You are so deeply hurting since our 12 yr old black lab passed away after Thanksgiving. It has been so hard. Our 19 mo old black lab has grown up with him, he has been missing him but doing ok. One thing we are now having issues with is the car. He had no issues being in the car until our other boy passed away, now he will not get in the car, when we have put him in there he shakes and cries off and on. Obviously our other dog must have been a comfort to him and we never realized it? We keep taking him in the car and trying to make it a "good" time for him, one of us sits in the back so we are closer to him, taking him to his favorite places but he refuses to get in the car. Any ideas what can be going on and how to get passed this, they both always go everywhere with us so the car is nothing new to him.
Hi, I can't help with the car issues I'm afraid but just wanted to reach out and say how sorry I am for your loss of your gorgeous boy. It's such a sad and difficult time, my thoughts are with you
I had a similar experience with my two dogs that have now passed. They grew up together from puppyhood. You wouldn't think they were close per se as they were always doing their own thing. My girl Gizmo got cancer at 12 years old and lived almost exactly a year after her diagnosis. She passed at home in my bedroom as that was her absolute favorite place. From the second she passed on my other dog Haven was seemingly terrified of my bedroom. It was so bad that when we would go to bed if I did not stay awake and comfort him until he fell asleep he would body slam himself against the door over and over. He panted, shook, whined, injured himself, etc. It was so bad at one point the vet gave me a strong sedative for bedtime. I eventually gave in and set up camp in the living room so we could finally get rest. It took nearly a year of rearranging and making my bedroom a "fun" place for him to be calm with the door open. Unfortunately, as he got better about my bedroom and finally sleeping in there he contracted DM and became paralyzed and we had to move back to the living room for his ease and passed in AUG 2019 at 16 years old. It was the first time I actually witnessed a dog grieving uncontrollably. I would just have patience and continue to make it fun and calm unless you see it is going to be detrimental to his health.
