Hi All

A friend of mine had to JRs from the same litter until 18 months ago when sadly Jill passed away. Jack is now 15. They always used to eat together, they had one meal per day at about 9pm. My friend says that there was always a bit of friendly banter between them at meal times.

As I say its been 18 months now and ever since Jill passed away Jack acts very strangely at meal times. When his food goes down he howls and runs up and down the kitchen for about half an hour until he settles down and eats. It must be connected to losing Jill in some way as he never did this before. My friend took him to the vet and he said that he cant possibly still miss Jill after all this time, a fact that me and my friend disagree with as they had 13 1/2 years together and were from the same litter, however I do accept that his behaviour is probably more ritualistic at this stage as it will now be habit.

I advised that perhaps they should shake his routine up a little to break the habit, and feed him either 2 separate meals or just feed him the one if he prefers but at a different time of the day and perhaps move his bowl somewhere else.

Does anyone have any better/other advice that I could give her to help this poor old boy to calm down?

Many Thanks

Breaking the routine is the very obvious choice. I would also say that your friend is part of the problem. She expects him to react at 9pm and without knowing it is tensing up and the dog is reading this very subtle sign as distress and reacts accordingly. They both need to break the pattern. What does she do when Jack starts this ritual? Does she reward his behaviour by trying to comfort him?

I dont think she comforts him but allows him to have a whine and then after a while is quite firm and tells him firmly 'thats enough' and he will get in his bed for a few moments then gets up and starts eating. I guess this in itself is a habitual routine now too.

I would agree with Admin - your friend should stop feeding him at 9pm, and feed him two smaller meals with the last one at six or seven o'clock. I would also feed him in a different place and see what effect that has.

Thanks Admin and JG

I thought this was best but thought id check to see if there were any different ideas.

Cheers