. And complicating matters further, most parents get confused by the good intentions of the child and fail to see when a dog is exhibiting signs of stress. The good new is all of this is easy to learn! We can all get better at this.
Here is a simple list to help you improve your supervision skills:
Watch for loose canine body language. Good dog body language is loose, relaxed, and wiggly. Look for curves in your dog’s body when he is around a child. Stiffening and freezing in a dog are not good. If you see your dog tighten his body, or if he moves from panting to holding his breath (he stops panting), you should intervene. These are early signs that your dog is not comfortable.
Watch for inappropriate human behavior. Intervene if your child climbs on or attempts to ride your dog. Intervene if your child pulls the ears, yanks the tail, lifts the jowls or otherwise pokes and prods the dog. Don’t marvel that your dog has the patience of Job if he is willing to tolerate these antics. And please don’t videotape it for YouTube! Be thankful your dog has good bite inhibition and intervene before it’s too late.
Watch for these three really easy to see stress signals in your dog. All of them indicate you should intervene and separate the child and dog:
Yawning outside the context of waking up
Half-moon eye – this means you can see the whites on the outer edges of your dog’s eyes.
Lip licking outside the context of eating food
Watch for avoidance behaviors. If your dog moves away from a child, intervene to prevent the child from following the dog. A dog that chooses to move away is making a great choice. He’s saying, “I don’t really want to be bothered, so I’ll go away.” However, when you fail to support his great choice and allow your child to continue to follow him, it’s likely the dog’s next choice will be, “Since I can’t get away, I’ll growl or snap at this kid to get the child to move away.” Please don’t cause your dog to make that choice.
Listen for growling. I can’t believe how many times I’ve heard parents say, “Oh, he growled all the time but we never thought he would bite.” Dog behavior, including aggression, is on a continuum. For dogs, growling is an early warning sign of aggression. Heed it. If growling doesn’t work, the dog may escalate to snapping or biting. Growling is a clue that you should intervene between the dog and the child.
To pet owners, particularly those who also have children, thank you for supervising your dog! As a dog trainer and mother of two, I know that juggling kids and dogs is no easy feat. It takes patience, understanding, and a great deal of supervision. I hope these tips will help you get better at supervising.
PUBLISHED: July 30, 2017 at 7:17 pm | UPDATED: July 31, 2017 at 7:50 am
ANAHEIM Michael Diehl has had Osiris since the pit bull was just a pup. Diehl, 46, suffers from sudden seizures and Osiris helps keep him safe, alerting him before they happen, he said. “He means everything to me,” he said. “He protects me from everything.”
As one of hundreds living on the riverbed of the Santa Ana River Trail, Diehl was among 60 people and their pets who took advantage of free veterinary services offered on Sunday, July 30.
The services were offered by two groups, the Healthcare Emergency Animal Rescue Team out of Yorba Linda run by veterinarians Debra and Dr. Todd Kopit, and Dr. Mark Malo, vice president of the Animal Health Foundation, a nonprofit that is a charitable wing of the Southern California Veterinary Medical Association.
The veterinarians did wellness checks, vaccinations, de-worming and parasite treatment.
“We launched this program because we know there are many services for homeless people but not for their pets, ” said Malo, who also works at the Garden Grove Dog and Cat Hospital. “These people are dedicated to their animals. They would go without their own meals to feed them.”
Angel Nole, 32, brought his dog Bandit, a Dalmatian pit bull-mix, for shots and flea control. He also brought Robin, a six-week-old pup for his first puppy shots.
“It helps out a lot,” said Nole said, adding that he can’t afford any veterinary care.
TJ and Chance Ivey were thankful for the opportunity to get their pit bull-Labrador-mix Daisy checked out.
Daisy has helped make life bearable for the couple, they said.
“She brightens everybody’s day,” TJ Ivey said. “If they’re disgusted with life, she walks up to them and it’s a blessing.”
Thank you Kacey and John for being a great Pet Therapy Team and bringing smiles to so many people since 2009.
Kacey was born in January, 2008 and was adoped by the Smead family from the San Clemente shelter. Kasey loves to fetch toys and chasing sea gulls at the beach. Kacey has 2 yorkie brothers and a papillon sister (who is in charge!).
John and Kacey started their therapy team journey in 2009. They have been visited assisted living homes, CHOC and most, recently, the Juvenile Drug Court group sessions with adolescent boys. John was so committed to the latter that he went back to school for his PhD to be able to participate!
A new study suggests that when dogs are around, groups are closer, more cooperative, and more trusting.
My dog, Casey, is one of my favorite beings on the planet. Not only is he extremely cute, his presence calms me, makes me happy, and helps me to meet new people…especially when I take a walk with him.
My husband and I often joke that if everyone had a dog like Casey, there simply wouldn’t be any wars—the assumption being that everyone would just get along if he were around. Now, a new study suggests that we might be onto something.
Casey the dog
Researchers at Central Michigan University gave small groups tasks to do with or without a companion dog in the room. In the first experiment, groups generated a 15-second ad and slogan for a fictional project—a task requiring cooperation. In the second experiment, groups played a modified version of the prisoner’s dilemma game, in which individual members decide whether to cooperate with one another or to look out only for themselves. All of these interactions were videotaped.
Afterwards, participants reported on how satisfied they felt with the group and how much they trusted group members. In addition, independent raters analyzed the video recordings, looking for displays of cooperation, verbal and physical signs of bonding or closeness, and expressions of vulnerability that indicated trust.
Regardless of the task, groups with a dog showed more verbal and physical signs of closeness than groups without a dog. Also, raters observed more signs of cooperation during the first task, and group members reported that they trusted each other more during the second task, if a dog was in the room.
These results suggest that there is something about the presence of a dog that increases kind and helpful behavior in groups.
“When people work in teams, the presence of a dog seems to act as a social lubricant,” says lead author Steve Colarelli. “Dogs seem to be beneficial to the social interactions of teams.”
Why would that be? Could it be that dogs make us feel good, which then impacts our social behavior?
To test that idea, the researchers asked independent raters to watch 40-second videos of the groups edited from the first study—with the sound off and no evidence of the dog in the room—and to note how often they saw indicators of positive emotions (like enthusiasm, energy, and attentiveness). The raters noticed many more good feelings in groups with a companion dog in the room than in groups with no dog, lending some support for their theory.
Although the dogs didn’t seem to impact performance on the group tasks during this short experiment, Colarelli believes that the observed social and emotional benefits could have impacts on group performance over time.
“In a situation where people are working together for a long period of time, and how well the team gets along—do they speak together, have rapport, act cooperatively, help one another—could influence the outcome of the team, then I suspect a dog would have a positive impact,” he says.
Of course, not everyone likes dogs, and some people may even be allergic. Colarelli says that we shouldn’t just start bringing dogs into every workplace—there would be a lot of factors to consider.
But his work adds to a body of research that suggests that dogs impact social interactions and personal well-being. Past studies have shown that people accompanied by dogs tend to elicit more helpful responses from others and that dogs in the workplace can reduce stress. Though most of this kind of research has been done on individuals or pairs, Colarelli’s study shows the positive impacts of dogs may extend to groups.
While the study is relatively preliminary, Colarelli believes that his results tie into another area of research finding positive effects when people are exposed to natural elements—which he thinks could include dogs and other animals—on wellness in the workplace.
Perhaps it’s time I consider letting Casey come to our next staff meeting…for everyone’s sake.
Wagner Lima, a 34-year-old Paraguayan cowboy, died on New Year’s Day 2017 in a motorcycle accident in Brazil. Everyone who knew Wagner knew what his dear horse Sereno meant to him, and vice versa.
Wagner and Sereno were best friends for many years.
Wagner’s brother Wando instantly knew that Sereno should be at the funeral, right alongside his human friends and family members.
“This horse was everything to him,” Wando told Globo News. “It was as if the horse knew what was happening and wanted to say goodbye.”
Wando led an emotional march to his brother’s final resting place in the city of Cajazeiras, Brazil. Sereno marched with them, but no one in the procession expected just how the grieving horse would react when he got close enough to Wagner’s casket to pinpoint Wagner’s scent.
Wando says he will now be taking care of Sereno in his brother’s honor.
Watch the video below to see what happened during this tear-jerking moment. No wonder this story is going viral so quickly!
