I confused AU : (

[Stormy Peak]

Last October (can't believe it's been almost a year now) I put my feral dog, Jaya to sleep, due to her having cancer.

She basically raised my golden retriever, AU, as I got him as a 9 week old puppy...so AU grew up with her by his side and as he got older, their roles switched and he became her 'protector' her anchor, and kept her panic attacks at bay. They really relied on each other.

After she was gone, AU had about 4 weeks where he really looked for her...and I was careful about not saying her name around him, as that just brought his expectation up on seeing her again.

I haven't mentioned her name to him since then. But last night, I dropped some left over popcorn on the living room carpet.
Jaya would have been on it like a 4 on the floor vacuum. Not so much AU, he sniffed, selected a few pieces (probably the ones with the most butter on them), and he walked away.

I said out loud...(without thinking) "Boy, Jaya would have cleaned this mess up for me"

Bad mistake.

AU's head and tail went into like 'alert mode' and he turned and made a few like leaps towards the room where Jaya always slept on a love seat. He stood in the door, looking...and I know...thinking she was going to be in there.

It seems that by now, that in not having her around for so long, he wouldn't have such a reaction. I've had dogs my whole life and never saw one react like that almost a year later, upon hearing a prior dog's name.

Jaya, btw, spent every day for 7 months looking for HaHa after he was put to sleep. However, once I got AU, and a year or so after that, I could talk about HaHa to my sister, or a friend in my house and hearing his name never triggered Jaya even though she looked for him for so long.

I did call AU back and got a toy and played with him for a few minutes to take his mind off of Jaya, then finished picking up the popcorn off the floor.

Stormy

[Darcy McBride]

They do remember, Stormy. I had an older rescue Beagle named Lily. I often would keep my sister's Yorkie, Tippi, when they would go out of town, and Tippi LOVED Lily. She ate with her, slept in the same bed, and charged up and down the fence to bark at other dogs going by with her. I had to euthanize Lily in October of 2021 due to mammary gland cancer that exploded. Every time my sister came by to visit, Tippi would look and look for Lily. Fast forward 2 years and Tippi is now living with me for a while as my sister has had major health issues. I accidentally said Lily's name while talking to my daughter, and Tippi started whining and ran around looking for her. She has never forgotten Lily.

[Nick Gilmore]

Agreed, they do remember. I had a Great Dane, Ascot who travelled with me. Whenever we went home to visit my Mom, she loved it. Driving down the street to her house, she’d start getting antsy. Once we got in the yard, it would take her a half an hour to calm down around Mom. After Mom died, Ascot’d spend an hour running around the house looking for her. It took her well over a year to come to terms. Death is hard on everybody, two and four footed.

[Stormy Peak]

Well, at least this incident doesn't make AU the Lone Ranger in the long term memory department.

Thanks for sharing your stories and letting me know other dogs are like this. I've had a good number of dogs in my life but this is a first, where a year later, there was such a strong response to the name of a companion who's no longer around.

I will have to be extra careful from here on out in saying Jaya's name out-loud. I really do feel terrible that I got AU's hopes up like that, even knowing it wasn't done intentionally.

Stormy

[Nick Gilmore]

Animals are more like people than we want to believe. I took care of a particular horse for 3 years. When we lost him in a claiming race, I was very upset having cared for him for so long. It was a year later before I saw him again. He was on the way to the races and I called out his pet name. He stopped dead in his tracks and looked around for me. It took his lad a while to get him going forward. Broke my heart all over again.