1
00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,440
Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff Works. Hey, welcome

2
00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:10,000
Speaker 1: to brain stuff. I'm Christian Seger and you may have

3
00:00:10,119 --> 00:00:13,480
Speaker 1: heard that dogs age differently from people. It's the old

4
00:00:13,560 --> 00:00:16,880
Speaker 1: notion of a dog year, right, the idea that one

5
00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:20,280
Speaker 1: year for humans equals about seven years for a pooch.

6
00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:24,080
Speaker 1: But is this true or just some tall tale, ash

7
00:00:24,079 --> 00:00:27,560
Speaker 1: shaggy dog story If you will, well, yes and no,

8
00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:31,560
Speaker 1: and it's mainly no. First, let's talk about aging. Age

9
00:00:31,680 --> 00:00:35,440
Speaker 1: isn't just some hard and fast measurement of chronology. It's

10
00:00:35,479 --> 00:00:39,040
Speaker 1: also a measurement of how time affects our bodies. Animals

11
00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:42,440
Speaker 1: all age, but at different rates. By way of example,

12
00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:45,000
Speaker 1: let's look at this seven year myth. By that logic,

13
00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:48,280
Speaker 1: a fifteen year old dog would be in equivalent years

14
00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:51,360
Speaker 1: a one hundred and five year old person. But why

15
00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:55,080
Speaker 1: do so many dogs live to or past fifteen years

16
00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:57,800
Speaker 1: old and so few people lived to a hundred and

17
00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:01,080
Speaker 1: five It just doesn't add up. And this is because

18
00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:04,839
Speaker 1: we can't make a simple one to one comparison. There's

19
00:01:04,920 --> 00:01:09,720
Speaker 1: no concrete equivalency that applies across the board. First, dogs

20
00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:13,000
Speaker 1: don't all have the same life expectancy, and they don't

21
00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:16,319
Speaker 1: age at the same rate either. Think about it this way.

22
00:01:16,560 --> 00:01:20,840
Speaker 1: A Chihuahua can live to be over fifteen people years old,

23
00:01:21,160 --> 00:01:24,479
Speaker 1: yipping at us the entire time. However, a larger breed,

24
00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:27,160
Speaker 1: like a Great Dane, they have a shorter lifespan on

25
00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:30,360
Speaker 1: the order of seven to eight years. So the size

26
00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:33,520
Speaker 1: of a dog affects its life expectancy, as does its

27
00:01:33,560 --> 00:01:37,240
Speaker 1: breed and expected adult weight. Generally, we can make a

28
00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:41,280
Speaker 1: good guess at a dog's age range based on these factors.

29
00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:44,480
Speaker 1: Back to the rate of aging, So dogs undergo a

30
00:01:44,600 --> 00:01:48,560
Speaker 1: maturation process just like people. A puppy's first year on

31
00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:52,520
Speaker 1: the planet equals about more than a decade of people years,

32
00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:55,440
Speaker 1: but this rule doesn't apply for every year of a

33
00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:59,080
Speaker 1: dog's life Afterward, after about two years on Earth, a

34
00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:03,440
Speaker 1: puppy is a sly mature, able to sexually reproduce, and

35
00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:06,160
Speaker 1: if it were a person, hey, it could buy booze,

36
00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:08,640
Speaker 1: it could vote, and maybe it could register for the draft.

37
00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:12,400
Speaker 1: But in biological terms, dogs also fall victim to the

38
00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:15,919
Speaker 1: ravages of age, just like humans. As a pooch ages,

39
00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:20,000
Speaker 1: she or he may begin to develop arthritis, poor hearing

40
00:02:20,200 --> 00:02:23,880
Speaker 1: or vision, and other ailments that are common in elderly humans.

41
00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:27,560
Speaker 1: And they appear to age more quickly in the early years,

42
00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:30,919
Speaker 1: while they're aging slows in the latter years. But if

43
00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:34,160
Speaker 1: you'd like to gauge your dog's age and life expectancy,

44
00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:38,040
Speaker 1: never fear well. It's true that there's no simple multiplication

45
00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:42,160
Speaker 1: exercise applying to all dogs. You can use handy estimation

46
00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:45,840
Speaker 1: charts to make an educated guess about your pups lifespan.

47
00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:49,959
Speaker 1: Interesting side note, if this whole seven years thing is

48
00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:52,360
Speaker 1: a myth, and and we've pretty much established that it is,

49
00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:55,160
Speaker 1: then where did it come from. In an interview with

50
00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:59,080
Speaker 1: The Wall Street Journal, veterinarian William Fortney speculated that this

51
00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:02,720
Speaker 1: may have originated as a marketing ploy meant to encourage

52
00:03:02,760 --> 00:03:06,240
Speaker 1: pet owners to bring their dogs in for checkups once

53
00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:09,480
Speaker 1: a year. So there you have it. Dogs don't exist

54
00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:12,440
Speaker 1: in some weird rip Van Winkle asque time I Balance,

55
00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:16,040
Speaker 1: and every year for you isn't automatically seven for your

56
00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:19,519
Speaker 1: favorite canine. However, they do age at a different rate,

57
00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:22,160
Speaker 1: and it's important to keep this in mind. Make sure

58
00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:25,120
Speaker 1: you stay up to date on vet visits, vaccinations, and

59
00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:33,560
Speaker 1: field trips. Check out the Brainstuff channel on YouTube and

60
00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:36,040
Speaker 1: for more on this and thousands of other topics, visit

61
00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:49,280
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com.