Kristin Cavallari Mourns the Death of Her ‘Badass, Amazing’ Dog Kona, Says Her Kids’ Reaction ‘Wrecked’ Her

Kristin Cavallari is starting 2026 on a heartbreaking note, mourning the death of her German Shepherd, Kona.

On the Tuesday, Jan. 13 episode of her Let’s Be Honest with Kristin Cavallari podcast, Cavallari, 39, shared that she had to put Kona down the day before recording her first episode of the new year.

“God, it is so hard, the physical act of putting a dog down,” she said, explaining that this was the second time she’s gone through it after losing her Yorkie. “Even if you have made peace with it.”

Cavallari noted that Kona was nearly 12 years old—an impressive age for a German Shepherd—but said the dog’s health had begun to decline.

“She lived a great life. Kona was, up until the last few months, she was going on walks with us still,” Cavallari said. “And I mean, she was kind of losing her eyesight and her hearing, but she still, she was hanging. And then, I don’t know, in the last five, six months, she just really took a downhill turn.”

After taking a week to say goodbye—spoiling Kona with treats like chocolate, peanut butter, and steak—Cavallari made the decision to humanely put her dog down.

“If you guys haven’t experienced this before, it’s intense,” she said. “I was laying there with her, and I was petting her. I’m gonna try really hard not to cry.”

Cavallari also described how deeply the loss hit her children, who had grown up with Kona.

“Camden texted me, and he was like, ‘I can’t be here. Can you please come get me?’ ” she said, sharing that she picked up her 13-year-old son from school early. “He got in my car and started bawling, crying… seeing Camden so sad. Oh my god, It just wrecked me. It wrecked me. This is like the first big death for them.”

Cavallari shares Camden, along with son Jaxon, 11, and daughter Saylor, 10, with her ex-husband Jay Cutler. She said she got Kona while Cutler was playing football in Miami, during a time when she felt uneasy being alone in the house with her kids in Tennessee.

“I don’t think I slept at all when Jay was gone,” she recalled.

She said she adopted Kona as an adult dog from a breeder who told her the German Shepherd would be intensely loyal and protective.

“Kona was immediately so sweet and loving with both Jaxon and I. And I immediately was just like, ‘This is my dog, man,’ ” Cavallari said. “This is my girl. And she was. She was always, always my dog. Kona would follow me everywhere, and she always had eyes on me.”

She also remembered a moment from Kona’s very first night at home that made her feel safe. Cavallari said there was a back staircase that led toward her children’s rooms, and it had always made her nervous because it was on the opposite side of the house from where she slept.

“That was such an incredible moment when I realized she was on the staircase. Because I just felt so safe,” she said. “Finally, after months of not sleeping and being so worried about all of my babies upstairs, Kona just knew to sleep on that staircase to keep them safe. And it was the best feeling in the entire world. And so that was Kona in a nutshell, just the most badass, amazing dog on the planet.”

Cavallari, who has two other dogs ages 3 and 2, said she can’t imagine life without a German Shepherd in the future—but she isn’t ready to bring home another one just yet.

“I’m not ready to pull the trigger just yet,” she said. “But we are cremating Kona, and I’m waiting to get her ashes, and then we are gonna spread them in our yard.”