How To Tell How Old a Dog is ? Four Stages Of Canine Age

How to tell how old a dog is?

There is no any hard and fast rule for dogs, as they are as individual as the people, for what they do and when will they do? You can not expect anything from them.

To get devotion and adoration, you need to treat them with kindness love respect. To treat them well and care them you need to know the age of dogs because there are certain changes with age in them you need to take care of.

Mainly there are four stages of Dog’s life where from you can guess their age along with several other methods which will be discussed in this article.

Four Stages of Dog’s Age

• Puppy
• Adolescence
• Adulthood
• Senior most

How to Guess the Age of Puppy?

With the appearance of some physical characteristics which generally come up with age, one can guess the age of a puppy. These features with their appearing age :

Age in-between Two to Five weeks.

New babies remain toothless eyes closed up to two weeks.  These two features are more enough to predict the age of the baby to be less than two weeks. In this age puppy the only root, suck and sleep.

When babies become three weeks old, they open their eyes but till now they have very poor vision and still are toothless. At this age, they seem to be exploring the Surroundings.

Age in-between Five to Eight weeks.

Similar to human beings, dogs two teeth pairs. First set baby teeth or milk teeth begin erupting during earlier 2 months. these are stinging and pointed teeth. At this age puppies mostly have playing, exploring and chewing activities most of the time.

Age in-between Eight to Sixteen weeks.

At this age, puppies will grow deciduous teeth. A growth of face and jaws will increase space between these teeth. With time these teeth seem to smaller this is because the puppy will grow bigger with all other features except growth in these teeth.

Age in-between Sixteen weeks to Eight months.

By now falling of milk teeth starts. These baby teeth are Substituted by permanent teeth.  First of all, incisors begin to fall and regenerate in this process. During this time puppy, you will see sometimes blood in puppy’s mouth with a bloody smell in a breath.

When does the Puppy age end?

Puppy age ends up between 6 months to 18 months. During this reign, the puppy is almost grown up with most the features. Puppy is reached to its max height in most of the breeds except some.

How to know the age of the dog in the adult stage?

Most breeds of dogs at the age of 2 to 3 years are thought to be completely mature. This stage is known as adult age. We can see the aging sign as well as the gingivitis during this period. To predict the adult age of dogs, the most prominent changes that come in dogs are :

• Playfulness
• Curiosity / fearlessness
• Chasing of proneness
• Sociability
• Aggressiveness .

How to tell how old a dog is in human years?

Among some other rules to calculate the age of dos, the most popular and thought to be more accurate is 1 dog year is equivalent to 7 human ones. This rule is being followed since the 1950s.

This formula was very surprising at first, but through evidence, it was proved to be the best way to calculate the age of dog as compared with human years.

The American veterinary medical association breaks it down for general guideline as

• 1 The first year of dogs of medium size is equal to 15 human years.
• 2 The second year of dogs is equal to 9 human years.
• After which, each dog year is considered to be equal to 5 human years.

This all is because dogs mature faster than humans, but when they reach to twenties its growth is reduced.

How to tell how old a dog is by looking at their teeth?

In puppies the first year, teeth start developing, and teeth development is approximately tied to the age of the puppy hence observing teeth you can tell the age for this you need to remember these key points

• Puppies teeth just start pushing through gums when he is 1 month old.
• At the age of 5 months, the dog will have a full set of teeth near the front of the mouth.
• Ridges or bumps on both front teeth can only be seen when the dog is 1 year old.
• With changing, age ridges of 4 incisors change at the age 3 0r 4 dogs only will have some ridges.
• At the age of 7 dogs have completely smooth incisors

How to tell how old the dog is by looking in eyes?

If while examining dog feel that the dog along with smooth teeth and low energy aging signs then cataracts will confirm your dog to be older than 7 years. However some time some dogs develop cataracts due to genetic reasons.

How to tell the age of Dog by examining fur?

With other factors like teeth and eyes, fur can also help to determine the age of a dog. In most of the breeds, fur is changed in color to be gray as they passed the age of five.