Advice

How Old is your Dog in Human Years?

If you own an old dog, or you’ve ever met someone that owns a dog, then the chances are you’ve probably heard the rule about dog years, and human years. In other words, one year for your pooch equals around seven years for you.

However, it turns out that the math behind human and dog years isn’t as simple as it seems. The truth is that dogs mature quite a lot faster than we do as humans. That means that the first year of your dog’s life is more equal to around fifteen years.

Breeds and Sizes Play a Role

There’s more than just the mature nature of your pooch to think about when it comes to calculating his age too. For instance, size and breed often play a pretty important role. Smaller dogs often live for longer than larger ones, but they typically mature more quickly during the first few years of life.

A huge dog might age more quickly at first, but they might be nearing middle-age by the time they hit five. Additionally, toy breeds and the smallest breeds around will often not become “seniors” in the same way that we’d think of humans until they hit about 10. When it comes to medium-sized canines, you’re looking at something in the middle.

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Usually, up to age 5, the pattern remains the same for all small, medium, and large dogs:

1 year in human equals 15 years for a dog
2 years is 24 years for a dog
3 years is 28 years for a dog
4 years is 32 years for a dog
5 years is 36 years for a dog

After that, small dogs will age more slowly, while larger dogs will age faster.

Clues to Look for with Dog Ages

If you’ve adopted a dog or puppy, but you don’t know his or her history, you might not know how old your dog is. Usually, the teeth will give you an insight. These guidelines will vary from one dog to the next, but they could give you a rough idea:

By 7 weeks, most dogs have all their baby teeth
By 8 weeks most dogs have all their permanent teeth – and they should be white and clean
Between 1-2 years, teeth may look duller, and back teeth could have some yellow stains
By 3-5 years there may be tartar buildup and wear
By 5-10 years, the teeth could show more signs of wear
By 10-15 years, the teeth will be worn with a lot more tartar

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Tanya Clark

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View Comments

Doug Giles says:

June 29, 2017 at 1:30 am

Tanya,

Under the title "Clues to Look for with Dog Ages" your first item reads "By 8 weeks, most dogs have all their baby teeth" and then the second item reads "By 7 weeks most dogs have all their permanent teeth – and they should be white and clean". This doesn't make sense? Have I misunderstood something here? Thank you for your concern.

This is a wonderful site with tons of helpful info.