Dog goes to church every day since owner died

[Dragonix80]

What a heart-warming and touching story. Bring a tear to my eyes. I have a dog and I love her so much. I can't imagine what this dog is going through.

[Spectral]

I'm disinclined to anthropomorphize too much, but I'm fairly sure dogs can feel sad about things.

[Itisamuh]

Dogs are so much more loyal than people. This was rather sad.

[Deleted]

Dogs are so much more loyal than people. This was rather sad.

The question remains though. Does he go there every day because he used to do that every day anyways and he gets pet, fed and shelter there, or because he thinks "Master used to go there all the time. Honor his memory even through death"?

[Deleted]

Such a sad story, it makes you think though, animals arent as stupid as we may think.

Dogs are pretty stupid though. They're just loyal.

But it's easy to become loyal if you're completely depending on a human being.

[slime]

Such a sad story, it makes you think though, animals arent as stupid as we may think.

It has nothing to do with stupidy. Animals are just loyal to the death, unlike man.

[Wildtree]

Do you honestly expect a dog to understand that his owner is dead? Do you think a dog knows what death is? The fact that dogs develop habits like this is the impressive part. Cats don't do that. That's why they wouldn't do it, they don't understand one bit that their owner is dead and is never coming back either.

http://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-s.../#.UPwIgWfheSo

Me-ouch

Toldo, a cat from the Tuscan town of Pistoia, is another pet who also misses his dearly departed owner, Renzo -- and indeed, visits his grave every day, often leaving tokens of affection.
Renzo’s widow, Ida, told Corriere Fiorentino that often she would go in the afternoon to see her husband’s grave with Toldo and people would tell her that Toldo had already been there that morning, carrying acacia branches in his mouth to the grave.

It always puzzles me to see all kinds of obviously uneducated postings from people, who have never spent any (or at least not enough) time to find out what animals are capable of..
Granted... Almost all animals, including our domesticated ones are instinctive. Well, so we are. We humans aren't that superior in that regard. All animals have intelligence. The state of development varies, But it is safe to say that all our domesticated animals have a fairly high progressed intelligence. Hence why we domesticated them in the first place.
It would also seem, that IF neither Dog or Cat had significant amounts of intelligence, that this would make US look extremely stupid.
Even more so ancient cultures, where both have been worshiped.

[Blood Fox]

It has nothing to do with stupidy. Animals are just loyal to the death, unlike man.

Isn't that a bad thing if you can't get over something?

[Deleted]

Why? He's just acting out of habit. Sounds like he went there every day/week/whatever and just continues doing that. Humans are just projecting their emotions onto the animal. They see a sad story of an owner dying and their pet continuing the normal routine and immediately create a story around it.

I will get infracted, but you are a clueless piece of shit. There are a lot dogs who go at the place where their owners died, without their owners visiting that place ever before. Did you even own a dog, or interacted with one?

Humans are just projecting their emotions onto the animal.

Au contraire. Humans like to believe they are the only special snowflake with emotions. Amusingly enough, most of the things they do end up being done by habit. So you are the only one projecting right now.

---------- Post added 2013-01-20 at 03:36 PM ----------

And that he does that 2 months after his owner died also has a reason:

"Villagers come to church with gifts of food and water. "
"Everyone looks out for him and leaves food for him".

So the church is now a place where he gets a friendly welcome and food. If I was a dog I also would continue to come to such a place.

Why did you come to the church in the first place as a dog? How do you explain what Hachiko did? Or this:




Infracted.

[Biggayshammy]

I love dogs... I have a Boston Terrier right now, Ive had an eye out for a German Shep, theyre so beautiful

[Deleted]

Warning: Stop comparing cats to dogs and dogs to cats, that discussion has no place here because it will only go bad places.

Keep the discussion civil.

[Wildtree]

Isn't that a bad thing if you can't get over something?

No, not at all. It's called unconditional love. And it's a good thing.

That happens over and over again also amongst us humans. Millions and millions of people lose their spouse, never marry. Missing their beloved partner, visiting their graves every day, and talk to them as if they were still here.

Someone calling this stupid, or bad, could be seen to have emotional deficits. It's one thing to believe (because you never know until you are in such situation) that one for themselves wouldn't act like that. It's a whole different thing to see it as something good.
And how different we really are? Anecdotal evidence.
The passing of my great grandma.. she fell terminally ill a week before Christmas a few decades ago. She lived her whole life together with my grandma, who lost her husband during WW2, and never re-married, although she moved on, as we would call it. Grandma was on vacation during that time. The old lady was laying in the hospital waiting for her daughter. She refused to let go. Something kept her alive. And she even said that. I am waiting for my daughter to come.
Four hours after Grandma's visited her at the hospital, great grandma passed away. Peacefully giving the circumstances.
Unconditional love to her child made her survive longer than the doctors thought.

[dercaderca]

I will get infracted, but you are a clueless piece of shit. There are a lot dogs who go at the place where their owners died, without their owners visiting that place ever before. Did you even own a dog, or interacted with one?

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/blogs/sides...190556479.html


Dogs are a lot smarter than people think. Dogs are also smarter than a lot of people.

[Wildtree]

I love dogs... I have a Boston Terrier right now, Ive had an eye out for a German Shep, theyre so beautiful

Yes they are. The story at hand made me truly swallow a couple times. Because I've had a Shepard mix, and he was the love of my life, in regards of animals. He slept between the wife and me, always falling asleep in my arm. His name was Chico. Close enough to that dog here at hand....

We have 2 dogs... Different breeds, both are mixes... As for intelligence.
The younger one is smart as it possibly gets.
He wants a certain toy, which the older one has now. Smart ass grabs one of the older ones (who is just in love with tennis balls) favorites, and taunts him with the ball, giving it to him, so he can have the other toy. He is also capable to show exactly what he wants from us. Go get your brother. He runs off and "gets" him.
Same with the woman. Go get your mama.. And off he runs bugging her until she comes with him. Although everything is in the kitchen, he knows how to tell us that he wants a treat, or his food. It's different. He brings the water bowl when it's empty.
Both understand more than one language.. I talk to them as I please. In English, in German, and even in my home dialect (which varies greatly from German). That makes them on that fraction basically smarter and more educated than some humans in my surrounding. They don't understand what I am talking about now.
I have dogs all my life, as far as I can think back there was one. And I have always talked to them, as if I talk to a human. No special simplified language.
They all understood. They are perfectly capable to understand that. They just can't talk back with their voices. It's up to us, and our intelligence to understand them through their body language and behavior.

[jonte912]

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/blogs/sides...190556479.html


Dogs are a lot smarter than people think. Dogs are also smarter than a lot of people.

I don't see how the dog standing by a grave makes it smart

[Deleted]

They aren't? This dog didn't even hear the shot that his master is dead and keeps repeating the same thing over and over again, for nothing.

I haven't even read the story because this kind of thing just depresses me like fuck but still, "for nothing" is a very bold statement to make when you have no idea what's going on in the dog's head. Not to mention subjective.

[Wildtree]

I don't see how the dog standing by a grave makes it smart

Maybe because you cannot comprehend....
We have different levels of intelligence amongst humans...
On one hand, we have people like Einstein, DaVinci or Hawkins. On the other hand we have people that are dumber than a slice of bread, if we stick with that extreme now.. And in between we have a whole range of differently developed intelligence. The ones on the lower end of the scale can be often enough easily outperformed by some animals. Because for them too counts a similar scale.
Some are higher on the scale than others, and amongst the different types of animals there's then another scale. Like not all dogs are equally smart.
However, the ability to show emotion is connected to existent intelligence... Because only the ability to think makes it possible to have emotions.
Happiness and Sadness are a result of perception, and with that a result of an intelligent response.

[Deleted]

I got a sheep dog and she used to sleep on my bed but I had to kick her out as the hairs was doing my head in.. felt bad but meh

[Stir]

It's plausible that the dog knows what death is, and actually is mourning. We've observed it in other animals such as Elephants & other apes.

http://www.cesarsway.com/tips/thebas...anine-Emotions

Yup. Sounds like ordinary mourning behaviour to me, as well. I don't think the dog is 'waiting for Maria' or anything the like. I honestly don't think dogs are intelligent enough to come up with spiritual comfort-lies. The dog goes there because it was the place where the mourning ceremony was held. Therefore, the dog goes there to mourn.

And as Kryos has pointed out: After those initial two months of mourning, there's now food and water for him at the church as well.

[Viscoe]

Why? He's just acting out of habit. Sounds like he went there every day/week/whatever and just continues doing that. Humans are just projecting their emotions onto the animal. They see a sad story of an owner dying and their pet continuing the normal routine and immediately create a story around it.

The dog is just trained?

My dog loves my mother. He's her dog. He will wait by the door and stare at the parking spot where her car usually is when she's gone. He will go to her room and smell her pillows and sleep on her bed where she usually sleeps. When he hears her pull up, and especially the beep of her car being locked, he gets RIDICULOUSLY excited and bolts to the door, tail wagging, ears pushed back.

My step-mother's sister had two dachshunds. One of them was named Peanut. Peanut, upon her owner's departure, would CRY FOR HOURS. She would bay at the door and whine and howl and act like her soul got ripped out. No one could console her but her owner. She could hardly sleep. WE could hardly sleep. >.<

Charlie and Charlotte were two little terriers we had. Charlotte had cancer and we had to put her down. When the deed was done and we went home (from the vet's office without her, she was cremated,) Charlie was mortified. These were dogs raised together since they were old enough to be sold. Charlie missed her. He sniffed around for her, went to her usual spots, went outside to the place she preferred to pee, looked on her chair, under her chair, by the food - he wanted to know where she was. And I don't think he ever got over it until he couldn't walk anymore, and he also had to be put down.

Now tell me it's all just habit and training. I've had many dogs, and they all exhibit sadness and fondness. I have no doubt in my mind that that shepard missed his owner and hung out in the places he used to see her. And yeah, he probably stays around the church because he has food and shelter, but I'm convinced that he wants to know where his master has gone.