Dog Advice from a Hot Dog

Hey Shorty,

In your first journal entry you said your Mom has begun calling you a "little old lady".  My Mom is doing the same.  How do you convert human years to dog years? 
Signed,
Another Little Old Lady

Dear Fellow Little Old Lady,

We did a little research on this since the standard calculation of human years times seven puts me at more than 70 years old.  Yes, I have a few gray hairs around my mouth, but that’s a senior citizen in the human world, which I couldn’t possibly be. 

It turns out that your age varies greatly with your size and sometimes dog breed.  Some dog breeds have an average lifespan that is double other breeds.  The other inaccuracy of the "times 7" calculation is that it does not take into account when the dog reaches maturity.

A couple of factors that determine aging in dogs are:

·        Size – Small dogs tend to live longer – up to 1.5 times longer.  Good news for us Dachshunds.

·        Breed – The small dog rule usually applies here with a couple of exceptions – a big dog the Doberman Pinscher has been known to live to 15 and as much as 20 years. While the Boxer a smaller dog rarely reaches 10 years.

·        Gender – We females tend to live longer (just like it is in humans)

·        Health care – Dogs properly cared for – food, exercise, vaccinations and medical attention will live longer.  You boys should be neutered, I know it sounds awful but it can reduce your risk of cancer later in life. 

This table gives an estimate, it doesn’t account for everything we mentioned above but we think it’s far better than the simplistic “times 7” calculation.

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