UNDERSTANDING DOGS – AND – A DOG’S UNDERSTANDING – — by Mary A. LaClair
Barbershops and beauty parlors can be a wealth of miscellaneous information. The thing my friend and I learned there recently was quite profound. But it wasn’t about hair or beauty treatments. It was about dogs being able to relate to death. I heard a long time ago that service dogs should not be taken into a funeral parlor. Having no reason to question it at the time I dispatched the idea.
However, more recently I learned something else, something which others have said they knew, but which I found quite profound. Here is the story as I witnessed it.
A lady’s husband had died a few day earlier was getting her hair done before calling hours. Being close to her, I drove her there and stayed with her, so I know this is true.
Friend: “My husband was killed in an accident on Sunday, today is Tuesday and I think his dog is feeling remorse. I don’t know how to help him.”
Hairdresser: “He may not understand why he is being abandoned. He may be feeling rejection and does not understand why. Do you have any of the clothes your husband was wearing when he died? If so, take some of those clothes and put them in front of the dog. Animals, especially dogs, do understand death, and are able to smell it. If you put those clothes in front of him he will smell his master, and he will smell death, he will relate it and then he will understand. He will understand that he has not been abandoned. Dogs understand death.”
It sounded like good advice to us.
We took our friend home, and together we did just that. We took the shirt and jeans the husband was wearing when he was killed in the accident and laid those clothes on the kitchen floor. They reeked of engine fluids so we both had our doubts. But the man’s faithful canine companion came to them and laid his head on those clothes. For about forty-five minutes he still lay there quiet as can be. Then he got up and went into the living room. There, he lay on the floor by the man’s favorite chair. He slept here for several hours. He never returned to the clothes which had been left on the kitchen floor for the rest of the day. He understood.
The clothes were then buried on the farm under the grape vine the husband had been trimming the day before the accident. The dog understands death. He knows his master has not abandoned him. He did stop at that grape vine several days later, and stood stock still, almost as if in remembrance and honor.
In a day or two the dog’s appetite returned. He understood, he grieved, he recovered.
I am completely awestruck at the sensitive smell and understanding which He has given dogs.
My friend is doing well, thank you and so is the dog. I understand that it took more than a week or two for her appetite to return, but with God’s help and the good friends He provides, she is doing well and thankful to know that her husband was friends with Jesus on earth; and she knows that he is becoming even better friends with Him in Heaven. That is a cause to be happy.
Does God care for his animals? Yes, more than we may think! He cares for their emotional health, just as he does ours. They are His creation and He loves them as such.
I believe we will answer for how we treat our animals; and I believe animals will answer to God particularly if any become man-killers. For Scriptural basis on these thoughts, please visit other articles in the animal category in the archives at this site, for example you may wish to read the article DO DOGS GO TO HEAVEN? or go to: www.LookListenAndThink.com and look for the topic on ANIMALS. 
Thank you for reading, and may you be blessed with a healthy relationship with your dogs and other pets, and may you be even more blessed with an even healthier relationship with God, through Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit.
Some readers may also wish to visit www.TheProverbs120Column.com for the article: “Are We All Children of God?”, if your dog is in heaven, you will want to be sure of being there yourself. Check it out. Another interesting article called: TREES TALK, CRY AND SING. Has your interest been sparked on that one? Check it out, you’ll be surprised and educated all at once.
- “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, the wonders He has prepared for those who love Him” 1 Cor. 2:9
- “If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands.” John 14:15 (Amp.)
9 But it is just as the Scriptures say,
“What God has planned for people who love him is more than eyes have seen or ears have heard. It has never even entered our minds!”
1 Corinthians 2:9 (KJ21) :
9 But as it is written: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”
15 If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments.
15 If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands. 
Look, Listen & Think 