It’s heartbreaking when a dog passes away. Our relationship with dogs is special. The bonds we have with our dogs and other pets make them a vital part of our families. When we lose one, we want to remember and honor them with heartfelt or reassuring dog memorial quotes.
A few words expressing the sadness and pain of losing a dog can help ease the aching heart.
Before reading this guide, “Dog Memorial Quotes to Show How Much You Loved Them,” check out: The Best Goldendoodle Quotes: Funny, Inspirational, and Birthday! (2023) and Best Dog Birthday Captions for Social Media! (2023).
54 Comforting Dog Memorial Quotes for Your Furry Friend
Quotes on losing a dog can help us process the loss of connection with our dogs. They may serve as a reminder of how unique and important they were, as well as what they added to our lives. Particularly when we miss them so dearly.
Memorial quotes can also be helpful if you know someone who has recently lost their dog.
We really hope that these dog memorial quotes will help you honor your pet, bid them farewell, and be a constant reminder of just how they will always be in our hearts.
- “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.” – Gene Hill
- “A person who has never owned a dog has missed a wonderful part of life” – Bob Barker
- “The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again, but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to.” – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
- “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” – Marjorie Garber
- “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?” – Sir Walter Scott
- “You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you; they will be there long before any of us” – Robert Louis Stevenson
- “There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.” – Aeschylus
- “A good dog never dies. He always stays. He walks beside you on crisp autumn days when frost is on the fields and winter’s drawing near. His head is within our hands in his old way” – Mary Carolyn Davies
- “The bond with a dog is as lasting as the ties of this earth can ever be.” – Konrad Lorenz
- “Dogs die. But dogs live, too. Right up until they die, they live. They live brave, beautiful lives. They protect their families. And love us. And make our lives a little brighter. And they don’t waste time being afraid of tomorrow” – Dan Gemeinhart
- “Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.” – Mark Twain
- “I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to live double that time?” – Sir Walter Scott
- “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
- “If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.” – James Herriot
- “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
- “If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.” – Will Rogers
- “They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite.” – Cassandra Clare
- “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.” – Pam Brown
- “Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” – Roger Caras
- “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
- “Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. Wear 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” – Roger A. Caras
- “Death leaves a heartache no one can heal; love leaves a memory no one can steal.” – From an Irish Headstone
- “Do dogs understand death? Do they have souls? Do they go to heaven? I have always believed so, but this 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” – Glenwood McNabb
- “Dogs leave pawprints on our hearts” – Author Unknown
- “Grief is so painfully real, regardless of its origin. The love of, and attachment to, an animal friend can equal that of human relationships. Likewise, the loss of an animal can be just as devastating” – Rev. Joel L. Morgan
- “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” – Anatole France
- “The world would be a nicer place if everyone had the ability to love as unconditionally as a dog” – M K Clinton
- “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.” – Washington Irving
- “Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim.” – Vicki Harrison
- “When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.” – Khalil Gibran
- “Although it’s difficult today to see beyond the sorrow, looking back in memory helps comfort you tomorrow.” – Author Unknown
- “What we have once enjoyed we can never lose; All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” – Helen Keller
- “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
- “Goodbyes are not forever. Goodbyes are not the end. They simply mean I’ll miss you until we meet again!” – Unknown
- “I should know enough about loss to realize that you never really stop missing someone-you just learn to live around the huge gaping hole of their absence.” – Alyson Noel
- “Sometimes, only one person is missing, and the whole world seems depopulated.” – Alphonse de Lamartine
- “Unlike some people who have experienced the loss of an animal, I did not believe, even for a moment, that I would never get another. I did know full well that there were just too many animals out there in need of homes for me to take what I have always regarded as the self-indulgent road of saying the heartbreak of the loss of an animal was too much ever to want to go through with it again.
- To me, such an admission brought up the far more powerful admission that all the wonderful times you had with your animal were not worth the unhappiness at the end.” – Cleveland Amory
- “Not the least hard thing to bear when they go from us, these quiet friends, is that they carry away with them so many years of our own lives.” – John Galsworthy
- “The pain passes, but the beauty remains.” – Pierre Auguste Renoir
- “Think not so much of ‘moving on’ but of ‘moving forward.’ And as you move forward, you always do so with your loved one by your side, in your heart, within your very breath. They are part of you now and always. You move forward with them and continue to engage in life because of their inspiration.” – Ashley Davis Bush
- “Grief doesn’t have a plot. It isn’t smooth. There is no beginning and middle and end.” – Ann Hood
- “I heard somebody define heaven once as a place where, when you get there, all the dogs you ever loved run to greet you.” – Robert B. Parker
- “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.” – Hilary Stanton Zunin
- “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.” – Stanley Coren
- “Everyone can master a grief but he that has it.” – William Shakespeare
- “Once you’ve had a wonderful dog, a life without one is a life diminished.” – Dean Koontz
- “The bond with a dog is as lasting as the ties of this earth can ever be.” – Konrad Lorenz
- “The world would be a nicer place if everyone had the ability to love as unconditionally as a dog.” – M.K. Clinton
- “Dogs have a way of finding the people who need them and filling an emptiness we didn’t ever know we had.” – Thom Jones
- “It came to me that every time I lose a dog, they take a piece of my heart with them, and every new dog that comes into my life gifts me with a piece of their heart. If I live long enough, all of the components of my heart will be dogs, and I will become as generous and as loving as they are.” – Anonymous
- “Dogs’ lives are too short. Their only fault, really.” – Agnus Sligh Turnbull, author
- “A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” – Josh Billings (the pen name of Henry Wheeler Shaw), humorist and lecturer
- “If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I know will go to heaven, and very very few people.” – James Thurber
Frequently Asked Questions
If you are consoling a fellow pet owner, you can say you’re sorry for their loss or that you know how much the dog meant to them.
Spend time with your dog doing their favorite things or making them as comfortable as possible.
While sharing can help us process the pain, don’t feel pressured to post about a dog’s passing on social media, especially prematurely.
Conclusion for “Dog Memorial Quotes to Show How Much You Loved Them”
Dog memorial quotes can help us express our loss and the connection we shared with our furry friend. We hope that the quotes we’ve compiled in this article will help you do the same.
If you enjoyed this guide, “Dog Memorial Quotes to Show How Much You Loved Them,” you might also like:
You can learn more about this topic by watching “Pet Memorial – Owner, Dearest Friend” down below:
Garrett loves animals and is a huge advocate for all Doodle dog breeds. He owns his own Goldendoodle named Kona. In addition, he volunteers at the Humane Society of Silicon Valley, where he fosters dogs and helps animals. Garrett enjoys writing about Doodles and believes that dogs can teach humans more about how to live than humans can teach a dog.
Why Trust We Love Doodles?
At We Love Doodles, we’re a team of writers, veterinarians, and puppy trainers that love dogs. Our team of qualified experts researches and provides reliable information on a wide range of dog topics. Our reviews are based on customer feedback, hands-on testing, and in-depth analysis. We are fully transparent and honest to our community of dog owners and future owners.