50+ Heartfelt Loss of Dog Quotes

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loss of dogs quotes

Looking for heartfelt loss of dog quotes to use in a condolence message or sympathy card for a friend?  Or perhaps you’re looking for an inspiring quote to include on a memorial for your own dog that has passed away?

Look no further.  We’ve assembled the ultimate list of the best quotes about losing a beloved dog.  To help you easily find the perfect quote, we’ve organized our list of the best loss of dog quotes into the following sections:

At the end of our post, we have links to our Pinterest board and Facebook page where you can find more images with your favourite quotes about loss of a dog created especially for you.

 loss of dogs quotes about joy

Loss of Dog Quotes that Express Appreciation for His Life

Faithful to the end, a dog is a “man’s best friend.”  The death of a faithful companion is a major loss for anyone and cause for deep grief.

These beautiful quotes express the deep bond and love between dogs and their human families, and express just how much we appreciate our furry friends.

Unconditional Love

By M.K. Clinton

“The world would be a nicer place
if everyone had the ability
to love as unconditionally
as a dog.”

~

The Bond With a Dog

By Konrad Lorenz

“The bond with a dog
is as lasting
as the ties of this earth can ever be.”

~

Selfless Love

By Steven Rowley

“Dogs are always good
and full of selfless love.
They are undiluted vessels of joy
who never,
ever
deserve anything bad that happens to them.”

~

Dog Rental

By Joe Garagiola

“I guess you don’t really own a dog,
you rent them,
and you have to be thankful
that you had a long lease.”

~

A Wonderful Dog

By Dean Koontz

“Once you’ve had a wonderful dog,
a life without one
is a life diminished.”

~

Quiet Friends

By John Galsworthy

“Not the least hard thing to bear
when they go from us,
these quiet friends, i
s that they carry away with them
so many years of our own lives.”

~

A Perfect Gentlemen

By Hermione Gingold

“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.”

~

A Heartfelt Wag

By Martin Buxbaum

“A dog wags his tail with his heart.”

~

The Deepest Love

By Josh Billings

“A dog is the only thing on earth
that loves you more than he loves himself.”

~

Dogs Love Their Friends

By Sigmund Freud

“Dogs love their friends
and bite their enemies,
quite unlike people,
who are incapable of pure love
and always have to mix love and hate.”

~

A Whole Life

By Roger Caras

“Dogs are not our whole life,
but they make our lives whole.”

~

Focus of Love

By Roger A. Caras

“Dogs have given us their absolute all.
We are the center of their universe.
We are the focus of their love and faith and trust.
They serve us in return for scraps.
It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made.”

~

Licks Your Tears Away

By Kristan Higgins

“When an eighty-five pound mammal
licks your tears away,
then tries to sit on your lap,
it’s hard to feel sad.”

~

The Inside of a Human

By Cesar Millan

“Dogs don’t rationalize.
They don’t hold anything against a person.
They don’t see the outside of a human
but the inside of a human.”

~

Coming Home

By John Grogan

“Such short little lives
our pets have to spend with us,
and they spend most of it
waiting for us to come home each day.”

~

Dog Biscuits

By Phil Pastoret

“If you think dogs can’t count,
try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket
and then give him only two of them.”

~

Wow, You’re Right!

By Dave Barry

“You can say any foolish thing to a dog,
and the dog will give you a look that says,
‘Wow, you’re right!
I never would’ve thought of that!'”

~

A Wonderful Part of Life

By Bob Barker

“A person who has never owned a dog
has missed a wonderful part of life.”

~

Pure Love

By Johnny Depp

“The only creatures that are evolved enough
to convey pure love
are dogs and infants.”

~

Better than Humans

By Emily Dickinson

“Dogs are better than human beings
because they know but do not tell.”

~

A Dog Will Teach You

By Robert Wagner

“A dog will teach you unconditional love.
If you can have that in your life,
things won’t be too bad.”

~

His Dog

By Aldous Huxley

“To his dog,
every man is Napoleon;
hence the constant popularity of dogs.”

~

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loss of dogs quotes about grief and sadness

Loss of Dog Quotes that Express Sadness and Grief

Losing a dog is like losing a family member and is a cause for deep mourning.  (Unless you’ve owned a dog yourself, you may not be able to fully understand the hole the loss of a dog leaves in our hearts…)

The following quotes express the sadness and grief that we feel following the loss of our favourite pooch.

~

Pawprints on Our Hearts

Unknown Author

“Dogs leave pawprints on our hearts”

~

This Sadness

By John Grogan

“Owning a dog always ended with this sadness
because dogs just don’t live as long as people do.”

~

Imprints on Our Lives

By Ashly Lorenzana

“People leave imprints on our lives,
shaping who we become in much the same way
that a symbol is pressed into the page of a book
to tell you who it comes from.
Dogs, however,
leave paw prints on our lives and our souls,
which are as unique as fingerprints in every way.”

~

Dogs Come Into Our Lives

Erica Jong

“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.”

~

Profound Joy

By Marjorie Garber

“If you have a dog,
you will most likely outlive it;
to get a dog is to open yourself
to profound joy and,
prospectively,
to equally profound sadness.”

~

A Flick of His Tail

By Gene Hill

“Nobody can fully understand
the meaning of love
unless he’s owned a dog.
A dog can show you more honest affection
with a flick of his tail
than a man can gather
through a lifetime of handshakes.”

~

Never Risking Love

By Hilary Stanton Zunin

“The risk of love is loss
and the price of loss is grief.
But the pain of grief is only a shadow
when compared with the pain of never risking love.”

~

Dogs Don’t Know

By Stanley Coren

“Dogs don’t know about beginnings,
and they don’t speculate on matters that occurred before their time.
Dogs also don’t know or at least don’t accept the concept of death.
With no concept of beginnings or endings,
dogs probably don’t know
that for people having a dog as a life companion
provides a streak of light between two eternities of darkness.”

~

What Would Become of Me?

By Sir Walter Scott

“The misery of keeping a dog
is his dying so soon.
But, to be sure,
if he lived for fifty years
and then died,
what would become of me?”

~

Their Only Fault

By Agnes Sligh Turnbull

“Dogs’ lives are too short.
Their only fault, really.”

~

Am Unbearable Price

By Dean Koontz

“Dogs’ lives are short, too short,
but you know that going in.
You know the pain is coming,
you’re going to lose a dog,
and there’s going to be great anguish,
so you live fully in the moment with her,
never fail to share her joy or delight in her innocence,
because you can’t support the illusion
that a dog can be your lifelong companion.
There’s such beauty in the hard honesty of that,
in accepting and giving love while always aware
that it comes with an unbearable price.”

~

In the Heart

By Ben Hur Lampman

“The one best place to bury a good dog
is in the heart of his master.”

~

 loss of dogs quotes about heaven

Loss of Dog Quotes that Express a Spiritual Sentiment

Dogs are the first to greet us when we get home, and nothing would make us happier than having our beloved pup be the first one to greet us when we reach the great beyond.

These next quotes express the spiritual side of dog loss, and what might be in store for our canine companions.

If There is a Heaven

By Pam Brown

“If there is a heaven,
it’s certain our animals are to be there.
Their lives become so interwoven with our own,
it would take more than an archangel to detangle them.”

~

Dogs in Heaven

By Will Rogers

“If there are no dogs in Heaven,
then when I die I want to go where they went.”

~

Immortal Dogs

By James Thurber

“If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs
I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.”

~

The Most Faithful of Animals

By Martin Luther

“The dog is the most faithful of animals
and would be much esteemed were it not so common.
Our Lord God has made His greatest gifts the commonest.”

~

Miracles with Paws

By Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy

“Dogs are miracles with paws.”

~

The Dog is a Gentleman

By Mark Twain

“The dog is a gentleman. I hope to go to his heaven, not man’s.”

~

Heaven is by Favour

By Mark Twain

“Heaven is by favour;
if it were by merit your dog would go in
and you would stay out.
Of all the creatures ever made
(man) is the most detestable.”

~

Long Before Us

By Robert Louis Stevenson

“You think dogs will not be in heaven?
I tell you, they will be there long before any of us.”

~

Do Dogs Understand Death?

By Glenwood McNabb

“Do dogs understand death?
Do they have souls?
Do they go to heaven?
I have always believed so,
but this [event] confirmed that all of God’s creatures,
humans and animals,
have a soul and that we will all be reunited in heaven.
My pastor once told me,
‘If there are no dogs in heaven
I don’t want to go.’
I agree.”

~

A Soul Unawakened

By Anatole France

“Until one has loved an animal,
a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”

~

Created by God

By Iwao Fujita

“I believe all animals
were created by God
to help keep man alive.”

~

A Truly Faithful Dog

By Konrad Lorenz

“There is no faith which has never yet been broken,
except that of a truly faithful dog.”

~

Not The Better For It

By Abraham Lincoln

“I care not for a man’s religion
whose dog and cat are not the better for it.”

~

Better Off

By James Herriot

“If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude,
then animals are better off than a lot of humans.”

~

Happiness in Heaven

By Billy Graham

“God will prepare everything
for our perfect happiness in heaven,
and if it takes my dog being there,
I believe he’ll be there.”

~

In the Eternity of Christ

By Pope Paul VI

“One day we will again see our animals in the eternity of Christ.”

~

loss of dog quotes and additional resources

Additional Resources

Did you know that Love Lives On has a comprehensive library of articles on grief?  Here are some other popular posts on our website:

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