Stop with the Math! This Chart Will Help You Easily Determine Your Pet’s Age in “Human Years”
We've all tried to figure out what our dog's current age equals in human years by multiplying how old we think they are by seven. I'm here to tell you, you can stop doing the math. There's a much easier way that requires little-to-thinking.
Before we get to that, have you ever wondering where that magic number of seven came from? According to The Old Farmer's Almanac, the formula was based on the one time assumption that dogs live an average of 10 years and humans live an average of 70. As we know some people live way longer than that and others don't, which made the the formula flawed from the start, but it was better than nothing so it stuck.
As time went on and researchers started to study how animals grow and age in comparison to humans, they learned several factors contribute to an animals aging process. Like humans, weight, overall health, and even genetics all play a role.
Thankfully, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, Fred Metzger, Medical Director for the Los Angeles-based Veterinary Clinics of America did the work of combining all those factors together for us, and created this handy chart we just simply need to look at.
The chart only focuses on dogs and cats so how old my daughter's bearded dragon and our hedgehog are in human years will continue to remain a mystery. And while it's not perfect, it does give a much better idea of how old Doggy McDogface and Steve Catterson are.
In my case, we believe our dog, a black lab mix who hovers right around the 50 pound mark who we believe is about 10 years old (she was a rescue) is about 66 in human years based on the chart. Our cat is 9, and right at the 20 pound mark (he's not fat, he's big boned) which would make him a grouchy 52-year-old man. Take a look for yourself to see where your pet lands.
[Source: Willis Animal Hospital on Facebook]
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