Is a "Dog Year" Really 7 Years?

You may have heard that dogs age differently than humans. But is it true? Get the facts on your pooch without having that ever-awkward “so… how old are you really?” conversation.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff Works. Hey, welcome
to brain stuff. I'm Christian Seger 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, ash

(00:24):
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,

(00:45):
a fifteen year old dog would be in equivalent years
a one hundred and five year old person. But why
do so many dogs live to or past fifteen years
old and so few people lived 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 concrete equivalency that applies across the board. First, dogs

(01:09):
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
the order of seven to eight years. So the size

(01:30):
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 age range 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
the planet equals about more than a decade of people years,

(01:52):
but this rule doesn't apply for every year of a
dog's life Afterward, after about two years on Earth, a
puppy is a sly 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.
But in biological terms, dogs also fall victim to the
ravages of age, just like humans. As a pooch ages,

(02:16):
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
you'd like to gauge your dog's age and life expectancy,
never fear well. It's true that there's no simple multiplication

(02:38):
exercise applying 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,
then where did it come from. In an interview with
The Wall Street Journal, veterinarian William Fortney speculated that this

(02:59):
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 I Balance,
and every year for you isn't automatically seven for your
favorite canine. However, they do age at a different rate,

(03:19):
and it's important to keep this in mind. Make sure
you stay up to date on vet visits, vaccinations, and
field trips. Check out the Brainstuff channel on YouTube and
for more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
how stuff works dot com.