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How to Improve the Lifespan of your Dog
Image by Capri23auto from Pixabay
We love our dogs, and we want them around longer… here's how to do it.
It's a sunny warm day, and you are walking through the forest with your 4-legged best friend on the end of your hands-free dog leash…
Life is good.
And you want to have these perfect days for as long as possible.
Unfortunately, humans live longer than dogs, and I wish that were not the case.
It is also a truth that dogs rely on us to look after their health and fitness.
So, it is the owner's responsibility to look after your dog to the best of your ability, to ensure it has a long and happy life.
How long do dogs live?
This mainly depends on the breed.
Generally, smaller dogs live longer than larger dogs.
Here are some examples of life expectancy:
Great Dane – 7 years
Bull Terrier – 10 years
Whippet – 13 years
Chihuahua – 15 years
However, like with humans, this isn't set in stone as they are just averages. A dog can live a lot longer than their breeds average, and sometimes they can live a lot shorter than the average, unfortunately.
Some things are just down to luck, but many of a dog's lifespan is down to how they have been looked after.
This means an owner has a huge role to play in how long their dog lives, or at least there are things you can do that increase the chances of your pooch living as long as possible.
So, what can you do to help your doggie live an awesomely long life? Here are some things to consider:
Diet
Humans often do not consider the impact of diet on their longevity, so there is an obesity epidemic in the western world. We are arguably as sick and as diseased as we have ever been.
Do you want to know which animals are in second place on the low health list?
It's our pets.
It is no surprise that our pets suffer a lot of the diseases and ailments we do. This is because we use many the same methods, productions, and processes in our pet's food as we do with our human food supply.
Dog Kibble uses relatively common ingredients, has arguably far too many carbohydrates, and is nothing like the type of food they would eat in the wild or as their ancestors ate.
Canines have evolved over millions of years and granted, we have had a lot to do with that in recent times. However, what hasn't changed is a dog's digestive system. All dogs have one stomach with a low acidic ph, and they have a low ratio of intestinal length to body length at 1:6. A sheep is 1:27 for comparison. All this means that dogs are highly carnivorous and digest meat and fish better than grains, vegetables, and fruit.
It has been shown that a dog fed a species-appropriate diet like the Prey Diet or BARF Diet can live upwards of 3 years longer. While this is highly speculative, it should make logical sense to you that feeding your dog food what it has evolved on and giving them the highest quality of those foods you can afford… would almost certainly help and is very unlikely to cause harm. Compared to dry and canned wet dog food made in factories and often from waste food that is leftover from human food processes.
Physical health
A fit and healthy dog will not live longer, but they have a significantly increased chance of living longer.
You are keeping your dog at an appropriate weight for their breed, which reduces the risk of obesity-related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, joint pain, and dental issues.
Even if this doesn't increase their lifespan, you will have increased their healthspan. By this, I mean that lifespan isn't the be-all and end-all. What is better for your dog living to 15 but they have spent the last four years on steroids and other medication for pain relief or living to 13 but they were running around like a puppy right up until the previous day before peacefully dying in their sleep?
We have already discussed how the diet would be an excellent way to keep a dog's weight under control, but they also require exercise. It would help if you exercised your doggo in a way that is appropriate to the breed. For example, a Husky can run for hundreds of miles pulling a sled, a Border Collie can herd sheep all day, but a greyhound only needs to sprint around a field for 5 minutes then is happy to sleep on the couch all day.
Therefore, you have to be mindful of what a dog needs before you buy or adopt them. If you love hiking mountains all day, then get a dog that can do that with you.
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Mental health
The adage "use it or lose it" is mainly applied to physical exercise but does not underestimate things' mental side.
You need to ensure a dog is mentally stimulated as well as physically. Canine Cognitive Dysfunction, aka Dog Dementia, can be more likely to occur in dogs that are not intellectually challenged enough.
Again, this depends on a dog's breed; some dogs need more mental stimulation than others. So please do some research into this and do your best.
You can do plenty of things regularly, for example, scent walks, pack walks, dog enclosure parks, dog meetups, agility games, hide the treat.
Prevention
Prevention is always better than a cure. The more health issues a pooch has in its life, the more wear and tear it will have, negatively affecting its lifespan.
So, you want them to have a few problems as possible in their lifetime. It may seem like the boring stuff, but it is how you look after them daily, which will have an accumulative effect. So, yes, feed them well, take them for walks and play games with them but you also need to take them for regular checks with the Vet, clean their teeth, groom them, keep their vaccinations up to date, keep a stable deworming strategy, and make sure they avoid ticks and fleas.
Keeping them safe and secure is also essential in a dog's lifespan, and a well-trained dog is less likely to get into trouble. For example, if you live in an inner-city, you should walk your dog in these areas on a lead/leash regardless of how well trained they are at walking to heel.
Hopefully, we have given you some things to think about here.
Dogs will love you, unconditionally, and they indeed are our best friends.
But this does give you a burden of trust.
Please do not take them for granted, do your very best to give them the best life possible. However long that may be.
