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Lifespan in Dogs
by Carol Beuchat PhD


Data from - 
  • O'Neill DG, DB Church, PD McGreevy, PC Thomson & DC Brodbelt.  2013  Longevity and mortality of owned dogs in England.  Vet J 198: 638-643.

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Data from -
  • Adams VJ, DM Evans, J Sampson & JLN Wood  2010  Methods and mortality results of a health survey of purebred dogs in the UK. J Small Anim Pract 51: 512-524.
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Maximum Age

Download larger versions:
  • Maximum - alphabetic
  • Maximum - by age
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Median Age

Download larger versions:
  • Median age - alphabetic
  • Median age - by age
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Data from - 
  • Jones P, K Chase, A Martin, P Davern, EA Ostrander, & KG Lark  2008 Single-nucleotide-polymorphism-based association mapping of dog stereotypes.  Genetics 179: 1033-1044 (data from Supplementary Tables).

Download larger versions of these graphs -
  • Lifespan of breeds alphabetically
  • Lifespan of breeds by lifespan value
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Lifespan and size 
Smaller dogs live longer than large dogs.  This is a graph of the data above, plotted against the average weight of the breed (from Jones et al 2008).
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Another version of the graph above, using only the data in solid symbols (see legend of Fig 4 above), along with the regression equation for data (by Beuchat).  The regression in this graph corresponds to the solid line in the graph by Jones et al above.
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Data from -
  • Patronek GJ, DJ Waters & LT Glickman  1997  Comparative longevity of pet dogs and humans: implications for gerontology research.  J Gerontology: Biol Sci 52A: B171-B178.
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