Dogs grieve too

The death of a companion is one of the most severe tragedies that human beings experience. Do animals have similar feelings? Though there are many anecdotal accounts and social media posts on how a dog behaves after its pet parent dies, there is barely any information on how human’s best friend fares when a companion dog dies.

Interviewing more than 400 Italians who had two pet dogs of which one died, a group of European researchers showed that 86% of dog owners had observed negative changes in the surviving dog’s behaviour after the death of their companion canine. In 32% of cases, such behavioural changes lasted between two and six months while in 25% cases, it lasted longer than six months. The findings appeared in the journal Scientific Reports.

When asked to describe the behavioural changes, 67% owners reported that the surviving dog became more attention-seeking while 57% reported they played less. Nearly 46% reported that the surviving dogs became less active. Thirty-five per cent of owners said the dogs slept more and became more fearful, 32% reported they ate less and 30% reported an increase in whining or barking.

Animal mourning

Grief responses are widely reported in social species such as great apes, monkeys, whales, dolphins, elephants and birds, which have been described to engage in death rituals including touching and investigating the diseased carcass.

In primates and cetaceans, individuals have been observed to physically support and carry a deceased mate (usually a young animal) for periods that range from some hours to a month. Different animals exhibit complex responses towards the dead as a consequence of several sensory characteristics and changes in biological motion perception. Many animal species are thought to have the ability to mourn, including dogs but evidence is currently sparse.

Nearly 15 years ago, Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus at the University of Colorado, USA proposed that dogs might display grief as a result of a close relationship due to their highly social nature. However, behavioural responses towards another dead companion have rarely been observed in wild canids.

There was brief evidence of wild wolves (Canis lupus) burying the carcasses of two-week-old pups. A decade ago, Australian wildlife researcher Rob Appleby described the death of a three-month-old dingo pup and the associated response of the pup’s mother and fellow littermates — the deceased pup was transported to different locations in the days following its death.

As for pet dogs (Canis familiaris), there is a long history of anecdotal reports by owners about grief over the loss of a companion, but little evidence.

Mariangela Albertini, a specialist in veterinary medicine and animal sciences at the University of Milan who surveyed cases in which a companion dog died, and her colleagues also made note of the prior relationship between the dogs and their own distress levels after the bereavement. The responses were collected from 426 Italians (384 females and 42 males). The average ownership period was just about 10 years. More than 92% of participants reported that the two dogs had lived together for a duration greater than 12 months and 69% described the relationship between their dogs as friendly.

The dogs participated in several activities like sleeping (66%), grooming (27%) and playing (49%). Thirty-six per cent of the dogs even shared food, 86% shared resting spaces and 58% toys.

While the length of time the two dogs had lived together did not influence the surviving dogs’ behaviour, a friendly relationship with the deceased dog and having a grieving owner resulted in negative behavioural changes in surviving dogs.

On the circumstances leading to the dog’s death, 52% of respondents said it was unexpected, while 57% had opted for euthanasia following health complications and 0.2% for behavioural reasons.

Close relationships

“Domestic dogs are highly social animals who live in multi-species societies in which they develop very intense and close relationships. The present study is a part of a larger project that aims to study objectively the strong dog-owner and dog-dog emotional connections,” Stefania Uccheddu from San Marco Veterinary Clinic and Laboratory in Padua, Italy, and the first author of the paper told DH.

The study suggests negative behavioural and emotional changes observed in surviving dogs could be due to both a grief-like reaction in response to the lost companion and a reaction to the grief of their owners. The authors conclude that grief-like responses among dogs are potentially a major pet welfare issue that has been overlooked.

"This is an interesting study because for the first time researchers have looked at pet dogs’ behaviour towards another pet in a social condition,” commented Anindita Bhadra, a biologist at Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research, Kolkata, who is not associated with the European study, but specialises in dog behavioural research.