How To Calculate The Age of Your Dog

It’s a real shame that dogs age so much quicker than humans as any pet owner will tell you. One attempt at measuring the lifespan of a dog is to use the dog year to quantify the difference between humans and dogs.

The usual technique for calculating dog years is simply to multiply the dogs age in human years by seven. This would mean a one year pooch would be 7 years old and a 2 year old dog would really be 14. This method basically assumes that humans have an average lifespan of 70 years and dogs have an average lifespan of 10 years.

This method however has a number of flaws says Stanley Coren who is a professor at the University of British Columbia and author of several books. The most obvious problem is 70 years old is no longer the average human lifespan. Whilst the lifespan of a dog varies and depends on its breed and size.

The key flaw Mr. Coren maintains is that a 1 year old dog is sexually mature and able to reproduce which cannot be said for the 7 year old human child.

As a result Mr. Coren has come up with his own technique to calculate the age of a dog in terms of human years. A one year old dog is similar to a 16 year old person, as 2 years of age the dog is similar to a 24 year old adult and for the next three years after, until the dog reaches 5 each additional year is the equivalent of five human years.

After reaching five years old, to calculate the age of the animal, its size must be considered in the equation Mr. Coren says. Smaller dogs tend to have longer life spans than larger ones. To take this into account Mr. Coren things that for small dogs each additional year equals four dog years for smaller pooches and for larger breeds an additional year is six dog years.

Under this system an eight year old Miniature poodle would be 51 dog years old whilst an 8 year old Great Dane would be 54 dog years old.