30+ Loss Of Dog Quotes That Put The Grieving Process Into Words

It can be hard to describe what losing a dog feels like.

When you or someone you love has experienced the loss of a dog, it can be hard to put the feeling of grief into words. To help with processing the painful loss, we’ve compiled a list of quotes that may help you and others better understand and work through the pain of losing your best friend.

Write one of these quotes in a sympathy card or use it as a journal prompt to work through your personal feelings. Grieving is hard, and there’s no right way to do it. Just remember that the heavy feeling will lighten, and soon you’ll be able to recall the good times before the bad.

Anonymous quotes about loving and losing dogs

These simple yet sweet quotes perfectly describe the relationship between dog parents and their pups and how hard it can be to say goodbye.

  1. “I loved you for your whole life and I’ll miss you for the rest of mine.”
  2. “A companion is gone … but the memory lives on.”
  3. ​​“The most difficult thing about having a dog is the goodbye.”
  4. “Grief is not a sign of weakness, but the price of love.”
  5. “If the kindest souls were rewarded with the longest lives, dogs would outlive us all.”
  6. “Happiness is a cold nose and a warm belly.”
  7. “Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.”
  8. “Dogs leave their paw prints on our hearts.”
  9. “Some angels choose fur instead of wings.”
  10. “When you feel me in your heart, look up and I’ll be right there.”

Dog loss and grief quotes from authors

These authors, poets and writers perfectly put the feeling of losing a dog into words like no one else ever could.

  1. “Love is love," I told her, as I tell all of my patients who are ashamed to find themselves shattered by the death of a dog. "Loss is loss.” — Meg Donohue, “Dog Crazy: A Novel of Love Lost and Found”
  2. “Heaven, or the Other Side is all around us. It is not in some far away place. Your loved ones are just a thought away.” — Karen A. Anderson, “The Amazing Afterlife of Animals: Messages and Signs From Our Pets on the Other Side”
  3. “Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.” ― Rumi
  4. “Dogs come into our lives to teach us about love, they depart to teach us about loss. A new dog never replaces an old dog, it merely expands the heart. If you have loved many dogs your heart is very big.” — Erica Jong
  5. “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” — C.S. Lewis, “A Grief Observed”
  6. “Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.” ― Leo Tolstoy
  7. “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” — Anatole France
  8. “So it’s true, when all is said and done, grief is the price we pay for love.” ― E.A. Bucchianeri, “Brushstrokes of a Gadfly
  9. “Dogs’ lives are too short. Their only fault, really.” – Agnes Sligh Turnbull
  10. “Sometimes losing a pet is more painful than losing a human because in the case of the pet, you were not pretending to love it.” — Amy Sedaris
  11. “What we have once enjoyed we can never lose; All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” – Helen Keller
  12. “You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Uplifting quotes about dogs

Losing a dog is terribly sad, but one can’t forget the joy they brought while they were alive and well. These quotes remind us to think of the good times.

  1. “Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring — it was peace.” ― Milan Kundera
  2. “The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.” ― Andy Rooney
  3. “If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” ― Will Rogers
  4. “A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” ― Josh Billings
  5. ​​“If you don't own a dog, at least one, there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.”― Roger Caras
  6. “Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.” ― Mark Twain
  7. “I guess you don’t really own a dog, you rent them, and you have to be thankful that you had a long lease.” – Joe Garagiola
  8. “A person who has never owned a dog has missed a wonderful part of life.” — Bob Barker
  9. “The more boys I meet the more I love my dog.”― Carrie Underwood
  10. “To call him a dog hardly seems to do him justice, though inasmuch as he had four legs, a tail, and barked, I admit he was, to all outward appearances. But to those who knew him well, he was a perfect gentleman.” – Hermione Gingold

Give yourself plenty of time to grieve, and remember that your pup is still with you wherever you go.