It might seem like an annual booster, or a vet visit every year is excessive, but for dogs that equates to roughly every 7 years of ‘human time’.
See the chart [here] to find out how old your dog is.
How have these numbers been calculated?
Its all about when dogs are thought to be more ‘senior’ in age. In small and medium sized dogs, they reach ‘middle age’ around 7 years, although for large breed dogs, this is around 5-6 years.
You can find out more about life stages of dogs here.
It used to be thought 1 dog year = 7 human years. While this is a good estimate, there are many differences between breeds, with small dogs living longer than larger breeds. This is unusual because generally the smaller the animal the shorter lived they are (compare a mouse to an elephant!).
Large dogs age at an accelerated rate, and we don’t yet know why this is. It may be due to the accelerated growth of large dogs, which might lead to a higher risk of abnormal cell growth (and subsequent disease). It could be that larger dogs succumb to age related diseases sooner, like heart disease or cancer.
There are future studies planned to explain the link between growth and mortality. Researchers in the US are investigating this further at the Dog Aging Project. They are enrolling tens of thousands of dogs of all ages and breeds, including cross breeds. The research will help identify genes responsible to contribute to longevity and canine aging.
In the meantime, we know dogs of all sizes will live a longer and better quality of life if maintained at a lean and healthy body weight at a ‘normal’ body condition score. Reduce your dog’s risk of disease by tackling the excess pounds. A fitter dog will have a better quality of life into their senior years and beyond.
