One of my border terriers has very recently been hit and killed by a car whilst chasing a fox across a busy road. I feel just dreadful, but I feel terribly for his twin brother who I have no doubt is aware of what has happened. He has become immediately withdrawn and his eyes look so sad - it is breaking my heart. They were inseparable and I am really worried about how he is going to cope. They are 15 months old, and we have no other dogs.

Any advice would be much appreciated as I desparately want to make this as easy as possible for our remaining dog.

Thanks

You are giving your dog 'human' feelings. He is not human and he does not think the same way as a human. Your dog is in fact reacting to how you are behaving. If you cheer yourself up and put your best foot forward and move on, so will he. He senses your unhappiness and thinks he has done something to displease you. Correct how you behave and you will see a huge change in him too :-) Sorry to hear of the death of your other dog.

So sorry to hear this sad news, I remember your posts about your naughty boys.
I agree totally with admin, dogs do not have feelings, like humans. He won't be grieving or worried about what happened to his brother. Although he won't be missing his brother, he will find it a bit strange being on his own, when his brother has always been there.
Dogs can not think about the past, or into the future - they can only deal with the "here & now".
Try not to change his routine & as admin said, try & behave in your usual manner (I understand this is not easy, having just lost your friend)

snoopy. x :)
Be strong for your little Border.

Very sorry to hear of your sudden and shocking loss. Try and keep to your surviving dogs routine despite how you feel and let time heal. None of us really know what goes on in the mind of another being, especially those who cant talk to us, so I cant say how your dog feels about what happened. After reading this sad post, my dog is going to be on lead within a mile of a road from now on.

I do agree that dogs don't have 'human' feelings, but when we lost our younger dog aged 5, the other dog (aged 7 at the time), did without a doubt miss him being there.  Instead of racing off into the grass on a walk, she would suddenly just walk sedately beside the pram, and though I can't quite explain it, she just seemed quieter in general.  I wouldn't say grieving or anything like that, but if a dog has been used to a playmate for quite a while, I think there definitely is something they miss when that dog is suddenly gone.  We did end up getting another puppy, and she was then a more lively, and I would definitely say 'happier', dog again!
  Hilda

I think dogs 'feel'. When I lost a youngster one of my other dogs used to look for her. They used to play with each other on either side of a door and he would always 'check' behind all the doors to see whether she was there and when we went on walks in the usual places he went looking for her. None of this could have been influenced by how I felt. He too perked up when a new pup arrived a month or two later.

Jesse

When Cuervo passed on (both her and Taz were outside dogs) yes we were very sad....But Taz would just lay and sulk and would howl like he always did when she would get out of there run. He would howl till she came home. After having him out there for a bit we brought him inside and he still wasn't himself, never ate right, the boston's never helped cheer him up....He caught onto housetraining pretty good at 8yrs old. After some time he livened up a bit more, but even to this day if you mention Cuervo he gets this look and perks up so we don't mention her name anymore around him.

We really don't no how dogs feel, and yes I'm sure how you feel they go by that as well....But they do no something is missing....As for Taz I'm sure he know's Cuervo is gone. :(

Very very very sorry to hear of your puppy :(

All my animals acted oddly when my cocker candy died. my white cat stared at the roof of the coffee table for hours and my black cat jumpted up on everyones knees , which he never does i suspect they sence how your feeling and dont know how to act .
As soon as we got another new member bella then everything was back to normal . i think  the white one was in his element being able to laze infront of the fire without a wet nose in his face :D
Im very sorry to hear about your loss and good luck with your little boy .

Thanks for all your messages.

I have to say that yesterday was pretty difficult. We let Melrose say goodbye to his brother, and then tried to keep everything as normal as possible, resisting the tempation to bring him up to bed with us. He was up half the night barking, but otherwise seems to be as happy as can be expected.

It's just us humans who seem to get overly emotional about these things

I am so very sorry to hear of your very sad news. xx

I really dont know if dogs/animals have feelings they appear to have but i guess we will never know.  I think if they have, in time they will just move on like we do...

Take care

Donna and charliex