Have you ever heard that one dog
year is equivalent to seven human years? This ratio of 1:7 is a good general
guideline, but is not accurate in all cases. Different species or breeds
actually age at different rates. There are a number of other factors involved
too, including nutrition, genetics, and environmental factors.
A better
way to judge the relative age of your pet is to consider the first year of a
puppy’s life as equivalent to the first 15 years of a human’s life. The next
year brings your dog to about the same maturity as a 24 year old person. Then
after that, each dog year is equivalent to about four human years.
It
may be even easier to know that your dog goes through many of the same
developmental stages as people do. You can expect different behavior as your
puppy grows from an infant, to a toddler, child, adolescent, young adult,
middle-aged adult, elderly adult, and finally geriatric adult. Your dog has
different needs at each stage, so understanding those stages, and knowing how
best to meet your pet’s needs, will have benefits for you and your dog.
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