BrainStuff Classics: Is a 'Dog Year' Really 7 Years?

Sure, dogs age differently than humans -- but is a year for us really like seven years for them? Learn the truth about your dog's age in this classic episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey,
brain Stuff, Lauren Boglebon here with another classic episode featuring
our previous host, Christian Sagar. If you're listening to this
episode on the day it comes out and are in
the United States, then puppy bowl is upon us. And
what better time than to answer the burning question do

(00:22):
dogs really age? Seven years? For everyone human year? Hey,
welcome to brain Stuff. I'm Christian Sagar, and you may
have heard that dogs age differently from people. It's the
old notion of a dog year, right, the idea that
one year for humans equals about seven years for a pooch.
But is this true or just some tall tale as

(00:45):
shaggy dog story. If you will, well, yes and no,
and it's mainly no. First, let's talk about aging. Age
isn't just some hard and fast measurement of chronology. It's
also a measurement of how time affects our bodies. Animals
all age, but at different rates. By way of example,
let's look at this seven year myth. By that logic,

(01:06):
a fifteen year old dog would be in equivalent years
a one d and five year old person. But why
do so many dogs live to or past fifteen years old,
and so few people live to a hundred and five.
It just doesn't add up. And this is because we
can't make a simple one to one comparison. There's no

(01:26):
concrete equivalency that applies across the board. First, dogs don't
all have the same life expectancy, and they don't age
at the same rate either. Think about it this way.
A Chihuahua can live to be over fifteen people years old,
yipping at us the entire time. However, a larger breed,
like a Great Dane, they have a shorter lifespan on

(01:48):
the order of seven to eight years. So the size
of a dog affects its life expectancy, as does its
breed and expected adult weight. Generally, we can make a
good guess at a dog's a drange based on these factors.
Back to the rate of aging, So dogs undergo a
maturation process just like people. A puppy's first year on

(02:09):
the planet equals about more than a decade of people years,
but this rule doesn't apply for every year of a
dog's life. Afterward, after about two years on Earth, a
puppy is officially mature, able to sexually reproduce, and if
it were a person. Hey, it could buy booze, it
could vote, and maybe it could register for the draft.

(02:29):
But in biological terms, dogs also fall victim to the
ravages of age, just like humans. As a pooch ages,
she or he may begin to develop arthritis, poor hearing
or vision, and other ailments that are common in elderly humans,
and they appear to age more quickly in the early years,
while they're aging slows in the latter years. But if

(02:51):
you'd like to gauge your dog's age and life expectancy,
never fear well. It's true that there's no simple multiplication
exercise up lying to all dogs. You can use handy
estimation charts to make an educated guess about your pups lifespan.
Interesting side note. If this whole seven years thing is
a myth, and and we've pretty much established that it is,

(03:13):
then where did it come from. In an interview with
The Wall Street Journal, veterinarian William Fortney speculated that this
may have originated as a marketing ploy, meant to encourage
pet owners to bring their dogs in for checkups once
a year. So there you have it. Dogs don't exist
in some weird rip van Winkle asque time imbalance, and

(03:33):
every year for you isn't automatically seven for your favorite canine. However,
they do age at a different rate and it's important
to keep this in mind. Make sure you stay up
to date on vet visits, vaccinations, and field trips. Today's
episode was written by Ben Bullen and produced by Tyler Clang.

(03:54):
Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works.
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