How Long Do Dogs Live; Small, Medium and Large Breeds

What is the Average Lifespan of Dogs?

A dog lives for 10 to 13 years on average but this could be affected by a number of factors. Reportedly, dogs having a healthy lifestyle and diet have successfully lived for up to 20 years, which is a lot for a dog. Dog age is different from human age and the below infographic will help you understand it.

Besides, we have explained some of the key factors that affect the life expectancy of canines.

How Long do Dogs Live with Cancer?

Without any treatment, the dog is expected to live anywhere between 1 to 2 months and with treatment, the expectancy could be up to 20 months. However, no one could predict the exact life expectancy.

Cancer is one of the top reasons for death in dogs worldwide. However, is it a death sentence for your dog if he develops cancer? It depends. The result depends on factors including the age and health of your dog and the severity of the disease.

In many cases, the financial conditions of the owner also affect the life expectancy of a canine.

How Long do Dogs Live in the Wild?

A wild dog could live for up to 12 years but, usually, they only live for up to 7 years. Dogs that are without any owner are considered wild dogs. These include domesticated dogs, hybrids, and dingoes. These dogs appear different from domestic dogs and could have larger canine teeth and structures.

How Long do Dogs Live with Diabetes?

On average, 50% of diabetic dogs survive to live for 2 to 3 months without any treatment. With treatment, these dogs are expected to live for as long as their non-diabetic counterparts and may have a natural ‘non-diabetic’ death.

How Long do Dogs Live with Congestive Heart Failure?

Congestive heart failure is a genetic disease that could occur at any time of the dog’s life. However, once it has been diagnosed, the dog is expected to live for 6 to 12 months. There are 2 types of CHF; right-sided congestive heart failure (RS-CHF) and left-sided congestive heart failure (LS-CHF) and the life expectancy in both cases remains the same.

How Long do Dogs Live with Kidney Failure?

With timely diagnosis and treatment, dogs could expect to live many healthy months and years. At the time of diagnosis, nearly ⅔ of the kidneys are already damaged and may be beyond repair but still, regular checkups can help to diagnose the disease earlier.

How Long do Dogs Live with Dementia?

Dementia does not affect the life expectancy of your dog but definitely affects the quality of his life. As per some studies, dogs with dementia may actually live slightly longer than dogs that do not have the disease. This is mainly because of the high-quality treatment they get due to the disease.

How Long do Dogs Live with Lymphoma?

Without any treatment, the life expectancy of a dog could be no longer than 2 months. However, with rigorous treatment, more than 80% of the dogs go into remission with an average life expectancy of 12 to 14 months.

How Long do Dogs Live with Heartworms?

Heartworms is a serious disease for dogs but this does not mean that once diagnosed with it then your dog will not live for long. Usually, dogs with heartworms could live for up to 7 years. However, this also depends on the quality of the treatment that your dog is getting.

What Factors Contribute to a Dog’s Lifespan?

Though on average a dog lives for 10 to 13 years, there are some key factors that may play a role in increasing or decreasing some years into or from your canine’s life.

These factors include the health, weight, and lifestyle of your dog. Other factors that contribute to a dog’s life expectancy are described and discussed below.

Size of your Dog

As per some notable research, small dogs tend to live longer than large dog breeds. The University of Gottingen in Germany examined up to 70 dogs to see how weight and height influence their lifespan.

According to their results, the dogs that weigh less or are small in size live longer than the larger ones. Moreover, larger breeds also age faster and develop heart diseases.

Breed of the Dog

Many people do not believe it but the breed of your dog plays a vital role in deciding how many years your dog would keep you company. Talking about genes, purebred dogs are found to be more prone to genetic mutations and health problems. Since the breeding is very selective and it is done with less variation.

Comparatively, healthiest dog breeds, mixed breeds or mutts tend to live longer than their purebred counterparts. It is mainly because these combined canines have stronger immune systems. They face fewer health issues and on average, they live 1.2 years longer than the purebred dog breeds.

Dietary Habits of your Dog

Diet plays an important role in defining the life expectancy of your canine. Therefore, providing a high quality and balanced diet to your canine will help in adding a few years to their lives.

Other than this, good quality and balanced food and healthy eating habits will keep obesity at bay and delay the aging process effectively. This is why it is important to keep track of the treats that you give to your beloved canine and keep them to a minimal level.

Ample and Suitable Daily Care

A healthy lifestyle is important if you need to add a few more years into your canine’s life. This daily care routine includes routine checkups that include both dental and complete physical examination.

However, working your dog physically is not enough but you will need to give a good mental stimulation workout to your dog.

Where for your dog’s physical health you will need to give him a good physical workout, for a mental workout, you can get dog puzzles and could also make some yourself to give your dog a good mental stimulation game and workout.

Use Good Quality Dog Supplements

Like us, dogs may also need additional health supplements to feel good. We know that you do your best to give your dog a well-balanced diet. However, sometimes, it could be really hard or impossible for canines to fulfill their dietary needs through food. In such a case, supplements come handy.

These supplements help in fulfilling those needs and keep your dog healthy and well. Some of the best dog supplement choices are Zesty Paws Multivitamins for Dogs, Pet Naturals Daily Multi for Dogs, Vertiscience Laboratories Canine Plus Senior, Nutri-Vet Multivitamin Chewables for Puppies, etc. are some of the top choices.

Dog Breeds that Have Longer Life Expectancy

Do you know that some dog breeds have longer life expectancy than others? Though factors like diet, regular exercise and routine checkups play a big role in defining the quality and added years of life, some dog breeds are naturally healthy.

They have fewer genetic problems and diseases, making them comparatively healthier than other breeds. Here are some of those dog breeds.

• Maltese - 15 Years
• Beagle - 15 Years
• Australian Cattle Dog - 15 Years
• Shih Tzu - 15 Years
• Lhasa Apso - 15 Years
• Cockapoo - 16 Years
• Jack Russel Terrier - 16 Years
• Toy Poodle - 16 Years
• Chihuahua - 17 Years
• New Guinea Singing Dog - 18 Years
• Yorkshire Terrier - 17 Years
• Dachshund - 17 Years
• Pomeranian - 16 Years

The list is not all-inclusive and you will find a number of other dog breeds that are naturally healthy and contract comparatively fewer diseases.

For example, the longest recorded age of any dog is of a cattle dog named Bluey who lived for 29 years and 5 months who is one of the longest living dogs ever known to us.

Dog Breeds that have Shorter Life Expectancy

Life expectancy is one of the key factors in deciding which dog to adopt. This is because losing a pet or emotional support animal is very difficult and this is why the dog owners are concerned about the lifespan of their animal.

To help you, we have listed some of the smaller dogs that have shorter lifespans and would likely leave you earlier.

• Dogue de Bordeaux - 7 Years
• Great Dane - 8 Years
• Bernese Mountain Dog - 8 Years
• Irish Wolfhound - 9 Years
• BullMastiff - 10 Years
• Greater Swiss Mountain Dog - 10 Years
• Chinese Shar-Pei - 10 Years
• Newfoundland - 10 Years
• Saint Bernard - 11 Years
• Labrador Retriever - 12 Years
• Chow Chow - 12 Years
• Rottweiler - 10 Years
• Boxer - 10 Years

All of these dogs, and more, have comparatively shorter lifespans. One of the main reasons behind it is their big size and heavyweight. Bigger dogs have shorter lifespans than small and medium dogs.

What makes Dogs Excellent Emotional Support Animals?

Why do people always choose dogs over other animals? There are a number of reasons that make dogs excellent companions and emotional support animals. Canines are considered and believed to be loyal companions of humans for decades and they stay true to their reputation.

Though people choose other animals like cats, ferrets, rabbits, and hamsters as their emotional support animals, the percentage of the people that chose dogs are still higher and more significant.

And they have some very good reasons for it. Dogs are excellent as pets, emotional support animals, and service animals and offer a number of benefits for everyone.

Why do they make great ESAs? Here are some reasons.

• They Love to Please Us

  Dogs love to be around people and especially their human family members. Comparatively, cats are somewhat reserved and like to keep to themselves but things are different in the case of dogs.

  They are very selfless and they are always eager to please their owners. This is true for those dogs also that are mistreated by their owners and they still refuse to leave their side.

• They Love to Give Warm Hugs

  Need someone to give you a hug on a cold wintry evening? No one could do it better than a dog. Usually, we look for comfort and companionship from our peers but people who suffer from mental and emotional disabilities have difficulties interacting with other people and look for companion animals.

  For them, dogs offer a number of advantages and provide the needed love and care.

• They could Smell Danger

  We call it a sixth sense. Dogs are known for having an incredible sixth sense that they use to inform their owners about any possible danger. This sixth sense also extends and works whenever their owner is not feeling good or in a depressed mood.

  They instinctively know when their owners need a hug and they are there to give it to them.

• They Help us Get Physically Better

  Having a dog means that you will have to take him out for a daily walk to keep him healthy and happy. These daily walk and run sessions also give you an opportunity to have a quality workout each day.

This helps both of you have a healthy physique while protecting yourself from a number of health issues and diseases like heart diseases, liver diseases, obesity, and a number of other health issues.

Dogs make ideal pets and emotional support animals because of their loving and caring personality. Unfortunately, no matter how much you love your dog, there will be a time when he will be leaving you. Though no one could do anything about it, there are some factors that could help you add some more years to your canine’s life.