Contrary to popular belief, dogs do not age at a rate of 7 human years for each year in dog years.”Īn example would be the Great Dane. The ‘senior’ classification is based on the fact that pets age faster than people, and veterinarians start seeing more age-related problems in these pets. Larger-breed dogs tend to have shorter lifespans compared to smaller breeds and are often considered senior when they are 5 to 6 years of age. There are many several factors to consider, so it’s not possible to pin it down precisely, but the AVMA says: “Cats and small dogs are generally considered ‘senior’ at seven years old, but we all know they’ve got plenty of life left in them at that age.
How Do Researchers Come Up With Those Numbers?
15 human years equals the first year of a medium-sized dog’s life.It was a way to encourage owners to bring in their pets at least once a year.” How to Calculate Dog Years to Human Years?Īs a general guideline, though, the American Veterinary Medical Association breaks it down like this: He tells the Wall Street Journal that it was “a way to educate the public on how fast a dog ages compared to a human, predominantly from a health standpoint. “My guess is it was a marketing ploy,” says William Fortney, a veterinarian at Kansas State University. One explanation for how this formula got started is that the 7:1 ratio seems to have been based on the statistic that people lived to about 70, and dogs to about 10. Connor Museum at Washington State University, who compiles studies about longevity in dogs. “You can’t really kill the seven-year rule,” says Kelly M. That doesn’t stop many people from defaulting to this traditional calculation. Even though this formula has been around for a surprisingly long time, the reality is not so cut-and-dried. Since the 1950s, the popular calculation of how old a dog was “in human years” has been that 1 dog year is the equivalent of 7 human ones.
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