How Old is Your Dog?

The other day, I overheard a couple of Parkers trying to figure out their dogs' ages in people years. We used to think that each dog year equalled 7 human years, but I think that calculation was really just an average. It was really only accurate at the end of a dog's life, not at the beginning. As one source pointed out, a dog of one year can reproduce, but a seven- year-old girl certainly can not. Apparently, it's all about hormones. So the new theory is that a one-year old dog is a teenager, about 15 years old. Still too young for having babies, of course, but physically possible.  Below is a chart I found at a site called dogyears.com. The site has no particular credibility, but the chart is the least complicated I've found and reflects the calculations I've seen at other sites. 

Thanks to this chart, I now know that in my household I've got a ball-crazed twenty-something (Muzzy just turned 2) and a cranky retiree (Roma is closing in on 14). 

Another angle I never hear is calculating one's own age in dog years. Based on this chart, your faithful blogger clocks in at about 6.33 dog years. I like that better than clinging pathetically to 39, which wasn't such a hot year anyway, as I recall. -z

Canine Age	Human Age
2 Months	14 Months
6 Months	5 Years
8 Months	9 Years
1 Year	15 Years
2 Years	24 Years
3 Years	28 Years
4 Years	32 Years
5 Years	37 Years
6 Years	42 Years
7 Years	47 Years
8 Years	52 Years
9 Years	57 Years
10 Years	62 Years
11 Years	67 Years
12 Years	72 Years
13 Years	77 Years
14 Years	82 Years