Our pupper, Riley, celebrated his half-year birthday recently and my wife observed that based on an online calculator, he is now 27 years old in human years. I was surprised that he is already ‘older’ than our adult son by a couple years. It’s shocking to think about how quickly the little pup is aging.
As most everyone knows, dogs age at about a 7:1 ratio to adults. When I started thinking about that comparison, I was saddened to think that every day in Riley’s life is like a whole week for a human! As I was putting him to bed that night, I felt bad that he probably didn’t have a week’s worth of doggy fun that day.
For the next few days, I was depressed thinking about that “every day is a week” ratio.
I really felt bad that I wasn’t playing with him more, even though we walk him 3x a day and take him a lot of places with us (including to Florida in the Winter). Most of the time he does what dogs like to do – sleep around the house and bark at occasional noises. Still, as quick as he is aging, maybe I should be playing with him every free moment I have?
I was talking to my buddy, Russ, about this doggy dilemma and he asked how long Riley was likely to live for? I said, “I suppose about 15 years, based on what I’ve read for his breed”.
He said, “that means you will be almost 75 years old yourself, right? If you think about it, Riley has a decent chance of out-living YOU! Most of your long life was over before he was even born. You could pass away at anytime and the dog would still be alive!”
“Damn,” I thought, “He’s right – the dog is basically trying to BEAT ME to old age! It’s a canine COMPETITION from this day forward!” 🙂
Seriously, I should just be happy for the time we have each day together and see if we can both delay life’s inevitable end game as long as possible.
How old are your four-legged friends in human years?
Images: (c) MrFireStation.com
MrFireStation 
Interesting perspective which helps me.
I, like you, have been calculating the life span of our Bella. She is 6 now and I found a calculator that tries to account for a small dog vs large dog human years factor. She is small so the table says she is 40 in human years. Maybe we can get 14 or 15 years with her but I already dread that day when she leaves us.
Link to calculator: https://www.oodlelife.com/dog-years-for-small-dogs/
Here is the table they provide if you don’t want to do the math…
Size of Dog
Small Dog (12 kilograms >26 pounds)
Real Age of Dog in Human Years
Age SM. LG.
1 15 15
2 24 24
3 28 28
4 32 32
5 36 36
6 40 45
7 44 50
8 48 55
9 52 60
10 56 65
11 60 70
12 64 75
13 68 80
14 72 85
15 76 90
16 80 95
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Large dogs seem to age quite a bit faster, don’t they? I think Riley is a bit bigger than Bella, but definitely still a small dog (18#). Need to make sure both you and Bella are eating good & getting your exercise!
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m not doing enough?
Thank you for sharing this post. It is a sad reminder that our furry friends age so much faster than us. I’m sure Riley had a great birthday and hopefully, we can continue to provide him with lots of love for many years to come.
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He’s a good pupper! 🐶
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