The long-standing myth of multiplying your dog’s age by 7 to convert to human years is not as accurate as you think.
Many pet parents and people alike think if they multiply their dog’s age by 7, it’ll convert to human years. Unfortunately, new studies show that this is not the case because each breed of animal has its own natural logarithm of aging.
Just like humans, as animals get older, tiny chemical markers called methyl group accumulates in the DNA which causes some genes to turn on or off.
Researchers then compare this accumulation rate to the same methyl groups in humans to determine a better age comparison between the two species. Ultimately, the researchers found out that dogs accumulate way more methyl groups than humans early on in their lives.
An 8-week-old dog is equivalent in age to a 9-month-old baby.
But as the pups grow older, the accumulation rate of methyl groups starts slowing down, meaning the older a dog gets the slower they ages. To put it into perspective, if we use this formula. We can calculate that a 6-year-old Labrador would be 60 years old in human years but a 12-year-old Labrador would be only 70 years old in human years. Keep in mind this study only focused on Labrador retrievers. Since the accumulation of methyl groups varies from species to species, more research must be done for another dog breed. Try our Dog to Human Age calculator and discover how old your dog really is in human years! We hope you find this article helpful! If you have any questions or concerns please visit mercicollective.com