Contrary to popular belief, one human year could equal four dog years, not seven.

Although people have been counting dog years in relation to human years for a long time now, there is no scientific evidence to support this claim.  If it were true that one human year is equal to seven dog years, humans would be able to reproduce at the age of seven – and a lot of us would live for around 150 years.

Since a dog’s typical lifespan can be from 8 to 16 years, and we know that different breeds live longer than others, it makes no sense that one human year is equal to seven dog years.

The original dog year is believed to be from 1268, when a Judgment Day calculation declared a 9:1 ratio- that dogs live to age 9 and humans to 81.  Centuries later, in the 1950s, it was generally accepted that people lived until 70 and dogs until the age of 10.  However, in 1953, a French scientist, Lebeau, came to the conclusion that dogs mature at different rates throughout their lives.

He established that they mature 15-20 times quicker than people in the first stage of their lives, and then this slows down to a ratio of one to five.  Lebeau eventually found that the age of a dog of one year is the equivalent of a 15-year-old human.  Since this rate slows down during a dog’s life, on average, one human year is equivalent to four dog years.  So, how old is your dog?