This is something dog owners always ask: in relation to human age, How old is the dog? The fact is that converting dog ages into human ages is only deceptively simple. Accurately calculate the age of dogsIn fact, it involves much more than simply multiplying the dog years by 7.
Calculating the Age of Dogs: The Easy (But Incorrect) Version
For convert dogs age to human agethere is the mistaken belief that it is enough multiply the dog’s years by 7. This is a belief that has been circulating for decades and which cannot be eradicated. Multiplying by 7, in fact, is wrong. Of course, this is a quick method that allows you to calculate the dog’s age even without having calculators or basic scientific knowledge, but it is not correct.
Sometimes veterinarians also use it, but only as a facilitated method of communication with owners.
Think about it: according to this system, a one-year-old dog is equivalent to a seven-year-old child. But it cannot be like this: a dog at 6-8 months is already capable of reproducing, so it is at least a teenager. It cannot therefore be compared to a 1 year old child of 7 years old.
Calculating the age of dogs: the correct version
Thus we arrive at formula designed to calculate the age of the dog. Which is this:
human years = 16 x ln (dog’s age) + 31
As you can see, it is basically a calculation that questions i natural logarithms and that needs one scientific calculator in order to obtain the result. So do you understand why the multiplying by 7 thing continues to be so popular? Who would ever use a scientific calculator to do this calculation?
If you follow this calculation, you see that at one year a medium-sized dog is equivalent to a 15-year-old humanwhile the second year increases by 9 human years. Then, each year corresponds approximately to 5 human years. But be careful: here things get a little complicated because the age changes slightly depending on the size of the dog. (READ also: Scientists have identified the average age at which your dog could develop cancer (which depends on size and breed))
Small, medium and large dogs. In fact, small dogs have a significantly longer life expectancy than a large or giant dog. If the average lifespan of a Yorkshire terrier is around 13-16 years, that of a Bernese Mountain Dog is only 7-10 years, while a Mastiff has a life expectancy of 6-12 years.
However, it is also good to remember that i small dogsInitially, they mature earlier than large dogs. But then the trend reverses, the aging of small dogs into adulthood slows down, while that of large dogs speeds up.
Dog age table by size
Since doing the correct calculation in your head is impossible and since not everyone goes around with a scientific calculator in their pocket (or knows how to use it), special methods have been created. tables to establish the age of the dog in relation to the human age and distinguished based on the size of the dog.
Here is an example of a table:
You might also be interested in:
