The face is the emotional center of humans, and it's what we know dogs pay the most attention to. Susanna speculates that maybe this is actually the dog's way of emotionally working through losing a caretaker. Maybe this behavior is grief or grief adjacent, even though it might not look like a common human way to express grief. Or maybe it's not.
A dog on its owner’s grave. A killer whale carrying around its dead calf. A goose that isolates when its mate dies. These behaviors in animals may look like human mourning, but should scientists call them "grief?"
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Jennifer Vonk's research study on pet cats reactions to the death of companion animals can be found here.
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