What is the opinion on a dog's behavior when the couple is getting a divorce.

My husband does come over 2 to 3 days a week to walk him and hang out. He also takes him every other weekend to NH to run in the woods

Although I am the one who has the dog living with me, and do the majority of the walks and feeding, the dog behaves like the has not seem him in ages, and my husband was the one he bonded with first.

There are 'friends' that feel the dog should only be living with one of us, rather than the current visitation schedule. My husband has free access to the dog whenever he wants.

So in your opinion do dogs react to divorce like 3 to 5 year old childen do. The dog eats less, sems sugglish in the morning.

Any insight would be appreciated.

My dobie bitch was very bonded with my ex, there was no way I could separate them. The dobie dog was bonded to the bitch (ex was not really a dog person :rolleyes: ). In the end, I realized my ex, who is not at all social, would be very alone without the dogs and left them there. That way they also stayed in the home they grew up in.

I took the greyhounds and whippet with me. THe dobies stay with me a couple times a year instead of being boarded, which gives me a chance to spend time with my "dog daughter", but they have stability. The male took it pretty hard, and did chew his feet, but that runs in their line anyway, so maybe not my "fault".

The sighthounds were very close to me, and never missed my ex for a minute. I missed the dobies more they they missed me, I just had to face that.

We didn't do a lot of fighting, but obviously the dogs knew there was tension between us. Honestly though, projected emotion aside, I had a harder time with it than they did <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> and now they love their visits, and I cherish the time with them. They are very old dobies now, 13+ years.

Must be a dobie thing...

My male doberman loved my ex-fiancee, and my female doberman was glued to the male, so when I left they stayed and my giant schnauzer came with me.

I visited the dogs every year on arranged visits,(1200 mile move) but both dogs have passed now.

While it was not a divorce- to the dogs it was the same idea. Every year when I visited the male would take a minute to remember who I was, then he would be best friends again. The female- well- she wasn't the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree- so I don't even think she knew I was gone LOL..

It is a hard thing to do.

Hi,

I recently separated from my long term partner. I have 2 terriers, who absolutely adored him - and even though I fed, walked, groomed & trained them - they still seemed to think he was numero uno!.

It's been 3 months now and although my ex has the dogs one day a week (to break up their time alone) we have settled into a routine for just the 3 of us.

The dogs don't seem to be suffering any. They love seeing my ex, but they already see our new home as their place to be.

My take on it is, that dogs adjust pretty well - as long as you can stay calm & stick to the normal routine as far as possible.