Can messages be communicated?

[mtnMan]

Hi all -

I have a 7 year old German Shepherd who has been with me since he was 13 weeks old.

My wife and I are thinking about taking one year to travel around the world before we have kids. While we are gone, our dog would stay with my parents who he knows well. He has stayed with them before for up to a month or so.

I know that this breed is very loyal and I worry that he will feel "abandoned" if I leave him for a year.

Is it possible to communicate to the dog that I WILL be back to get him? I worry that he may experience anxiety or sadness.

Thanks for your thoughts.
MM

[MissDolittle]

Welcome on board, mtnMan!

I think I can ease your mind here. You assume that the dog thinks and feels like a human. Rest assured, that is not the case. Dogs, like any other animal, live in the here and now, not the past, not the future.

They do not sit there and wonder about things that have happened or ask themselves "why me" or feel sorry themselves for that matter. Only humans do that and we automatically assume that because we experience things that way, everybody else does too, including animals.

You dog will not feel abandoned, especially not if he stays with people he already knows. Make sure your parents do not feel bad or sorry for the dog, because he will pick up on that energy...meaning that it's actually the human that keeps the dog in a sad state of mind.

Does that make any sense?