Awww. That's a sad story. I wonder if dogs have evolved with humans over the years to become more emotional and whatnot because it doesn't seem like a useful trait for hunting dogs to have if I'm not mistaken. Dogs sure are great animals.

If not mourn but they miss the person or animal who passed around them.
They do search for humans or their brothers, sisters, other pets in the family. There are several stories of collage kids leaving home and the pets really missing them.

I don't know if mourning is the right word, but they do have a lot of empathy.

I believe all animals mourn.

Before talking about dogs, my mom used to have two cats, Tina and Maurice. They were both strays she'd taken in, but these cats were inseparable. It was love at first sight, for them. But one day, Maurice disappeared. Tina was never the same after that. She got very angry at everyone, which was completely the opposite to the cat she was with Maurice around. She especially hated my father, who had some hand in Maurice's vanishing. To what extent, we'll never know.

Then there's Sadie, the beagle, who was rescued from terrible puppy mill conditions by my Uncle Bob in Florida. This dog was so grateful to my uncle, and he treated her like a princess. He'd break out the harmonica. She'd sing "like Britney Spears," he'd say. Then my uncle got sick. Health failing rapidly, he was forced into the hospital and eventually hospice. Throughout the whole time, Sadie was tossed around between my Uncle Bob's house and my grandparents' place. The moment he passed away, although Sadie wasn't there, it was like the dog lost all the light from her soul. She never stopped waiting for him. Outside, she'd just sit and stare at the clouds with these pained eyes.

Even if they aren't "mourning" as humans do, an animal's silent tears are as potent as ours.

They absolutely do. I had two dogs a while back, a Staffordshire terrier, Rocky, and a black lab, Annabelle. Rocky I had found on the street and brought home. A few weeks later, I picked up Annie out of a horrible stie of a back yard where the pups were being abused and used as bait dogs for fighting. When I first brought Annie home she was terrified of everything, and after Rocky got used to her he taught her everything about being a hound that she knew. She was the sweetest thing, and when we had a cat who decided to have kittens in my closet she would pick those things up and carry them around the house to her bed and make Momma Kitty and babies all nap with her.

But due to abuse, she had developed a temperament problem. The older she got, the more violent she got towards Rocky. Eventually she had to wear a muzzle all the time because randomly she would just snap and attack her brother for no reason at all. Rocky the good boy, fought to defend himself, but he never aimed to hurt her. He was always the one who came out of the bloody battles with wounds, and never Annie. He never retaliated either, but it got to the point of where he was scared of her sometimes.

But he loved her. And I do mean LOVE. Even though he'd be trembling with fear, and even though she'd be muzzled, he would go and lay down next to her and snuggle up on her, and lick her nose and kiss on her, even after they got into a fight. After Annie would attack him too, she would become super depressed. She wouldn't eat, she'd become limp and lethargic. You could tell when she snapped back because her eyes would be glossy and just full of sadness. One day she almost killed Rocky. She went for the artery on his leg and got him good. If it hadn't been for my wonderful vet in Pearsall TX, who came after hours and performed emergency surgery and my stepdad who had sat there and squeezed Rocky's artery closed with his hand for almost an hour, Rocky would be dead.

We tried very hard to find a solution but a dog behaviour specialist told us there was nothing we'd be able to do, and that she would get more and more aggressive as time went on. A few weeks later, she attacked a cat which she had never done before. Rocky got in the way and she beelined for him. If it weren't for his surgery cone when she ripped through that muzzle of hers he'd have been in surgery again. I couldn't give her away because the specialist said that she could eventually become aggressive towards humans (and what if she attacked a child? Oh my god that thought scared me). We had to put her down. That night we made them say good bye, and I took her into my bedroom, locking Rocky out, took off her muzzle and let her sleep with me on my bed. Then the next day, mom and I had the heart breaking task of taking her to the vet.

It was the hardest thing we ever had to do. And when we came home without Annie, Rocky was so confused. He searched for her for days, cried for her for weeks. And when we got her ashes back (in a beautiful pine box with a beautiful plaque) we showed it to him and it was like he knew. He sniffed the box, and then went and laid down and didn't move again for days.

It was the hardest month of our lives I think. Dogs love unconditionally, and even though Annabelle had often attacked Rocky (through no fault of her own) he had loved her like a brother I think. We all loved her. He was so lost without her for the longest time, and we had to give special attention to him to help him through his depression (it was really hard on us too, Annie was like my child, as all of my pets are, and my mom used to call herself "Grandma" so much that every time the word was said, Annie and Rocky would run up to my mom).

Dogs love unconditionally. So they grieve unconditionally too.

Well, we just had one of our dogs died, Tootsie and no other pet mourned for him.:( We did though and we terribly miss him. I guess since he's the dog outside our house, he lives on the garage, he isn't that close with the other house dogs. I wonder though if he has been constantly with our other dogs, would they have mourned for him?

But in any case, dogs know who their owner is. For instance, we have Marshie, a shih tzu who is incredibly close with my cousin. She was almost the one who raised her from birth. When one of our aunts abused her, she became super snobbish and would bite everyone who tries to touch her. Well, expect for my cousin, she's the only one who can touch and carry her and even bathe her. All of us here cannot even get close to her without her growling and biting us.

When that cousin of mine left, Marshie got very sad. Even just the day before my cousin left, it's as if she knows that she is leaving already and would just lay down beside her. A couple of weeks after, she would still lay by the door of her room and wait for my cousin. So I do think dogs mourn especially if it's their owner that leaves.

I still remember how our dog Tim barked all night long when my mum passed on. Funny thing is that mum was in hospital over 20 miles away but the dog somehow knew something had gone wrong. I believe dogs too mourn the passing of a loved human being.

My sister would bring her dog over to our parent's house while I was still living at home. Her dog and my father became attached to each other and every time he would come over he was always on my dad's lap or beside his chair. When my father was diagnosed with cancer, my sister's dog became even more loyal to him. He would sit on my dad's lap and not let anyone near him. After my dad passed away, my sister brought her dog over and he searched the house for my dad and eventually laid down when he could not find him. It was sad because he would look for him every time he came over. It was like it was not the same for him to visit and my dad not be there for him to sit on his lap.

I believe dogs know and that they mourn even though they know it is part of life. I think it is just one of the emotions that they feel that brings them so much closer to humans. We want to comfort them and they want to comfort us.

Thank you everyone, they were all great and touching stories. I don't have any stories yet as good as yours, as my dog is only turning 3 years old. The way he behaves in those years make me believe that dogs really have emotions. They have the most expressive faces of all animals. However, just like experts say, those emotions are not connected to a higher level of thinking like we humans do. So the emotions they show us are definitely pure and honest. When he cries, he really is sad. When he wags his tail, he really is excited. That's one of the characters of dogs that made me love them very much. They have the ability to communicate their feelings.

Dogs and cats totally mourn for their owners. We create that bond with them and when are are gone they miss our presence. My cat stopped eating because I went out of town for a week. It would break my heart if he had to go with mourning for me. I hope I go before my pets do because I want to spare them that heartache.

I think dogs do mourn for the loss or absences of the people that they became friendly to. My dog whined after my daughter left from her visiting. He would be running around the house looking for her and looking out the window, and then just drooped and whined. He sat there so sad looking and wouldn't do anything and just sleeping after a while.

In 2007, when our first dog died from renal failure, our other dog, Epoy the pekingese, seemed to be in mourning. He wouldn't touch his food and he would eat sparingly when we hand feed him. Epoy was 4 years old at the time, meaning he had been with Jedi for that length of time. Besides, Epoy looks to Jedi as a big sister so it was clear to us the Epoy was missing Jedi.

To divert the attention of our grieving dog, we would take a joy ride with him until he falls asleep. Then we would feed him outside the house - our dogs stay inside the house so the trick is to change the familiarity which would remind him of his big sister.

Yes, they do. I had two dogs: Bonzo and Doodle. Bonzo passed away in his sleep three years back. He wasn't even ill. Doodle was the younger one. He still misses him a lot. He never goes to the spot where Bonzo used to sleep. He looks so miserable and forlorn when we talk about Bonzo. He can't say it but I know for sure that he still misses Bonzo just the way I do.

Wow the story about booger is sad,

My cat is buried in the garden too, but that was before I had my dog. I thought this thread was going to be a question, I was going to say that definitely they grieve. I saw a video ages ago of this dog laying on a grave huffing and puffing (if you saw it, you could tell the dog was crying).

It was quite sad, but interesting to see they care.

Yes, dogs definitely do mourn. I think most animals do. This post actually reminds me of a couple of things like the theory that dogs have no soul. I believe it was Duncan McDougall who came up with that theory after carrying out experiments on dying tuberculosis patients to find out if the human soul had mass. Needless to say, McDougall deluded himself. It also reminds me of the blind dog who jumped into a river to save his/her drowning owner who was being carried away by the current, even though the dog itself was blind. So, not only are dogs capable of mourning but they can also be incredibly intuitive.