What’s The Life Expectancy Of Your Dog?
April 14, 2008 by Colby
I know it’s kind of a morbid thing to think about, but honestly before you decide on a dog breed it’s probably a good idea to investigate the average life expectancy of the breed.
Just today I was talking to one of my friends about dogs and how long they usually live. I mentioned that usually smaller dog breeds live longer then larger dog breeds. While this is not always the case it seems to be a general rule of thumb. From what I understand the larger body has to work harder and is stressed more than a smaller body.
I decided to do a little online research to find out average life expectancies of different dog breeds.
Average Life Expectancy Of Dogs By Breed (in years)
| Afghan Hound (12.0) Airedale Terrier (11.2) Basset Hound (12.8) Beagle (13.3) Bearded Collie (12.3) Bedlington Terrier (14.3) Bernese Mountain Dog (7.0) Border Collie (13.0) Border Terrier (13.8) Boxer (10.4) Bull Terrier (12.9) Bulldog (6.7) Bullmastiff (8.6) Cairn Terrier (13.2) Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (10.7) Chihuahua (13.0) Chow Chow (13.5) Cocker Spaniel (12.5) Corgi (11.3) Dachshund (12.2) Dalmatian (13.0) Doberman Pinscher (9.8) English Cocker Spaniel (11.8) English Setter (11.2) English Springer Spaniel (13.0) English Toy Spaniel (10.1) Flat-Coated Retriever (9.5) German Shepherd (10.3) German Shorthaired Pointer (12.3) Golden Retriever (12.0) Gordon Setter (11.3) Great Dane (8.4) |
Greyhound (13.2) Irish Red and White Setter (12.9) Irish Setter (11.8) Irish Wolfhound (6.2) Jack Russell Terrier (13.6) Labrador Retriever (12.6) Lurcher (12.6) Miniature Dachshund (14.4) Miniature Poodle (14.8) Norfolk Terrier (10.0) Old English Sheepdog (11.8) Pekingese (13.3) Random-bred / Mongrel (13.2) Rhodesian Ridgeback (9.1) Rottweiler (9.8) Rough Collie (12.2) Samoyed (11.0) Scottish Deerhound (9.5) Scottish Terrier (12.0) Shetland Sheepdog (13.3) Shih Tzu (13.4) Staffordshire Bull Terrier (10.0) Standard Poodle (12.0) Tibetan Terrier (14.3) Toy Poodle (14.4) Viszla (12.5) Weimaraner (10.0) Welsh Springer Spaniel (11.5) West Highland White Terrier (12.8) Whippet (14.3) Wire Fox Terrier (13.0) Yorkshire Terrier (12.8) |
*This list is from the Pets.ca website.
A Few Surprises
There were three dogs that really stood out on this list. The first one I already knew about and that is the Bernese Mountain Dog. My neighbor just got one and I’ve noticed that the puppies show up on many advertisements in print, on the internet, and on TV. I had heard the average life expectancy for this breed was 6 years…on this list it’s 7 years. Either way this is a short life expectancy for a dog and while on the larger side at 85-110 pounds it’s still not near the size of some of the other breeds on this list.
The second surprise was the life expectancy of the Irish Wolfhound. While you expect a dog that gets to be upwards of 150 pounds to have a shorter life expectancy it’s sad to hear that these guys on average only live to be 6.2 years old. My Aussie mix Linus is already 3 1/2 years old…I couldn’t imagine thinking he was already halfway through his life.
Finally, the biggest surprise to me was the Bulldog. The Bull Dog was on my list of Dogs Good With Children and also on the list of AKC’s Top Dog List. I would consider the Bull Dog a medium size breed at 50 – 55 pounds and you would expect a dog of that size to have a better than average life expectancy. Unfortuantely, according to the list above the Bulldog’s average life expectancy is only 6.7 years.
Life expectancy is something you should definitely consider before choosing a dog breed. As you can see from this list on average the shortest life expectancy is for the Irish Wolfhound at 6.2 years and the longest is the Miniature Dachshund at 14.4 years. That’s a big difference!
Of course any individual dog can definitely live longer or shorter then the numbers on this list.
Have your dogs lived longer or shorter than the numbers on this list? Did your dog surpass his or her average life expectancy?
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Ive had cocker spaniels for over thirty years both english and american, barring accidents they have all lived past 14. The one I have now is 16. Ive also known Irish setters and golden retrievers to live to 16. Alot of their care has to do with keeping their weight down and giving them alot of excercise.
I’ve got a pure Rottie who’s closing in on his 14th birthday. Of course, the past 5 years have been largely thanks to weekly Adequan injections, and the past year is thanks to daily Prevacox (and Famotidine).
So, absent modern pharmacology, the average life expectancy probably wouldn’t have been far off.
Our pure bred Golden Retriever was 10 years old when we had to put him to sleep. Our second family dog was a border collie mix (we think) and he lived 20+ years.
@Ezra, I agree that keeping your dog’s weight down and exercise does extend the life of your dog.
@Rodney, our border collie mix had a stroke approximately 5 years before we had to put him to sleep. He was taking several different meds during his last 5 years as well.
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Well, at least I’m kind on the high end of the scale – that will make Mum a little happier. Our key is to live everyday like it’s your last! No looking back, no regrets. Woofs, Johann
Stetson’s a pure bred Labrador Retriever and that breed is listed at 12.6 years (a little higher then I thought). Linus is a mixed breed and we’re hoping he will be with us for a long time.
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If anyone out there has a boxer breed that out lived what this list says, please let me know. We have a 8 1/2 year old boxer, and we are hoping she lives much longer than 10.4 years like this list says. It is our first boxer and she is loved by many. Please if anyone has had or has a boxer please let me know how old they lived to.
My Basset Hound passed away a couple of weeks ago. She was 10 years and 4 months old and was not overweight. I had to take her to the emergency room because she was having trouble breathing. Her heart was failing and she was in pain so I let her go. Up to the day before she was a happy and active dog. You never know what tomorrow may bring.
Growing up we never had a boxer, but we did have a purebred Golden Retriever who passed away when she was 10 years old. She had a tumor and had to be put to sleep.
Our second family dog was a mixed breed. We think he might have been a border collie with maybe some lab. We picked him up from the shelter…they said he was approximately 2 years old. We had him for another 18 years, so we think he was 20+ years old when he passed away.
How can someone come up with average life expectancies by ‘online research’. I am assuming that can only mean looking at what other articles give as average age and then averaging that?? Pet people don’t often post their dogs’ ages at death online for a researcher to gather up.
Many of the resources on average life expectancy don’t give any details of how the figure was arrived at.
Information like that should be treated with a big grain of salt, not compiled into a table and discussed as if it were based on genuinbe research.
Leaving decimal points in very simple data is also a common technique for making information sound more accurate/precise than it really is.
The article is pretty amatuerish and adds little to the body of knowledge.
Our purebred golden retriever Annabel died this week at the age of 10. She had nasal cancer that spread to her lymph nodes. The cancer eroded into her blood vessels in her nose and she virtually bled to death. To the very end, she remained spry, happy, loving and hungry! Annabel was the sweetest, most gentle and nicest companion I have ever known. They say golden’s “mold” themselves to their owners; we are devastated by our loss and are so fortunate to have had her in our lives (I’ve had many dogs; and she was truly the nicest, sweetest, and best of them all). My children grew up with a storybook dog.
@Kathleen, I’m sorry to hear about your Golden Retriever Annabel. When I was growing up we had a Golden Retriever that also passed away at the age of 10 from a brain tumor. My parents got her around the same time I was born. She was a wonderful family dog and very tolerant of my brother, sister, and I. My mother used to tell us that we used to climb all over her and sometimes sit on her back. I’m sure that wasn’t too good for her, but she put up with us.
I had a dapple dauschund, Max, who just got put down about an hour ago. I had him since I was 4. Max lived one day shy of 16 years. That means he lived until 112 in dog years. He was a part of the family and will always remain in our hearts.
@Crystal, I’m sorry to here about Max. I’m glad he lived a nice long life. I have a good friend who has a doxie mix and we hope she has a nice, long, fulfilling life like Max.
GAAHHH I have an eighteen year old chow mix…..she is like the energizer bunny!!! Shs still eats twice a day . She does take Dermaxx for arthritis. And she is s little gimpy those first few steps. She still likes to go for walks and loves to sit and beg for beggin strips!!! I just feel like somedays (her bad days) that I am prlonging some sort of suffering for her….this is such a hard, hard decision anybody have any good advice??? I would love for her to just go to sleep….when the time comes…thanks for listening and for any advice one might be able to give. Robin
@Robin, It sounds like your dog is still in pretty good health. I’d love to give you some good advice here, but I think it’s a very personal decision.
My parents had to decide to put our family dog to sleep several years ago and I think that was a very difficult decision for them. He was a rescue dog and lived with us for close to twenty years. In the end his quality of life was no longer what it used to be. He started to have difficulty walking even to go to the bathroom. In the end my parents just new it was time and didn’t want him to live in pain.
My minature dachsund is still barking and eating at age 18 1/2 and although she has slowed down her last vet visit had good results on all vitals . She is deaf and is blind in one eye but still rules . I also have her sister from a different litter is 14 and going strong.
I have a mixed breed dog named Louis. He turned 21 on May 1st 2009 and just had a visit to the Vet’s on April 23, 2009. It was for a basic check to see how he was doing and to renew prescriptions. The Vet was amazed at how strong, chipper and curious he was and told me that other than his breathing he should be around for awhile yet. Louis weighed in at 9 and 1/2 lbs. and required 2 prescrip. One for his Gingevitus and the other for expanding his Trachea. I’ll tell you a little bit about my Lou. His mixed breed is a Multipooh and I bought him from a breeder on a farm in July 1988 when he was 7 weeks old in Surry, British Columbia, Canada. His father was a purebred Miniture white Poodle and had been a show dog, his mother, whom I met was a pure-bred Maltese. Louis was from her last litter and still suckling when I went for my first interview and was the largest and quitest of the litter. As I mentioned from above he was weened and only 7 weeks old when I was allowed to pick him up. I believe his mother had a litter of 4 or 5 and he was the last to go. At his present age now he still goes for daily walks unless it is raining. The walks are very slow now and he only has a little bit of his prance left but still likes to have a little play time in the evenings. Lou has cateracts in both eyes and is hard of hearing but is still able to see his way around our home and jump up on his chair, the chesterfield, and my bed with the aid of a foot stool. He knows when someone comes to visit but no longer greets them at the door, instead he waits on the foot of my bed, sitting up like a prince until they are in and then jumps down to greet them. He uses his nose of course to tell if he knows them and his tail, long and white will stand up and wave like a flag in the breeze or just a lot of sniffing to give his approval or not. I have many pictures of him but do not at present know how to get them on this site. I’ll keep this site in mind as soon as I figure things out. My best friend in the world is absolutely amazing and one of the greatest gifts I have ever recieved and I will keep you posted on how my Lou is doing. I have some very interesting stories to tell about Louis and things that have occured in his 21 years of living so far and perhaps telling them from a dog’s point of view could be kind of fun. I am going to search my files to find the proof of when he was born & put it on a blog to continue his story. I do remember it was the year I sold my house in Kitsilano, Vancouver, B.C. of which I do have proof. The files are in storage, so will have to dig them up as well as pictures of Louis when he was a pup, and all the other records of him that I have kept. Perhaps then with proof I can share his story.
@Fay, that’s amazing that Louis is 21 years old. My dogs are 4, 2, and 1 years old and I can only dream that they live as long as your Louis.
If you’d like to add a story with some pictures of Louis I can add it to the website. Just email me at ckmorita@puppyintraining.com and include a picture and anything you’d like to say about Louis and I’ll add it to the site.
I just had my dog Daisy to the vet for her annual check up. Daisy is a 12 1/2 year old small mixed breed. She will be 13 on Christmas Eve. Daisy has an open sore on her head that started out small after an age wart came off. It has grown over the past year and looks just awful. If has never been infected which is what our vet told us to worry about last year. However, the vet said it is some sort of cancer. He can’t say whether it is malignant or not and that it should be removed. SOme of her teeth are also infected and can be extracted at the same time. My husband and rest of my family tell me to just put her down. I am having a lot of trouble justifying that, as she is still very active and is not in any pain. She has slowed down a bit over the last year and is developing cataracts but seems perfectly happy and content. She is actually more active than our youngest dog who is 5 years old. I’m just not sure what to do. I need to talk to my vet further, but am looking for input. There is also a very strong emotional tie to Daisy who belonged to my great-grandmother who lived with us until she passed away about 6 years ago. Any suggestions? Please help.