What is Pet Loss?

There is no clear line in what qualifies as pet loss. Some medical associations call it a pet loss if a person has simply lost their pet, and some others include the trauma and grief that follows.

In this post, we focus on the grief reaction that comes after losing a pet companion.

The Mental Consequences of a Pet Loss

According to research, the following are considered the effects of pet loss:

・Sudden and unstoppable tears
・Incapable of making progress due to self-hate
・Whitnessing shadows of their lost pet
・Prolonged anxiety and negativity
・Easily panicked
・Nightmares

Additionally to the above points, pet loss is known to cause physical symptoms such as loss of appetite and dizziness. Generally speaking, pet loss can create mental states extremely similar to depression and should be taken care of if symptoms prolong.

5 Ways to Cope With Pet Loss

Some suggest that getting a new animal would help with pet loss, but for some people, owning a new pet too soon still feels like a betrayal to their lost love. The most important step in overcoming the sadness is to first fully accept the loss of your beloved pet.

As a way to completely accept the death of your pet, you can try the following methods:

1. Cry Your Heart Out

To face pet loss, you must first accept the death of your pet. Tears may fall when you think of your lost companion, but don’t hold it in and let it all out. Crying relaxes the sympathetic nerves so that the parasympathetic nerves can become dominant. This lifts mental stress.

Tears will shift the brain back to normal from a stress-controlled state, and this will allow a calm transition into acceptance of death.

2. Share Your Sadness With Others Who Feel the Same Way

Even if you logically understand that your pet has passed away, sometimes it’s hard to accept it emotionally. In these circumstances, it helps to talk to others who are also going through similar experiences.

Typically, when a person passes away, there are funerals with family and friends that gather to mourn and reflect on past memories together. This helps people understand death, but with animals, a ceremony like humans are rare.

We recommend that you connect online with others who are also experiencing pet loss. Whether it be a group or an individual, share your sad feelings and ideas on how to overcome them. It’s encouraging to know that you’re not alone in the grieving process and sharing experiences will allow your heart to process the emotional aspects of the death.

3. Keep Yourself Intentionally Busy

One way to cope is by keeping yourself intentionally busy. It can be mentally tolling to constantly deal with sadness.

Whether professional or private, shift your focus to other activities. This can temporarily alleviate some of the stress felt through pet loss. Eventually, you’ll feel free enough from sadness to calmly accept the passing of your pet.

4. Create Closure

Once you’re able to accept death, we recommend that you organize your memories with them. Your pet’s toys, toiletry, and cage will always trigger a flashback in memories unexpectedly. This can bring back the negative symptoms of pet loss.

Try to organize and let go of some objects, frame certain memories that you cherish, or make a keepsake box to store special items that are dear to you. This will help you move on to a post-death new phase.

A pet memorial ceremony is also very helpful. You can plant a tree or place a gravestone where you buried your pet’s ashes as a way for closure.

5. Seek Pet Loss Counseling

If nothing works, in the end, you can always seek professional help. It can be a general therapist, but we recommend a Pet Loss Counselor that specializes in these matters. They can empathize deeply about your loss as they understand specific difficulties a person goes through during the loss.

If the issues you face are hard to share with people in real life, an AI can hear you without any restrictions on time schedule, or location. It’s an affordable alternative counseling method with a free trial period. Give it a try!
→SELF MIND

Move Forward With All The Great Memories

In some cases, people suffer through pet loss for more than 6 months. It’s a sign that you’ve poured your heart into caring for your pet, so there’s no need to try and ‘get over.’ Instead, we hope that you can embrace their departure and learn how to move forward with all the great memories you’ve created together!

References:

KIMURA, Y., KANAI, K., ITOH, N., CHIKAZAWA, S., HORI, Y., HOSHI, F., KAWABATA, H., & MAEZAWA, M. (2016). A Longitudinal Study of Mental Illness among Bereaved Pet Owners. Journal of Veterinary Epidemiology, 20(1), 59–65. https://doi.org/10.2743/jve.20.59

Kimura, Y. (2009). GriefReaction and Care Associated with Pet Loss in Japan. Japanese Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine, 49(5), 357–362. https://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110007161315

Nikaido, C., Ando, T., & Kajiwara, H. (2019). The past and future of pet loss study in Japan: A literature review. Journal of the College of Education, Yokohama National University. The Social Sciences, 2, 11–22. https://doi.org/10.18880/00012307

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At some point, we all come across polarizing questions like, “love or money?” A classic example along similar lines would be, “Are you a dog person, or a cat person?” Dogs and cats are best friends to humans, but wouldn’t it be interesting if we could determine personalities based on our animal preferences? In fact, there are studies that look at personality traits based on just “dogs versus cats”. Here is one animal lover personality test that focuses on your animal preference!

Compassionate Dog Person & Free-Spirited Cat Person

According to the Big Five personality traits , our personalities can be categorized into the following five:

1. Extraversion
2. Conscientiousness
3. Agreeableness
4. Openness to Experience
5. Neuroticism

Using this model, the following results were found about dog and cat lovers personalities:

• Dog lovers scored overall higher on “Agreeableness” compared to cat lovers.
• Cat lovers scored overall higher on “Openness to Experience” compared to dog lovers.

“Agreeableness”, which represents the person’s compassionate and cooperative spirit, was higher in a dog lover’s personality compared to cat lovers. In other words, dog lovers actively seek meaningful relationships and connections with other humans. On the other hand, cat lovers scored higher on “openness”, which represents the person’s independence and curiosity. It seems that a cat lover’s personality tends to have a stronger sense of individuality and creativity compared to dog lovers. Now, here is the personality test: are you a dog or cat person? Once you have your answer, keep reading to discover what this may reveal about your personality.

Dog Lover’s Personality: Loves to Receive Praise

Studies show that dog lovers have higher “reward dependency” compared to cat people. “Reward dependence” is a trait that seeks out relationships and connections, while having the desire to be appreciated by others. (It’s important to note that “reward” here doesn’t necessarily mean material gifts. Rather, it points to intangible rewards we obtain through meaningful human relationships.) If you know of a person who cares about social media likes, they could be more of a dog person who feels the need for approval.

Cat Lover’s Personality: Good at Rising to the Occasion

The traits of a cat lover’s personality are rather interesting. Study participants who wanted cats expressed greater degrees of extroversion in public situations compared to their private lives. In other words, cat lovers were introverts in private situations but were capable of presenting themselves as extroverts in public situations. Therefore, they were great at rising to social occasions only when they needed to. Above all, perhaps a cat lover’s personality is like a jack of all trades; changing their outward impressions based on the situation and how they want to be perceived. 

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

It’s intriguing to think that this simple animal lover personality test can reflect aspects of our own personalities. One theory suspects that this happens due to the influence of similarities. Let me explain what I mean by that.

Below is a summary of the characteristics mentioned above.

• Dog lover personality: Cherishes connection and cooperation with others. Loves to receive praises and approvals.
• Cat lover personality: Prefers to do things their own way. Changes how they want to interact depending on the situation.

These personality traits closely describe how we view dogs and cats themselves. Moreover, there’s a possibility that we tend to gravitate towards the animal that closely represents our own interests and personality traits. In other words, your personality doesn’t become more cat-like because you like cats. Rather, you gravitate towards cats because you see a bit of yourself in them. This would make a lot of sense!

This Animal Lover Personality Test is All in Good Fun

Did anything ring true? Of course, everything in this article is based on general statistics and tendencies, so it’s not a definitive trait for every cat or dog person on earth. A personality test is all in good fun, so take it with a grain of salt. So, the next time you meet someone new, ask them about their animal preferences. It could reveal some hints about their personality!

Looking to improve your mental wellbeing? Try the SELF MIND app FREE for 1 week!
If you’re looking for more tips on how to care for your mental health, check out some of our past blog posts!

References：
Saito, A. (2010). Personality Differences Between Cat-lovers and Dog-lovers. Annual convention of the Japanese Psychological Association proceedings, 74, 21.

Saito, A., Nakamura, T., Hirashi, K., & Hasegawa, T. (2011). Personality Differences Between Cat-lovers and Dog-lovers (2). Annual convention of the Japanese Psychological Association proceedings, 75, 40. doi: 10.4992/pacjpa.75.0_1EV020

Tajima, T. (2017). Personality Characteristics of Dog-Lovers and Cat-Lovers: Multiplicity of Personality and Similarity to Personality of Pet. The Japanese Journal of Personality, 26(2), 109-120. doi: 10.2132/personality.26.2.5

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The Many Benefits of a Virtual Pet

In recent years, many facilities offer animal therapy programs as an effective way to for patients to relax. However, they face challenges with risks such as animal allergies and pet loss. Unfortunately, allergic reactions and farewells are not easy to avoid and can be extremely painful.

With this in mind, animal robots are introduced to the market as a way to try and solve these issues. For instance, maybe you have already heard of the adorable dog robot or the fluffy seal robot. These animal robots are available at a hefty price tag. In addition, they can be a hassle if you ever need techincal maintenance.

Following this, some researchers in Japan asked the following question; can a virtual pet through smartphones and games have the same effect as real animals?

How Effective is a Virtual Pet?

A psychological research team at Kurume University measured a group of participants’ moods and emotions in advance. Then, they divided them into the following four activity groups.

• Group A：Play games that interact with a virtual pet.
• Group B：Play completely different games, such as puzzle games.
• Group C：Watch videos that show beautiful landscapes.
• Group D：Relax in a quiet room.

Afterwards, the team measured the participants’ moods and emotions again. Results indicated that virtual pet games were most effective for resolving fatigue.

‘Active Encouragement’ Helps Recover Fatigue

Researchers suggested ‘active encouragement’ as a factor to why virtual pet games were more effective on fatigue than other methods.

When you interact with a virutal pet onscreen, the pet responds with a reaction. On the other hand, watching beautiful landscapes are considered a passive activity. This is because the viewers do not actively engage with their screen.

An onscreen virtual pet responds to a player’s initiation to interact, therefore helping players to recover from fatigue.

A Virtual Pet is a Friend for Life

In the experiment mentioned above, the difference between other games and virtual pet games were the potential ‘sense of disappointment’ during their play. For example, in puzzle and action games, there would be some type of mission or goal. When players could not accomplish this, there was a negative reaction. On the other hand, players that interacted with virtual pets were content with just watching a dog walk around onscreen. This mistake-free activity made them feel less tired than other goal-driven games.

Today, there are many virtual pet games available to us. So if you only have small pockets of time available and are looking for a way to relax, an onscreen pet might be worth giving a shot.

Looking to improve your mental wellbeing? Try the SELF MIND app FREE for 1 week!
If you’re looking for more tips on how to care for your mental health, check out some of our past blog posts!

Image: Unsplash
Reference:
Sato, A., & Tsuneo, K. (2009). Healing effect of virtual pet. Kurume University psychological research (8), 39-44.

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