Losing a Dog

Guest: Frank McAndrew, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Knox College Anticipating the end of life – for yourself or for a loved one – is a sobering and difficult exercise most of us would rather avoid. The same is true for a beloved pet, although sometimes we are forced to have conversations like deciding how sick a dog should be before putting him or her down. The pain can be masked by getting a new puppy or some other distraction, but it is inevitably still there.    Psychologist Frank McAndrew was surprised at how difficult the loss of his own dog was, but then he looked into the research and it all made sense.