Peace of Mind After Putting Your Dog to Sleep

You had to put your dog to sleep. It was the most difficult decision you’ve ever had to make. You hate that it was on you to decide when he would take his last breath. That is what makes you feel so low.

It’s likely you had to comb through a lot of thoughts as you were deciding to put your dog to sleep. You weighed the options carefully. You asked a lot of questions. You wanted to know this was the only answer.

You did what you’re supposed to do when people make this decision. Yet, you cannot bring yourself to have peace of mind. You are struggling every day. You wonder if maybe you held out one more day if by some sort of miracle he or she would have recovered. Or, you wonder if you had just not opened the door wide enough he or she wouldn’t have gotten out and hit by the car.

These types of thoughts go through your head repeatedly. You can’t really do anything with them, except bring yourself further down into the depression you’re already in.

How to Achieve Peace of Mind

To achieve peace of mind, you need to be active with your recovery from the trauma. As you are ruminating over what you could have or should have done, start to talk to yourself. Give yourself a pep talk. Let yourself know you didn’t mean to harm your dog. You were doing what you thought was best.

When the time came to put your dog to sleep, you asked the questions and you thought long and hard about it. You didn’t give in to this decision easily. You should be happy about that because you made sure there was no hope.

Try a little exercise to help you develop your peace of mind. Close your eyes and think about what happened leading up to putting your dog to sleep. Think about what you did and why you did it.

Don’t allow yourself to think about what you could have done – only what you did.

As much as you want to turn the hands back in time, you can’t. Mistakes are made and sometimes, the consequences are devastating. They are mistakes, though. You didn’t mean it, and for that reason, you should not beat yourself up over it.

Your beloved pet would not want you to feel this way. Take some time to come to peace with everything that’s happened. You are a good dog parent. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be feeling this way right now.