Dog math is a popular concept, suggesting your dog is rapidly ageing at seven years compared to our one. But how true is this? <\/p>
The old clich\u00e9 is that every year of a dog\u2019s life is equivalent to seven human years. In other words, a five-year-old dog is like a 35-year-old human. But it\u2019s not so simple. The rate at which dogs develop is different than for humans, and the dog\u2019s size and breed make a big difference to its lifespan.<\/p>
Humans take 18 years to reach adulthood, but puppies are only pups for six to nine months (depending on the size and breed). Dogs typically undergo puberty between six months to a year, so that\u2019s their teenage phase. Then they count as young adults until they get to three to four years. <\/p>
The American Animal Hospitals Association considers the last 25 per cent of a dog\u2019s life<\/a> to be when they\u2019re old. Typically this is assumed to be around seven years of age, although it varies based on the breed (between five and ten years, say). A human life expectancy of almost 81 in the UK<\/a> would put a seven-year-old dog at about 61 human years.<\/p> If you\u2019re wondering about those breeds like the Great Dane that have short lifespans, it\u2019s been suggested that since research shows they\u2019re not \u2018aged\u2019 in terms of their behaviour or neurology when they die, these dogs sadly don\u2019t get to reach old age.<\/p> Read more:<\/strong><\/p> Then there\u2019s the differing lifespan of different breeds or mixes to take into account. A recent study of almost 2 million dogs who are clients of over 1,000 vet clinics in the US found the life expectancy of a dog when they\u2019re born is 12.69 years<\/a>. <\/p> This is a little bit higher than an earlier study in the UK, which put it at 11.23 years<\/a>, and a bit lower than another US study, which found it was 15.4 years. <\/p> But it depends. Female dogs live slightly longer than male dogs. Small dogs live quite a bit longer than big dogs \u2013 small dogs for 16.2 years and giant dogs for 12 years according to one study<\/a>. In general, mixed-breed dogs live a little longer than pedigrees, but some purebred dogs have long lifespans (chihuahuas, shih tzus and dachshunds were the longest-lived breeds in one study).<\/p> All of this tells us that a one-year-old dog is maybe the equivalent of an 18-year-old human, and perhaps after that, the 1:7 ratio makes more sense. Another line of research takes a biological approach instead.<\/p> As we age, there are epigenetic changes to DNA as a result of a process called methylation. Scientists looked at these changes in the nucleic acid (called methylomes) of 104 labradors and compared them with those of humans. The relationship was not linear<\/a>. The results give us a different calculator: to find the human equivalent of a dog\u2019s age, take the log of that age, multiply by 16, and then add 31.<\/p> It works best at either end of the lifespan and not quite so well for some of the middle years. Based on the epigenome, these scientists say an eight-week-old puppy is equivalent to a nine-month-old baby, and a 12-year-old dog is roughly equivalent to a 70-year-old person. <\/p> They also found a one-year-old dog as being equivalent to a 31-year-old human; a two-year-old dog as just over 40; a dog at seven as equivalent to a 60-year-old person; and a 14-year-old dog at around 80 in human terms.<\/p> Of course, these results will vary for other dogs.<\/strong> If this is starting to sound a bit depressing because your dog is older than you thought, take heart. <\/p> One large study shows that a longer life is associated with your dog being a healthy weight<\/a>, so keeping an eye on their weight will help (ask your veterinarian for advice). For example, a normal-weight labrador lives 13.6 years if female and 13.3 if male, but if overweight that drops to 13.0 and 12.7 respectively.<\/p> A normal weight yorkshire terrier lives 15.5 years (female) or 16.2 (male), but that drops to 13.5 or 13.7, respectively, if overweight. <\/p> Dental cleanings are also linked to a longer lifespan, but it\u2019s not clear if this reflects better general health care or is specific to dental care. So calculating a dog\u2019s age in human terms is more complicated than you might think, with the weeks and months of puppydom counting for a lot, even though they\u2019re over in a flash.<\/p> Read more:<\/strong><\/p> Dog math is a popular concept, suggesting your dog is rapidly ageing at seven years compared to our one. But how true is this? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":33865,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/09\/dog-years-to-human-years-heres-how-old-your-dog-actually-is.jpg",1200,801,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/09\/dog-years-to-human-years-heres-how-old-your-dog-actually-is-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/09\/dog-years-to-human-years-heres-how-old-your-dog-actually-is-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/09\/dog-years-to-human-years-heres-how-old-your-dog-actually-is-768x513.jpg",768,513,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/09\/dog-years-to-human-years-heres-how-old-your-dog-actually-is-1024x684.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/09\/dog-years-to-human-years-heres-how-old-your-dog-actually-is.jpg",1200,801,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/09\/dog-years-to-human-years-heres-how-old-your-dog-actually-is.jpg",1200,801,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Dog math is a popular concept, suggesting your dog is rapidly ageing at seven years compared to our one. But how true is this?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/33864"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Dog age chart: How old is my dog?<\/h2>
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