10 Dog Owners Share The Most Heartbreaking Experiences Of Having Canine Companion
A farmer’s dog named Tess didn’t go quietly, she went in the loving arms of the person who had to do the hardest job every day. And the cruel part is, it was happening in slow motion, the kind you can’t stop once it starts.
He’d already seen the realities of life on a farm, putting down feral pests just to keep food on the table. So when Tess began losing control of her rear end, couldn’t walk for long, and needed the car sometimes, it felt like another countdown. Then came the yelp, the fear, the shaking at the vet, and the way he held her while her life slipped away, still replaying the question of whether he waited too long.
Four years later, he’s still haunted, and Tess’s story isn’t the only one that breaks people open.
Dog passes away in the loving arms of her owner.
I am a farmer. I have to put down feral pests. I have to kill to supply us with food.
But when my dog, “Tess,” became old, she started to lose control of her rear end. She couldn’t walk for very long, and I had to bring the car to rescue her sometimes.
Then I heard her yelp as she tried to get up to eat, and I knew I had run out of time.
I took her for one last walk at a place she loved and gave her the very best day I could. The next day, I took her to the vet.
Normally, she loved the vet and would have bounded in with enthusiasm. This day, she was shaking and urinated on the floor.
She must have known something was wrong, and she was scared.
I held her and cuddled her as her life slipped away. That is the hardest thing I have had to do.
But I owed it to her to do the right thing—to be brave for her sake.
I still beat myself up. “Did I wait too long?” “Could she have had a few more weeks?”
Having to make this decision was tough. Four years later, I am still traumatized by it.
Here are a couple of the last photos of her. What made it worse is that she was MY very first dog.
Dogs don’t last as long as humans, and that is by far the most painful thing.
Saying goodbye is the hardest thing to do.
A year ago, my 14 1/2-year-old Rough Collie died. I had him since he was 11 weeks old.
Other than the times I was hospitalized or on a trip involving planes, we were never apart, and on those occasions, my daughter cared for him. He was my Bud.
He was the dog ambassador for my dog daycare business, greeting each dog that came to my home. His even temper kept everyone calm.
Whenever I accomplished a task, I would say, “We did it!” And he would happily wag his tail, prance around, celebrating with me.
He somehow knew when I was down or sick and would come and lay his head on my knee as if to support me and tell me everything was OK. He was my faithful “Lassie” dog.
He was my companion and confidante. And the hardest thing about loving him for 14 1/2 years was saying goodbye.
It's hard to let go.
End of life. If your pet is old, sick, suffering, and clearly in pain, and can barely eat, deciding it’s time to say goodbye can still be a struggle to let go, no matter how right it is.
Losing a dog is like losing a family member.
Losing a dog to death is hard, and people do not understand it is like losing a family member.
Another painful experience is if a dog is lost and you cannot find him. That was so terrifying to me.
He came home after one hour, but he had gotten loose.
Being on the "death watch" hurts.
Dobby… we love this dog. We adopted him when he was around 4 (the people we adopted him from were also not sure about his age). The family who had to rehome him were lovely people, but they really couldn’t keep him.
He is now 17 or 18; we’re still not sure. We’ve been on “death watch” for 3 years now due to various health issues, including doggy dementia. It’s a balancing act we’re walking to ensure his quality of life is good… but it’s hard to know when we should make the choice. He is loved, he loves life, and he is happy…
He might be declining right now to the point we have to make the call.
The most painful problem a dog owner faces is knowing when it is time to let them go peacefully.
Deciding to euthanize your beloved pet is a very painful decision.
The most painful situation for a dog owner is having an old or sick dog whose quality of life has deteriorated to the point of being in pain most of the time. Making the decision to euthanize the dog is awful.
I've always thought, “What if I choose to euthanize and the dog still has the ability to enjoy life?” and “Have I waited too long and caused my dog pain through my inaction?”
It’s a tough decision, and I’ve always had doubts about whether I’d make the right choice. But it’s not fair to allow your best friend to suffer because you can’t bring yourself to end his suffering.
I’ve had to make that decision far too often—but I’ve never gotten used to it. I always wonder, but I console myself by realizing that I’ve done my best with the circumstances surrounding the dog’s end of life.
But it’s still an agonizing decision.
This heartbreaking choice echoes the dog owner accused of abandoning his dog after putting him down to end his suffering, even when he needed her most.
You can never be fully prepared for a dog's death.
Letting go when it’s their time instead of holding on because you’re not ready.
Remembering the decision to put down a beloved pet brings pain.
When your dog gets very sick and the only humane thing to do is have him put to sleep, I had to do it once, and just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes now.
Remembering the happy days can be, in some ways, painful too.
Having a dog means that you will have many, many happy days and one very sad one. Our pets just do not live as long as we do, so we face losing them at the end of their lifespan, which can vary from 8 years in a very large breed to 23 or so years in a small breed dog, depending, of course, on how well you take care of the pet!
Untoward things can happen with pets just as they can with people, like getting cancer or having one of the organs not function properly. But that’s why you have routine wellness exams with your vet to ensure that your pet stays in good health. In the odd case that it gets hurt or sick, a rapid response by you to take the pet to the veterinarian can change the outcome from an unhappy situation to a happy one, much of the time!
Witnessing their strength dwindle is heartbreaking.
Watching them begin to decline and knowing there will come a point when they look into your eyes with that look. That look saying, please help me end this pain.
I spent $15,000 in vet bills and would spend another $15,000 if I could just get one more hour with my little dog, Sassy. It was 10 months of hell.
Her getting sick was hell, but even worse, it was during COVID. I got a large animal hospital 2 hours away to take care of her because she was going to need blood transfusions and platelets.
All during the beginning of COVID, they wouldn't let me visit. They called one day and said, “We're going to put her to sleep; you can come pick up her body.” I said, “No, you're not. I'm going to be with her.” They said, “You can't visit because of COVID.”
Long story short, I went, picked up my dog, and treated her myself. I'm a nurse practitioner, and I got her through the pancreatitis, the liver failure, everything. She had four good months, then she had a stroke one morning.
I looked at her and asked, “Baby, do you want to see Grandma? Are you ready?” She didn’t know who I was until I said that, and she just banged and started trying to jump into my arms. I let her go peacefully in my arms.
It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do and the most loving. I didn't know if I was doing the right thing, and my vet said she has never had anybody regret putting their animals down. It's hard but so kind in the end.
We do our animals this kindness; we should be able to help our loved ones with debilitating diseases that aren't going to get any better and want physician-assisted death without fear of being arrested.
That same “we were never apart” bond shows up again with a 14 and a half-year-old Rough Collie, the one who greeted every dog at daycare and always wagged like life was good.</p>
When he died a year ago, his owner kept remembering how he’d lay his head on her knee during sickness, like he was quietly telling her everything was OK.</p>
And that’s why the last photos, the shaking, the urination on the vet floor, and the “We did it!” tail wags all hit harder than any goodbye should.</p>
Saying goodbye to a cherished pet is a journey of love and acceptance. It's about embracing the memories they gift us and finding comfort in knowing their spirit lives on within us.
Through acceptance, we honor their pawprints on our hearts, forever grateful for the joy they brought into our lives.
Nobody really “moves on” from a love like that, they just learn how to carry it.
Wondering why Tess’s kind life still ends with euthanasia? Read why dogs are put down even when happy.
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