02/11/2026
What is old dead dog syndrome and why does it matter?
Old dead dog syndrome is not a recognized disorder. You won't find diagnostic criteria for it. It's a term dog folks made up for the rose colored glasses people apply to their departed old dog. Grief, recency bias, etc. are absolutely at play with ODDS.
And before I continue, I want to say these things are completely normal. It's normal to love and grieve our departed dogs. It's normal to cherish all our great memories of them. It is actually really concerning if you think back and say,"Wow, Bella was so dumb and awful".
ODDS becomes a problem when we don't recognize it in ourselves and when it affects the new puppies and dogs in our lives. Those problems can manifest as selective amnesia such as,"Aspen was potty trained at three weeks old. She never would have peed on the floor". Which first of all, no she wasn't and second of all, you still need to potty train the puppy in front of you. Or maybe you haven't forgotten what a teen terror Breck was but memories of all your chewed up possessions are a lot funnier than cleaning up the latest mess from a bored adolescent. Worse yet, maybe you are repeatedly setting your new puppy/dog up to fail and blaming them for being less than Cooper.
You need to remember to focus on the puppy/dog in front of you. You need to give them the grace to be young and need training. You need to accept that dogs are individuals, even if they're related, even if they're raised in the same home by the same people.
Grieve however it is that you grieve. Reminisce about how Brody walked on water and saved Timmy from the well. But remember, comparison is the death of joy.
Pictured is my own old dead dog, Kaki, having a good roll in the grass. She once shredded a down comforter. Cleaning up thousands of tiny feathers was not at all fun and I thought, "I'm going to be finding feathers for the rest of my life". And I am, because I got a bunch of ducks. It's a lot funnier in hindsight with my rose colored glasses on. I think of her every time I find a feather that somehow made its way into the house.
