“This is especially apparent when you compare very small dogs, such as a Yorkshire Terrier-which can live well into their teens-with very large dogs like Great Danes-who live to be about 10.” How to Determine Your Dog’s Age “While we still aren’t sure exactly what accounts for this difference in maturation and aging, smaller dogs definitely live longer, on average, than very large ones,” says Dr. Smaller dogs like Chihuahuas, Yorkshire Terriers, Dachshunds and Pomeranians tend to live longer than larger dogs such as Saint Bernards, Great Danes, Newfoundlands and Irish Wolfhounds. “Very large dogs may be considered seniors at 5 or 6 years of age, whereas small dogs aren’t seniors until 10 or 12 years old.”īecause of how dogs age, small dogs and large dogs also have different life spans. “Large dogs tend to age more quickly than their smaller counterparts,” she says. But defining the transition between adult dogs and senior dogs is a little more complicated. Lippman, are considered puppies until they reach approximately 1 year old. The dog age ranges associated with different life stages-puppy, adult and senior-vary depending on the size and breed of your pup. “A 5-year-old dog that weighs 20 pounds or less is about 33 ‘human-years-old,’ where a dog that weighs over 90 pounds is closer to 41 years old in human years,” she says. Lippman explains that the dog-years-to-human-years equation is actually more about weight than it is about age. This guide will explain how a dog ages and how to best care for your dog at every life stage. Lippman, a medium-size dog that's well cared for will live roughly 1/7th as long as their owner, but different breeds of dogs age differently. “The ‘seven-year rule’ is a simplified explanation of canine-human aging,” she says. Lisa Lippman, a veterinarian based in New York City, that isn’t an exact calculation for determining dog age. When it comes to understanding how a dog ages, you may have heard that one dog year is equivalent to seven human years.
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