We had to make the decision to let our old boy George go on Saturday night.
He was nearly 17 yrs old - cross Bassett/Dalmatian. He was a super character
and we all loved him dearly. My other two girls seem very 'down'. The house is quiet
and they seem to be missing him terribly. Is this likely?
Could it be they are picking up on my saddness or do they miss him too?

I think they could be missing him too, I had a similar thing when one of my oldies died. I found the best way to get my other dogs out of this was to do lots of new things and get a bit of excitement going.

They don't seem to be interested in walks or anything. He didn't walk with us before because of his arthritis but now they just plod along. Its so sad.

That is exactly what my bunch did, o I had to make a big effort to find new places to walk and new toys to play with on the walks and at home. In fact it helped me too as it broke up our old routine and the dogs soon picked up.

how sad for your girls, so sorry for your loss--hope they and you are able to find your way to happy times soon

Thanks Polly. I'll make more effort. I hope it doesn't take long.

I do beleive that dogs do grieve too.
When I lost my matriach almost two years ago, her daughter
was terribly down and it did take a while for her to become her
'normal' self again.
Whereas the other three, a mother and her two almost two year old pups
seemed oblivious.

So I'd say they are missing him.

I believe that dogs grieve the same as brother will miss another brother, they lived, slept, played, walked and shared life with him so now he is gone they will miss him a lot. My dogs howled at home ( something they never do ) when I took my gsd to be put to sleep recently and I am sure they knew what was happening and were crying for her.
I hope that giving them the extra TLC will help you get over your loss as well and I feel so very sorry for you, it is a very sad time when this happens and my heart goes out to you

So sorry to hear your sad news.  Yes your other dogs will miss him.  About four years ago one of my boys died, he was the best friend of our second oldest girl.  Although she had other Frenchies to be with she wasn't interested in them, she only wanted him.  She would wander round the house looking for him, she wouldn't eat properly and wouldn't sleep, we took her upstairs with us for weeks and weeks.  With her it just took time.

This happened with my Chow last year when he lost his litter brother, he was crushed.  Lots of walks in different places helped for us, and just time of course.

Yes, dogs do grieve! We brought Louis home after he'd died at the vet. We needed him at home so the family could say goodbye. We allowed our baby Pierre to sniff him and lick and nudge him so he would know that he was gone. He wouldn't eat and lost weight, he wouldn't play - it was so sad. He was definitely grieving and that was for a playmate he'd only known for 4 weeks! It took about 5 weeks until he was back to being a daft pup again :)
When Pierre died last year, we'd had Eve for 1 week only - too short a time for her to really know him and grieve, but we filled the following weeks doing lots of things with her.......and bought another pup!! We so wished we had done the same for Pierre, he might not have taken it so hard ( and would probably have helped us too! )

I think the only way to make grieving easier, for us and for our dogs who grieve, is to fill the time with lots of different things, anything to take the mind off the loss. If you sit and do nothing, it's the only thing you think about and prolongs the pain, as I found.

As other posters have said, lots of nice walks, different places, new toys and different games etc will help you all. You may have to sort of 'jolly' them along for a while, yourself too, but one day soon you'll realise it's not taking as much effort to actually have some fun :)

(Hugs) to you and your girlies xxx

Thank you all for your kind wishes and helpful advice.