[Dailydrool] checking out the deceased

[Beverly Szaton]

My Vet comes to the house to put down my dogs. The other dogs are confined
during this so I may concentrate on one dog, the most important dog at the
moment. They are not brought out again until Doc and Dog have left. The
scent that is left behind gives them all the information they may need about
their cohort. I do not believe they need to sniffle the actual body to
understand that something has happened.
I do not believe dogs understand or view death in the same way as humans. I
doubt that they have the same sense of forever that we do. I am not debating
their intelligence or their ability to grieve, nor do I underestimate their
determination in looking for the "lost"member of the pack. I know the Boyz
will look for Zelda when she is gone, and I expect it to take awhile before
they stop actively searching for her, or becoming overly excited when one of
us returns home, thinking we will have her with us. After all, her scent
will linger in the house and yard for a good long time, a constant reminder
of her absence. Plus, they are tightly bonded to her. There literally has
never been a time in their lives when they were without her for any long
period.

I think infighting after the death of a pack member is to be expected. One
member is gone and that leaves a slot open someplace in the hierarchy. It
doesn't matter if you have two dogs or twenty, there is going to be a shift
in the pack order, and there may be some fissing that goes on as the
remaining pack re-arrange themselves. Sniffing the body has nothing to do
with this, whatsoever:  it is simply pack behavior.
I know people who do this-- have the rest of the dogs in to view the body,
as it were,and if you want to do that, it's fine, maybe it makes you feel
better. I just think for myself it is not something I am going to be doing.
Just my opinion...

MomPerson to Nigel, Llewis, Mitchell, Zelda and Cooper
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