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I am not a guide dog user, my wife is though and I have been with her since her first guide more than 30 years ago. Since then she has had five guides, currently partnered with the sixth who is only five. We also foster for guide dogs including long term and hospice care.

Losing each retired guide has been extremely hard on both of us and for some of them the grief has been incredibly debilitating. We have also heard the "it was just a pet" and other people misunderstanding the relationship a handler may haves with their guides. Not all handlers feel the same, for some the dog is "just a pet" or "just a tool" but for many a guide is a partner and companion with a strong bond in both directions.

Having to choose to put a dog to sleep is always a hard decision. The dog does depend upon you to make those quality of life decisions for them, the alternative is needless pain and suffering. That doesn't make it easy and certainly it is something that can always be regretted even if there was no better outcome possible. You made the brave choice with the right intentions and you should feel some consolation in that, you did right by your dog.

If you want to talk about it with someone who's been there, sadly several times, DM me.

He was your coworker, your guide, your pet, and your friend. He now can be a guardian angel for you and visit in dreams, where he is happy and healthy. He is still there to listen. Talk to him - he is still part of you.

And it doesn't mean any thing less when you get another companion - that dog will love and help you just as much.

Dogs all have jobs, some trained (like for guide support), and others decide on their jobs (hunting for lizards, doorbell, crumb cleaner) but all dogs are the best therapists.

My three dogs end you love and boops.

First, take whatever time you need for grief. second, you're not a bad person. in fact, you're just the oposite. You realized your dog's quality of life was becoming non-existant, and you did something very unselfish even knowing how it would hurt you.

You're not a bad person. Grieving for a loved one, whether human or dog or other animal, is a completely normal reaction. As a fellow human being, I'm giving you permission to take all the time you need to grieve and mourn the loss of your best friend.

Oh you are not a bad person! You’ve lost so much in the individual that was closest to your heart. It doesn’t matter that it was a dog, he was a part of you. I am so, so sorry. As a granny I wish I could take you in my arms and tell you that you have done nothing wrong, nothing at all!! You have loved and lost, A vital part of yourself an extension of yourself. Wes gave you his life with friendship and Love. Let yourself go through the stages of grief, but do not succumb to them. You feel pain, and loss. That’s normal, healthy. But you will come out the other side of grief and when you do you will need another guide dog, And your heart will take in another extension of yourself. Only you will know when it is the time to do this, be gentle with yourself. But when your grief is over or when your need for another dog is greater than your grief, then open your heart to another dog. When you let Wes go, you were acknowledging all this hard work all of his love, you gave him the opportunity to no longer suffer in this world. It is the greatest gift we can give because we are giving a part of our self up for the greater good of another. You have done no wrong. If you would like to talk to someone who has felt this grief feel free to DM me. But please, Do not blame yourself because you have done no wrong. Be at peace.

I'm so sorry to hear that those closest to you don't seem to understand the pain and loss you're experiencing, let alone the remorse and guilt. It's very very hard to suffer such a loss. Take the time you need to grieve.

You’re not a bad person, he was your battle buddy, your aid, your best friend, and your lifeline. Sounds like he was very sick and the kindest thing you can do when they won’t heal is to let them go. He wasn’t just a pet, you two are bonded for life. Of course you want him back.

Thank you everyone for your kind words. It is soothing for my soul to hear from you all. It is going to be tough going forward but knowing there is a community that can empathise gives me strength.

Thank you all.

My husband lost his guide dog suddenly and unexpectedly 2 years ago. It was devastating for him; he said it was like becoming blind all over again (he lost his eyesight 10 years ago). He finally agreed to get a new one, after I and our friends found a replacement. They are as inseparable as he was with his first, although he still misses her terribly. I’m so sorry for your loss!

You saved your best friend from a great deal of suffering. Any person can only ever hope to have someone who loves them enough and is strong enough to do that for them. I’m so sorry you had to bear that weight, but thank you for doing it. And thank you for staying by him until the end. You did so good. I’m so sorry for how much pain that goodness has caused you.

This was a very lovely post, I cried reading it. Thank you for sharing. You made a very hard and humane decision, I hope you can find peace.

You're not a bad person, you just lost *family,* and, in a very real way, a part of yourself. It was you who made the call instead of letting suffering continue doing its destructive work on its own, which is the objectively right thing to do but feels awful.

Go ahead and grieve your bro, your pal, your comrade, your ally, your partner, your companion. This stuff hits you like a messy, roaring wave. The only way out is *through.* You'll make it out eventually, but there's no point rushing it. Just let yourself feel it, and then, when you're ready, you can let go. Or not.

I haven’t had a guide dog, but I have grown up with dogs and owned dogs my entire life. I’ve also never seen them as pets, they’ve always been my siblings or my children and when they’ve gone I’ve felt the devastation of losing a close family member.

I can’t even imagine how much worse it must be to lose a guide, with the sort of connection that must create.

You did nothing wrong by putting your guide to sleep, it sounds like it was totally necessary and shows a massive sense of selflessness, as I’m sure it would have been much easier to keep your guide alive for your own needs.

You know... It's absolutely fine and normal to be going through these feelings.
I've been low-vision my entire life, with it gradually getting worse as I got older. My sister got a cat that quickly learned we both had terrible sight. Overtime, she eventually learned how emotionally pained we were, and she became sort of a little fuzzy mother to us.
Well, I owned her for the last 5 years of her life. When I had to put her down, I felt the same exact way... My best friend, my little furry mother, I just killed her...
I felt absolutely awful, but eventually I learned I felt awful and sad, and cried my eyes out because I was just angry with myself for what I had to do. She was literally dying, and if I couldn't learn to let her go so she could he at peace and not suffer anymore, then I was being selfish.
I don't mean that as an attack, I'm just being open with you about what I learned. It might hurt to hear it, yes, but, eventually you will come to this conclusion.
Yes, I am still sad if I think about it too hard, but I then remind myself that she isn't suffering anymore. If I had tried to keep her alive, all it would've been are just endless days of suffering, and that wouldn't have been fair to her. I couldn't keep her around just because I needed to be happy and couldn't learn how to handle myself some days.

I sincerely hope you don't let anyone get in the way of you working through your grief, and I super, super hope you'll be alright.
Please don't beat yourself up for too long about the whole situation... I don't think it is what Wes would want you to do 💙

I am so sorry for your loss. You lost a family member because that is what pets are. They become our fuzzy children and best friends. I would imagine losing a guide dog that you have been with so consistently would possibly even feel like losing a limb off your own body.

You made the right decision as tough as it was and will continue to be. You gave him the gift of so many years of love and then the gift of peace when the time came.

Take this time to surround yourself with those who love you to help carry the weight such a loss is bound to bring upon your heart. Take it one day at a time and don't feel like you have to rush through the grief just because the family member walked on 4 feet instead of 2.

Honestly I have been mourning the retirement of my girl, my situation is relatively unique in that I ended up training my own guide from an unlikely candidate to a reliable partner in crime. I poured so many hours of effort into getting her to be a well trained pet then eventually my guide that despite only 2 years of work it is like I am missing half of myself.

I have a successor in training but he is too young to be learning his guide work yet, so I am left feeling exposed when I leave the house. Familiarity with the area is the only reason I am halfway successful at navigating my community. Now she is still alive, during the pandemic she just decided she did not want to work and I respected it as hard as it was on me. I am hoping I still have several years with her but it is something that has crossed my mind as she is clearly slowing down.

Admittedly my saving grace is truly that my successor puppy came home about a month and a half before she retired. So I have had a distraction due to a German Shepherd puppy not taking kindly to a depressed owner. But it still seems impossible that I will ever trust him to do what she did, he is showing so much promise but it does not feel like anyone could do what she did.

I know it is not death, as admittedly that is not something I have experienced yet with a guide dog. But I do know that my cat who functioned as a service animal for me throughout the majority of my childhood with various task was truly a devastating experience. I was out of it for the better part of a month, just dissociating the entire time. I had my retired girl with me who was just an at home service dog at the time constantly tasking for me, but even she was not really able to help. I did start to come out of it after that but honestly I was experiencing so much disassociating over the following year as I slowly grieved her loss.

I hear you! I would probably feel the same way. You took that decision and it is weighing on you now. However, it is too late. You'll get through this. Hang in there and remember to hold on to the good and let the bad go. That's probably what he'd want too!! 💞

I’m sure you’ve heard of the five stages of grief. Guilt is a form of anger, directed at oneself. But while it may not feel like it right now, letting him go was a great act of love. You chose to take on this pain and loss in order to save him suffering. You made the right decision. It’s not that he was too ill to take care of, but that he was so ill he was in pain. He was lucky to have you as his best friend.

I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm on dog three and it never gets easier when they have to go. You gave him a wonderful life doing a job he adored, he never had to be without his best friend a day in his life. No matter what anyone else says, you get to grieve him in your way for as long as you need to. I can tell you that you'll never forget him or any dogs you may have in the future and those good memories will eventually come back. But for now it's okay to just be mourning. He wasn't just a dog and those of us who have guide dogs ourselves can at least understand that.

I’m sorry for your loss. While I haven’t had a guide dog yet, I’ve had friends who have and it’s a terrible loss. It’s more than just a pet, a friend, a companion. You were a team. Has to be rough.

I'm the same way with all of my pets including a guide dog. You made the right decision, I've done the same thing more than once. Hard to do, but not right to let a pet suffer. Like all losses, it will get better with time, but never really go away, you learn to live with it, and know you did the right thing.

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I am so sorry for your loss. Guide dogs are such special canines. Their intelligence, attention, assistance, friendship, love, and presence belong in a class apart IMO. Ten years is a long time, and it sounds like you and Wes had a great relationship. It makes sense that you would grieve for him. It is totally okay to feel sad and whatever else. Wes has been an important part of your life.