There are many several factors to consider, so it’s not possible to pin it down precisely, but the AVMA says: “Cats and small dogs are generally considered ‘senior’ at seven years old, but we all know they’ve got plenty of life left in them at that age. How Do Researchers Come Up With Those Numbers?
And after that, each human year would be approximately five years for a dog.Year two for a dog equals about nine years for a human.15 human years equals the first year of a medium-sized dog’s life.It was a way to encourage owners to bring in their pets at least once a year.” How to Calculate Dog Years to Human Years?Īs a general guideline, though, the American Veterinary Medical Association breaks it down like this: He tells the Wall Street Journal that it was “a way to educate the public on how fast a dog ages compared to a human, predominantly from a health standpoint. “My guess is it was a marketing ploy,” says William Fortney, a veterinarian at Kansas State University. One explanation for how this formula got started is that the 7:1 ratio seems to have been based on the statistic that people lived to about 70, and dogs to about 10. Connor Museum at Washington State University, who compiles studies about longevity in dogs. “You can’t really kill the seven-year rule,” says Kelly M. That doesn’t stop people from defaulting to this traditional calculation. Even though this formula has been around for a surprisingly long time, the reality is not so cut-and-dried. Real age 4 years–Human age 31 to 32 yearsįor every dog over the age of five, you can use the chart below to find a fairly good approximation of the dog’s equivalent age in human years.Since the 1950s, the popular calculation of how old a dog was “in human years” has been that one dog year is the equivalent of seven human years.Real age 3 years–Human age 27 to 28 years.Real age 2 years–Human age 23 to 24 years.Generally, smaller dogs tend to live longer and age slower than large dogs, though there are plenty of exceptions to the rule. Once they reach the age of five, heavier dogs will begin to age faster than lightweight dogs. By the time they reach the actual age of two years old, they will be about equivalent to 23 to 24 years old in human years.įrom then on, they will gain about four human years for every actual year they age until they reach five years old. When your dog is one year old, they will be about the equivalent of age 14 to 15 in human years. It’s generally agreed, however, that dogs age much faster in the first two years of life than any other time. It will likely take into account your dog’s weight and overall life expectancy.
Any chart or conversion that you use will mostly be a rough estimate.
DOG YEARS TO HUMANS HOW TO
There is much disagreement about exactly how to convert a dog’s age from dog years to human years. How To Convert Your Dog’s Age From Dog Years To Human Years (Picture Credit: Getty Images) You can use that to make better decisions about what kind of care they will need. You need to watch out for certain ailments and medical conditions in geriatric dogs that juveniles don’t have.Īssigning dog years to your dog’s actual age gives you an understandable representation of how old your dog really is. Senior dogs need different food than what puppies eat. While it’s true that you probably know your dog’s real age, converting that number from dog years into human years can help you find out what stage your dog is at in life in a way that makes more sense to you, and you can adjust how you care for your dog accordingly.įor example, adolescent dogs might learn new commands or respond to socialization training differently than adult dogs.
You may be wondering why we even bother converting dog years to human years when we already know how old a dog is. Advertisement Why Convert Dog Years To Human Years? (Picture Credit: Getty Images)
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