{"id":7452,"date":"2021-09-27T15:06:21","date_gmt":"2021-09-27T14:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tails.com\/blog\/?p=7452"},"modified":"2022-03-30T11:45:49","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T10:45:49","slug":"what-are-dog-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tails.com\/blog\/what-are-dog-years\/","title":{"rendered":"How old is my dog in human years?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We all live for those milestone birthdays, don\u2019t we? Whether we\u2019re just turning 21, or reaching a grand old age with a nice round number attached to it, it\u2019s our way of keeping track of where we are in our lives. What about dogs though? We\u2019ve all heard of \u201cdog years\u201d but what does that term actually mean? Let\u2019s find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are dog years?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some people may be expecting us to say that \u201cone human year equals seven dog years\u201d as this is an old adage that is often thrown around. Despite its popularity, it\u2019s not really that correct and there are far more nuances to the answer than a formula that simple. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in the 1950s, people started trying to equate a dog\u2019s life to a human life. If a dog lives X amount of years, and a human lives Y amount of years, and we say that Y=(X x 7) then we know if a dog is old, young, a teenager, in their 40s\u2026 but that\u2019s really us trying to fit a dog shaped life into a human-shaped hole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a start, not all dogs share the same average lifespan. It\u2019s not unusual for an Australian Shepherd Dog to reach 17 or 18 years old, while a Great Dane would be considered very old indeed if it made it beyond 8 years of age. Rottweilers won\u2019t get much older than 9 years old, while a Beagle reaching its 15th birthday (in human years) is certainly not unusual. Do you see our problem here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there a solution?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is, but like we said, \u201c1=7\u201d is certainly not it. In fact, the American Veterinary Medical Association<\/a> probably has the best guidelines for this sort of thing, and they go like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n