We know that our beloved pets age faster than us, but what factors do we have to consider when we try to calculate their real age?
The widely held belief regarding dog age is that a year in a dog’s life is equivalent to seven years in human life. This comes from dividing the human life expectancy of around 77 by the canine life expectancy of 11.
Things are not so simple, however, according to this new study. Why so? When we look at some basic developmental milestones, the reason will become much clearer.
For example, most dog breeds reach sexual maturity between the ages of six and 12 months – the upper end of that range corresponding, by the traditional conversion, to a human age of seven. And at the other end of the spectrum, although unusual, some dogs have been known to live for over 20 years. Under the “factor-of-seven” conversion rule, this would equate to an unfathomable 140 human-equivalent years.
To make matters more complicated, dogs’ life expectancy depends significantly on the breed. Smaller dogs tend to live significantly longer, suggesting that they age more slowly than bigger dogs.
More details about this over at BBC.
(Image Credit: Vizslafotozas/ Pixabay)