On Losing a Dog Phenomena Only Human. Theres no way to sugarcoat it, so On Tuesday morning my 1. My husband and I took his body to the vet. Then we came home and wept, in fits and starts. We took all of his stuffed animals and balls and bones and other crap down to the basement. I took a bath, and later, a shower. We made sandwiches. We flipped through old text messages for the dozens of photos and videos of him we had sent to each other. We tried to get used to a too quiet, too clean apartment. After a few hours, because this is what I do, I started looking up scientific research about losing a pet. There were more studies than I expected Pub. Med produced 6. 6 papers with search term grieving pet, and what the studies reported was more comforting than I expected. So I figured it might be helpful both for my mental health and for any of my readers who are going through something similar to write some of it down. Were already talking about getting another dog. Bring Out the GIMP Girls in Merciless Peril march 2010 Archives. Discussion Forum for Extreme Bondage Fantasy Video. DVDs or Web. One month of eleven years worth of. Issuu is a digital publishing platform that makes it simple to publish magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and more online. Easily share your publications and get. Comments Pastorcentric Looking at the ARC and Robert Morris Thru Chris Hodges Church of the Highlands 270 Comments. Directory of spanking, caning, discipline and corporal punishment sites. Were dog people now, thanks to him. Aipmt Entrance Exam Question Papers more. The new dog would never be the same Even if the same breed, it would no doubt have a different personality, quirks, abilities. The-Origin-Of-The-Feces-cover.jpg' alt='Obedience Thru Suffering Zip' title='Obedience Thru Suffering Zip' />But a different dog is far superior to no dog. Thats the logic. But theres also the fear. Fear that the next dog will be a constant reminder of what happened. Fear that something awful might happen to the new dog, too. Fear of the inevitable day in the future when we would have to go through this hurt again. Wed be taking lots of risks. Those who do insist on a special relationship with their dog or cat put themselves at risk from a mental health point of view, wrote British psychiatrist Kenneth M. G. Keddie in one of the first studies about mourning for pets, published in 1. His report goes on to describe three medical cases illustrating the psychiatric penalty that can follow the death of a pet. There was a 1. 6 year old schoolgirl who, after losing the King Charles spaniel she had had since age 3, developed a rash on her hands, couldnt swallow fluids or solids, and repeatedly played with her fingers. A 5. 6 year old dog breeder lost her 1. Yorkshire terrier, one of her champions. She had nightmares and attacks of sudden breathlessness during the night. Obedience Thru Suffering Zip' title='Obedience Thru Suffering Zip' />Bible Study Page One Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And a 5. 5 year old who was severely depressed for 1. Keddie proposes that these extreme grief reactions happened because each woman had created a specific family relationship with her dog. To the young girl, the spaniel was the sibling she never had the breeders dog was the sympathetic husband she didnt have the 5. These three cases, Keddie writes, serve to remind us of the hazards of pet ownership. I dont know many dog owners who havent formed some kind of family relationship with their dog. Obedience Thru Suffering Zip' title='Obedience Thru Suffering Zip' />Ours was our only child. Science backs me up on the dogs are like children thing. As psychologist John Archer explains in this 1. Pet owners treat pets like children, for example, playing with them Smith 1. Hirsh Pasek and Treiman 1. Carmack 1. 98. 5 Serpell 1. Similar but less systematic evidence that pets act as child substitutes can be found from anthropological and historical accounts of other cultures this includes breast feeding of young animals by humans Messent and Serpell 1. Savishinsky 1. 98. Serpell 1. 98. 6, 1. A few years ago researchers in Hawaii surveyed 1. The survey was detailed and probed lots of different psychological measures. Sixty nine responders reported losing a pet and filled out a battery of so called complicated grief. I wrote about this phenomenon once its defined as an intense, consuming grief with symptoms lasting for more than six months. About 4 percent of the survey responders were deemed to have complicated grief. Nearly 3. 2 percent reported some kind of grief features numbness, disbelief, preoccupation with the loss lasting at least six months, and 1. Seventy five responders reported the loss of a pet and filled out a battery of post traumatic stress disorder PTSD. Ive often written about PTSD its defined as the recurring memories and heightened state of arousal that lingers for more than a month after a traumatic event. Even using the most liberal criteria, none of the survey responders would meet criteria for PTSD, the study found. Findings from this study suggest that many people have close bonds with their petsanimals, often consider them part of the family, and experience significant features of grief reactions after their death, the authors write. However, the percentage of people experiencing major pathological disruption after the death of a petanimal is relatively low lt 5. In 1. Kenneth Doka wrote that pet loss like perinatal death and induced abortion is a type of disenfranchised grief, meaning that the grievers relationship with the deceased, and therefore, the grievers grief, is not sufficiently recognized by other people. Pets, unlike people, are not publicly mourned, which means that grievers dont get the social support they need to recover. Im grateful that that hasnt been the case for us. After sharing what happened on Facebook, we received a flood of supportive messages, emails, and flower deliveries. It has meant the world to us to know that other people know how much we loved him, and understand that this is a real loss. Pets are good for people, and good for couples. A 1. 99. 5 study of couples day to day interactions found that couples with dogs had greater well being, and those with the highest attachment to their dogs and who confide in them fared the best. Interestingly, talking to dogs in addition to ones spouse was related to greater life satisfaction, marital satisfaction, and physical and emotional health. Confiding in pets to discuss difficult life situations greatly relieved stress. A 2. Participants had lower heart rates and blood pressure when performing these tasks in front of their pet than when doing them in front of their spouse, the study found. Pets, the authors suggest, offer unconditional support under duress, with no judgments. While the idea of a pet as social support may appear to some as a peculiar notion, the authors write, our participants responses to stress combined with their descriptions of the meaning of pets in their lives suggest to us that social support can indeed cross species. Digging into this research has helped me understand the value of having a dog, and more fully appreciate the bond I had and apparently still have with the one I lost. But there are questions I havent found answers for in the scientific literature, at least not yet. And for these I would love to hear stories about other peoples experiences.