Namely, understanding how old your dog is and how theyвЂ™re aging allows you to properly care for them вЂ“ and help give them the best life possible. Using a dog age chart to estimate your dogвЂ™s age in human years is a fun and insightful way to learn more about them! ItвЂ™s important for other reasons, too. Why is understanding my dogвЂ™s age important? While the newer method weвЂ™ve shared is more accurate, itвЂ™s still difficult to place a general formula on the way dogs age вЂ“ as this progression will not only depend on your dogвЂ™s size, but their breed and individual genetics as well. ItвЂ™s for this reason that using the вЂњone dog year equals seven human yearsвЂќ calculation isnвЂ™t completely accurate. Similarly, larger dogs progress from puppyhood to adulthood much faster, making abnormal cell growth, cancer, and other diseases more likely. According to the American Kennel Club, some researchers hypothesize that itвЂ™s because larger dogs are affected by age-related diseases more quickly. Ultimately, scientists arenвЂ™t completely sure why smaller dogs age slower and live longer than larger ones.

By seven years old, a small dog, like a Dachshund, will be six human years younger than a large breed, like an Airedale Terrier. Then, larger dogs age much faster in comparison to their smaller and medium counterparts. Generally, you can group dogs into small dogs (under 20 lbs), medium dogs (20 to 50 lbs), large dogs (50-100 lbs), and giant dogs (100+ lbs).Д¬heck out theВ dog age to human age chart below to calculate your dogвЂ™s age in human years based on their size group:ДЄs you can see in our dog age chart вЂ“ aside from the giant category вЂ“ small, medium, and large dogs age pretty similarly until they reach about age six. Therefore, itвЂ™s helpful to break down a dog age chart in terms of size, as youвЂ™ll see below. In general, smaller dogs live longer than larger dogs, so while a seven-year-old Great Dane might be considered a вЂњseniorвЂќ dog, the same isnвЂ™t necessarily true for a seven-year-old Chihuahua. So, why is this more accurate than the вЂњone dog year equals seven human yearsвЂќ method?Д«ecause it takes into account that not all dogs breeds age the same way.

Each additional year is equal to about four or five human years.

The second year of a dogвЂ™s life is equal to about nine human years.

The first year of a dogвЂ™s life is equal to 15 human years.

As you can see, this formula is pretty complex, so it can be useful to plug in your dogвЂ™s age to an automatic calculator programmed with this formula, like the one here.ДЇor an easier (and also accurate) way to estimate your dogвЂ™s age, you can follow this methodology for small, medium, and large dogs under 100 lbs. Their formula looks like this: (human_age = 16ln(dog_age) + 31).

From this research, they concluded that you can calculate a dogвЂ™s age to human years by multiplying the natural logarithm of the dogвЂ™s age by 16 and adding 31. These researchers studied the way human and dog DNA changes over time looking at patterns called methyl groups in humans and Labrador Retrievers. If youвЂ™re looking to calculate your dogвЂ™s age in human years more accurately, you can use a new formula created by researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. How do I calculate my dogвЂ™s age in human years?

Age progression chart