Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey,
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Boglebon here with another classic episode featuring
Speaker 1: our previous host, Christian Sagar. If you're listening to this
Speaker 1: episode on the day it comes out and are in
Speaker 1: the United States, then puppy bowl is upon us. And
Speaker 1: what better time than to answer the burning question do
Speaker 1: dogs really age? Seven years? For everyone human year? Hey,
Speaker 1: welcome to brain Stuff. I'm Christian Sagar, and you may
Speaker 1: have heard that dogs age differently from people. It's the
Speaker 1: old notion of a dog year, right, the idea that
Speaker 1: one year for humans equals about seven years for a pooch.
Speaker 1: But is this true or just some tall tale as
Speaker 1: shaggy dog story. If you will, well, yes and no,
Speaker 1: and it's mainly no. First, let's talk about aging. Age
Speaker 1: isn't just some hard and fast measurement of chronology. It's
Speaker 1: also a measurement of how time affects our bodies. Animals
Speaker 1: all age, but at different rates. By way of example,
Speaker 1: let's look at this seven year myth. By that logic,
Speaker 1: a fifteen year old dog would be in equivalent years
Speaker 1: a one d and five year old person. But why
Speaker 1: do so many dogs live to or past fifteen years old,
Speaker 1: and so few people live to a hundred and five.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't add up. And this is because we
Speaker 1: can't make a simple one to one comparison. There's no
Speaker 1: concrete equivalency that applies across the board. First, dogs don't
Speaker 1: all have the same life expectancy, and they don't age
Speaker 1: at the same rate either. Think about it this way.
Speaker 1: A Chihuahua can live to be over fifteen people years old,
Speaker 1: yipping at us the entire time. However, a larger breed,
Speaker 1: like a Great Dane, they have a shorter lifespan on
Speaker 1: the order of seven to eight years. So the size
Speaker 1: of a dog affects its life expectancy, as does its
Speaker 1: breed and expected adult weight. Generally, we can make a
Speaker 1: good guess at a dog's a drange based on these factors.
Speaker 1: Back to the rate of aging, So dogs undergo a
Speaker 1: maturation process just like people. A puppy's first year on
Speaker 1: the planet equals about more than a decade of people years,
Speaker 1: but this rule doesn't apply for every year of a
Speaker 1: dog's life. Afterward, after about two years on Earth, a
Speaker 1: puppy is officially mature, able to sexually reproduce, and if
Speaker 1: it were a person. Hey, it could buy booze, it
Speaker 1: could vote, and maybe it could register for the draft.
Speaker 1: But in biological terms, dogs also fall victim to the
Speaker 1: ravages of age, just like humans. As a pooch ages,
Speaker 1: she or he may begin to develop arthritis, poor hearing
Speaker 1: or vision, and other ailments that are common in elderly humans,
Speaker 1: and they appear to age more quickly in the early years,
Speaker 1: while they're aging slows in the latter years. But if
Speaker 1: you'd like to gauge your dog's age and life expectancy,
Speaker 1: never fear well. It's true that there's no simple multiplication
Speaker 1: exercise up lying to all dogs. You can use handy
Speaker 1: estimation charts to make an educated guess about your pups lifespan.
Speaker 1: Interesting side note. If this whole seven years thing is
Speaker 1: a myth, and and we've pretty much established that it is,
Speaker 1: then where did it come from. In an interview with
Speaker 1: The Wall Street Journal, veterinarian William Fortney speculated that this
Speaker 1: may have originated as a marketing ploy, meant to encourage
Speaker 1: pet owners to bring their dogs in for checkups once
Speaker 1: a year. So there you have it. Dogs don't exist
Speaker 1: in some weird rip van Winkle asque time imbalance, and
Speaker 1: every year for you isn't automatically seven for your favorite canine. However,
Speaker 1: they do age at a different rate and it's important
Speaker 1: to keep this in mind. Make sure you stay up
Speaker 1: to date on vet visits, vaccinations, and field trips. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Ben Bullen and produced by Tyler Clang.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other dog on topics,
Speaker 1: visit our home planet us to forks dot com and
Speaker 1: for more podcasts from my heart Radio is the I
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.