How old is a dog if they are 10 in human years? What to Know

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Clubs Offering:

  • The long-believed “1 dog year = 7 human years” theory is not supported by science.
  • Different breeds age differently, with small dogs in general living longer than large ones.
  • A 2019 study suggests a new formula based on changes made to dogs DNA over time.

    • Since the 1950s, the popular calculation of how old a dog was “in human years” has been that 1 dog year is the equivalent of 7 human ones. Even though this formula has been around for a surprisingly long time, the reality is not so cut-and-dried. That doesn’t stop many people from defaulting to this traditional calculation. “You can’t really kill the seven-year rule,” says Kelly M. Cassidy, a curator of the Charles R. Connor Museum at Washington State University, who compiles studies about longevity in dogs.

    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.

    “My guess is it was a marketing ploy,” says William Fortney, a veterinarian at Kansas State University. 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. 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?

    As a general guideline, though, the American Veterinary Medical Association breaks it down like this:

  • 15 human years equals the first year of a medium-sized dog’s life.
  • Year two for a dog equals about nine years for a human.
  • And after that, each human year would be approximately five years for a dog.

    • Small size dogs: Up to 20 lbs.

    *Source: Pro Plan Dog Age Calculator

    The Truth About Dog Years (Your Pupper Is Older Than You Think!)

    It’s common knowledge that one year of a dog’s life is equal to seven human years…or is it? If this is the way you’ve been calculating your dog’s age, don’t worry – you’re not alone. However, the truth is that this method isn’t entirely accurate.

    Historically, it’s very likely that the “one dog year equals seven human years” method was created to simply show that dogs age faster than humans. Today, scientists and researchers have developed a more precise method of calculating a dog’s age to human years.