Dogs are not one hundred years serve people. Being clever pets, they helped the person in the most different affairs. Any owner of these four-legged creatures is concerned about the life expectancy of his dog, and for this reason, the ratio of human years with dog has been found by observation and research.
Finding the dog's age versus human years will be helped by three ways, one of which is simple and fast.
How to find out the age of the dog?
To determine the age of a dog is visually quite difficult. It is easy to distinguish an adult dog from a newborn puppy, but understanding the exact age of an animal will only help knowing all the signs of a given year of life. Below is a table that will help to accurately determine the age of the pet on such grounds as the quality of the teeth.
Dog age (year): | 1 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 10,11 | 13 | 15 |
Traits characteristic of this age | The teeth are in excellent condition, the coat completely covers the torso of the animal and is thick. Pet playful and active on walks. | When stroking a dog, you can easily find the muscles. The teeth are in good condition, only on the canines can, upon careful examination, notice signs of wear. | The enamel of the teeth becomes yellow, the fangs lose their sharpness. The animal changes its habits and lifestyle: it becomes more balanced. | Fangs dull, teeth have signs of grinding. The dog sleeps a lot, moves less. | Teeth stagger, have large formations of caries. Older dogs are often obese. | Teeth fall out, pupils dull. Wool dims in the area of the muzzle. Joints and elbows undergo the formation of calluses. | By this age, all teeth are missing. Dogs of such old age can behave strangely: bark at their owners, refuse to eat. For dogs, this is most often the maximum age of life. |
It should be remembered that To determine the age of the dog using the table can be approximately: more accurate need to know based on the date of birth. This happens because the quality of wool, teeth and body build also depend on the environment. Homeless mongrels quickly lose their muscles due to a poor diet, and wool can be subject to diseases (herpes, skin diseases).
In the home environment, when the dog is paid attention and care, the situation is the opposite: the quality of its teeth and coat is above average, because the loving owners monitor the pet's health.
For this reason, the data in the table can be treated as nothing more than critical.
Ratio of years
In order for a person to understand without difficulty how many dogs live on average, several ways were created to calculate the “human” age of the animal. So, the owners of four-legged understand how old the pet is, and can be guided by this figure. It is impossible to say exactly how old a dog is by human standards: confusion is created by three different methods of calculation. The differences between them are not too big, but they need to be taken into account. So, if, according to a simplified calculation, a dog is 35 years old, according to LeBo’s theory, he is 45.
Before proceeding to the calculation, it is necessary to understand that it is impossible to find the perfect balance of human life with a dog. Each dog has its own individual life, which includes the influence of the environment. This suggests that even after studying the average length of life of a certain breed, it is impossible to understand with accuracy how many years the animal has on a human scale. For this reason, the age of the dog should not be combined with the human.
Simplified calculation
In the 20th century, the first, still primitive calculation of dog years with a human was born. The creators became veterinarians, who needed to know approximately how the life span of a person and a dog relate. Veterinarians did not go into this question and study different dog breeds, but took an average life span of 10 years. The duration of a person’s life at that moment fluctuated greatly, and an arithmetic average of 70 years was taken into account.
Thus, a simplified calculation of life expectancy appeared, which was reduced to a simple conclusion: 1 dog year is equal to 7 human. And although such a calculation cannot be called accurate because of the individual data of each dog breed not included in the calculation, the simplified method was widely used among people because it was quickly remembered and easy to use. The correspondence table below allows you to find out how many “human” years a pet has according to the simplified calculation method.
Dog's age: | 1 year) | 2 | 5 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 15 |
Age by human standards: | 7 years) | 14 | 35 | 56 | 63 | 70 | 91 | 105 |
Being the most popular, simplified calculation takes the last place in accuracy. The method does not take into account any data (the breed of the dog, the first years of life), and therefore cannot transfer the age according to these characteristics.
Veterinarians simply created a simple way to explain to the owners of dogs, what period of life (youth, old age) is spent at the pet.
LeBo Theory
A simple method of calculating did not satisfy the French veterinarian A. LeBo, because of which he decided to study the biological characteristics of dogs. LeBo found out that the first year of a dog’s life cannot be counted as 7 years, because for 365 days the dog is completely formed as an adult, which cannot be said of a seven-year-old child. That is how in 1953 a theory emerged, on the basis of which the first year of a dog’s life was considered as 15 human years. The second year of dog life must be considered as 9. Thus, a dog at the age of 2 years is equal to a 24-year-old man.
The logic of this decision is due to the fact that the growth and development of four-legged pets ceases after two years of life, and the dog is a formed creature.
In their studies, the veterinarian took into account the following characteristics:
- life expectancy;
- the age of puberty, readiness for reproduction - in most breeds the period of puberty occurs during the first year of life;
- the age of maturity, the moment when the dog is fully formed as an adult - basically it is the age of two animals.
The table below takes into account the average weight category of dogs whose weight starts from 15 kg, but does not exceed 45.
Dog's age: | 1 year) | 2 | 5 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 15 |
Age by human standards: | 18 years) | 27 | 45 | 63 | 69 | 75 | 90 | 100 |
Like the other two methods, LeBo’s theory was repeatedly criticized. However, the presence of such variables as the age of puberty and the moment of maturity highlight the LeBo theory as a more accurate way to determine the age of an animal by human standards.
Klaiber's law
In 1930 in Switzerland, the scientist Max Kleiber describes a rule that binds the mass of the body (weight) with an individual metabolism (the speed with which food is completely digested). The law applies not only to dogs, but also to all animals, it is suitable for determining the "human" years of a cat or parrot. Today, Klaiber's law is also applied to plants.
Simple language the law establishes a relationship between the mass of a dog and the metabolism: the larger the animal, the longer its life span. That is, small breeds of dogs with a fast metabolism will live for some time less than a Russian wolfhound. The problem in the calculations is the average pulse of the dog.
The wide variation in breeds implies a different development of the cardiovascular system, which may cause inconsistencies in the table, which is compiled according to the Clayber law.
The table is designed for an average dog weight (10-25 kg).
Dog's age: | 1 year) | 2 | 5 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 15 |
Age by human standards: | 15 years) | 24 | 37 | 51 | 56 | 60 | 72 | 80 |
The Clayber method has average accuracy. It takes into account the weight and metabolism of a living being, therefore, individually for each individual can vary the number of years. The advantage of the law is that it is universal and suitable for any living creatures, which is not the case with other methods of calculation.
Account errors
Errors in the calculations a lot. Each dog has an individual development, which is why it is almost impossible to accurately determine the “human” age. Some errors are the most common.
- In a simplified calculation, the first year is counted in 7 years. The first 365 days in the life of the dog are undervalued - at this time the development of the animal occurs at a double pace. Muscles are formed, there is a preparation for puberty. For this reason, counting the first year of a dog’s life as 7 is wrong. To avoid mistakes, you need to take the first 12 months as 14-15 human years.
- The second year of a dog’s life is also considered an important period in the life of a dog. While the simplified calculation considers the second year as 7, it should be taken as 9-10 years. This often causes confusion in the calculations, but these conditions can not be neglected.
- Klaiber's law does not specialize in dogs. For this reason, factors such as the breed and physiological characteristics of the pet are not taken into account in the equation. Therefore, Klayber's law does not have accuracy when a four-legged breed implies a shorter lifespan than other breeds.
