October 15, 2014
Current Events
The truth is, the “7-year rule” is nothing more than a myth, perpetuated by dog owners and media outlets for its simplicity. After all, it’s convenient to adhere to a “one size fits all” system of calculating the age of our pets. However, the true age of a dog is quite a lot more complex than that.
According to The Wall Street Journal, if the “7 year” dog ratio had any truth to it, humans would be capable of reproducing by age 7, and large percentages of us would live to be 150. Of course, neither is true.
Although the actual origins of the myth are unknown, it is believed to have come from an inscription at Westminster Abbey from the 13th century, which put the man-to-dog ratio at 9 to 1, meaning dogs live an average of 9 years and men an average of 81 years. Georges Buffon, an 18th-century French naturalist also believed the same theory: Humans live to 90 or 100 years, and dogs to 10 or 12.
At some point in the 1950s, a new theory emerged that humans generally live 70 years, and dogs 10, which became the unofficial “ratio” for dog owners to calculate their pets’ human ages. From there, veterinarians likely went along with the “7-year rule” as truth.
Current Events
“My guess is it was a marketing ploy,” Kansas State vet William Fortney speculated in the WSJ. “It was a way to encourage owners to bring in their pets at least once a year.”
However, there really is no “one-size-fits-all” rule for calculating a pets age. The size of a dog is actually the best determining factor for figuring its human age.
