Content
- How to tell a dog's age in human years
- How to tell a dog's age by teeth
- How to calculate the age of adult dogs
Dogs, like humans, also age faster than we do. What are the main signs of aging? How can I know how old a dog is if I don't know exactly when he was born? Especially in animals that have been adopted, this question is very common.
At PeritoAnimal we will help you so that you can answer this question. There are many obvious signs that allow us to know the age of a dog and here you will learn what they are.
How to tell a dog's age in human years
For years, many people have tried to calculate the dog's age in human years, but this is not a very reliable source to determine how old a dog is and it is not that useful to know how old the dog is if we don't know when was born.
What do we do if we want to celebrate our four-legged friend's birthday but we don't know how many candles to put on the cake? It is normal that it costs us a lot to know the exact age of the dog and, often, we ended up making mistakes thinking that because they have some white hair they are over 6 years old. Not all breeds age in the same way but there is one thing that never fails. Do you know what we are talking about?
How to tell a dog's age by teeth
That's what you read in the title... They are the teeth that reveal our age of the dog! In the case of puppies, it is even more important to know their age, as depending on their age we know if they should still drink milk or if they can already eat solid food. The best thing is to open his mouth, but there are other data that can help:
- From 7 to 15 days of life: At this stage the puppies do not have teeth. They are guided by stimuli through touch, as they still have their eyes and ears closed. They have several reflex or involuntary responses, originated only by stimulus. have the suck reflex which makes that, when we bring something close to their lips, they take it and press it as if it were a nipple, to get food. In case of anogenital reflex, the mother is in charge of activating it with licks. We can lightly touch the area of his anus to make sure he opens and closes it smoothly. O dig reflex that's when they push any surface looking for Mom's warmth and her tits.
- From 15 to 21 days of life: Upper incisors (there are 6) and canines (there are 2) of milk appear. In small breeds, it usually takes longer. In this step, dogs open their eyes and ears. The reflexes disappear and they start walking to play and look for food. They still drink milk, but teeth that didn't exist are already beginning to appear. There are no teeth until 15 days of life, when the incisors and canines of milk appear (between 15 and 21 days). Afterwards, the remaining ones grow and at 2 months of life they begin to change to the definitive dentition consisting of 42 pieces.
- From 21 to 31 days of life: lower incisors and jaw canines appear.
- From 1 month of life to 3 months: the baby teeth wear out. These teeth are thinner and squarer than the permanent ones, which will be more rounded until they begin to wear out.
- at 4 months: we observed the eruption of the definitive central incisors that will be present in both the mandible and the maxilla.
- Up to 8 months: permanent change of all incisors and canines.
- Up to 1 year of life: all permanent incisors will be born. They will be very white and with rounded edges, also called "fleur de lis". At this stage, all the definitive canines will also be present.
How to calculate the age of adult dogs
- From one and a half years of life to two and a half years: we can see a wear of the lower central incisors, which start to have a more square shape.
- From 3 to four and a half years old: We'll see that the 6 lower incisors are now square, mainly due to wear.
- From 4 to 6 years of life: the wear of the upper incisors will be evident. This phase corresponds to the years prior to old age.
- From 6 years of age: there will be more wear on all teeth, there will be a greater amount of bacterial plaque (known as tartar) and the canines will become more square and less sharp. It may also lose some teeth but this will mainly depend on the dog's diet and lifestyle. From this moment on, the dog prepares to enter old age, which begins around 7 years of age.
If, despite having read this article, you still cannot identify the age of your dog, whether it is an adult or a puppy, do not hesitate to visit your veterinarian reliable!
