It is often said that 1-dog-year equals 7-human-years, however this is untrue for a couple of different reasons;
Large breed dogs generally age quicker.
When dogs are younger, they age quicker, and with each year that passes, that year is equal to less human-years.
Dogs are mostly classes as senior at 7 years old, but is this really accurate? As an example, the average lifespan of a Great Dane is 7 years, but for a chihuahua, it's 17 years. This means that the Great Dane would be adult until his last year or so, but the chihuahua would have 10 years or more of being a senior.
It is unknown why smaller breeds tend to live longer. This baffles many scientists due to the fact that when looking at mammals in general, most larger animals have much longer life spans (such as the 70 years of an elephant) compared to smaller animals (such as the 2 years of mice).
Scientists are doing more research into these sort of studies as it really is of public interest to want their beloved pets to live longer, as well as improve the quality of their senior life.
So how old is your pet?
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