Best Friend

Retired to a life of Crime? Never did admit to anything.

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When Dogs Die: Resources

Thank you all for your messages of sympathy and support. 

We decided to compile some resources to help you, or a friend, prepare for and cope with this difficult (and inevitable) part of sharing our lives with dogs.

Understanding Grief: The Australian centre for grief and bereavement offer excellent information on their website. We have included some key excerpts and links.

About Grief Suggestions to help you get through this difficult time: 

• Create a memorial - do or make something to honour your loved one.
• Develop your own rituals - light a candle, listen to special music, make a special place to think.
• Allowing yourself to express your thoughts and feelings privately can help. Write a letter or a poem (or a blog post!), draw, collect photos, cry.
• Exercise - do something to use pent-up energy, walk, swim, garden, chop wood.
• Draw on religious and spiritual beliefs, if this is helpful.
• Read about other peoples experience - find books and articles.
• Do things that are relaxing and soothing.
• Some holistic or self care ideas that may assist include meditation, distractions, relaxation, massage, aromatherapy and warmth.
• To help with sleeplessness: exercise, limit alcohol, eat well before sleeping, and try to have a routine.

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The tongue-in-cheek caption Dupont posted with the pic said: "Having a conversation with Dexter about the way he sits around the house." Adorable.

Andrew Dupont with Dexter

Dexter is a 4-year-old Shih-Poo, a Shih Tzu and Poodle mix.
"He only sits like that when hes on the couch with me," Dupont said. "Weve taught him several tricks, including how to sit up but everywhere besides the couch he extends his hind legs.
"We thought it was really funny the first time he did it, so I rewarded him."
Now, whenever Dexter thinks his owner might have a treat or toy for him, hell sit like that.
"He will stay upright like that for about 30 seconds or so," Dupont said.
Get ready for the most adorable part: "If he starts to lose his balance, he will extend his arms like he is trying to grab onto something to brace himself."
From a behavior perspective, this is a perfect example of the positive consequences rendered from rewarding behaviors you like in your dog as they occur.
Rather than thinking about dog training from the perspective that youre going to take your dog to a class or set up defined "sessions" in which you train specific commands, think instead how any ol minute can serve up a good training opportunity.
Do you like it when your dog lies nicely by your feet? Reward it. Catch your dog doing something really adorable off the cuff? Reward it.
Give your dog positive feedback for the things he does that you like and who knows? Maybe youll end up with a photo this adorable too. And if you do, please share them with me!

Dogs like to roll in stuff, right? And it’s never good.
Goose poop, deer droppings, doo-doo of whatever kind they find or worse yet, anything from flesh to flowers that is in a fragrant state of decomposition.
“No!” I’ll yet at Sensi as soon I see him drop his head down, preparing to roll right in the yuck face first.
I usually say it in just the nick of time to avert a dog bath. Lucky for me, Sensi listens.
There is a way to leverage the dog’s desire to roll in a way that isn’t horribly disgusting and also serves a benefit. Though, I’d say its more akin to a dog rolling playfully in the grass than squirming around in some foul smelling piece of doo-doo.
Because of Sensi’s allergies, he’s had a lot more baths in his life than most dogs. I used to bathe him once a week. That’s a lot of practice to make a routine perfect, and we’ve got it down pat.
He’ll stand nicely in the bathtub while I get him wet, lather him up and then rinse him off. Once I’ve pulled the curtain close on the tub, I tell him to shake and he obliges. Then I reopen the curtain, towel him down pretty good and invite him out of the tub.
This is the part he likes — it’s his towel time.
At some point in our bath routine, a towel used to dry him off was left laying on the carpet. This is how towel time got started. He took it upon himself to roll on the towel — nipping it with his teeth to move it around, diving head first into it and squirming around on his back like he’s Zest-fully clean. (Not that we use Zest on him — we don’t.)
Everyone gets a kick out of watching him do this. He’ll spend a good 10 minutes drying himself off.
Last night, he refused to go outside while it rained and poured. Hours after his normal potty time had passed, it finally let up a bit for him to go out.
He wasn’t out but for a couple minutes until a big boom of thunder sounded, cueing up another downpour. Sensi got caught by surprise and was drenched, poor thing.
He came in, looked around for something to dry himself off on and finding nothing, peered up at me for help. I headed to the bathroom, grabbed a couple towels and what do you know? He was practically begging for me to throw those towels down.
So there you have it. The often dreaded dog roll can be used for some good.