How to know the age of a dog?

Animals, like us humans, also age and do so more quickly than we do. What are the most noticeable signs of the passage of time? How can I know how old a dog is if I don’t know exactly when he was born? This question is very common in adopted animals best family pets.

At ExpertoAnimal we want to help you so that you can answer this question yourself, without having to go to a veterinarian. There are very noticeable signs that allow us to know how to know the age of a dog and here we will tell you about them.

Is a dog year equivalent to 7 human years?
For years, many people tried to find out the age of the dog in human years , however, it is not a reliable source to determine the degree of old age of the dog and it is not useful to know its age if we do not know it.

What happens if we want to celebrate their birthday but we don’t know what number to put on the cake? It is common for us to have a hard time knowing the exact age and, sometimes, we mistakenly think that, because the dog has gray hair, it is over 6 years old. Not all races age in the same way, but there is one detail that can never lie to us. Do you know what we are talking about?

How to know the age of a puppy
We will start by highlighting that it is the teeth that will reveal the age of our dog. However, in the case of puppies it is even more important to know their age, even more than in adults, since depending on it we will know if they should drink milk or if they already eat solid food. The best thing is to open your mouth, but there are other pieces of information that will help us:

• From 7 to 15 days of life: At this stage the puppies do not have teeth. They are guided by tactile stimuli since their eyes and ears are still closed. At this stage they have several reflex or involuntary responses, pure stimulation. We will have the sucking reflex that, when we bring something close to their lips, they will grab it and press it as if it were a breast to obtain food. In the case of the perineal reflex, the mother would be in charge of activating it by licking, but we can give them small taps on the anus to see that they close and open it without problems and, the excavation reflex where they push any surface seeking the heat of their mother and her mothers.
• From 15 to 21 days of life: Upper incisors (there are 6) and baby fangs (there are 2) appear. In small breeds they usually take longer. At this stage the eyes and ears open. The reflexes disappear and they walk, looking for mischief and food. They will still drink milk but teeth that had not yet appeared are beginning to appear.
• We will have no teeth until we are 15 days old, at which time the temporary or baby incisors and canines appear (between 15 and 21 days). Then the remaining ones evolve and after months of life they will change to the definitive ones, which are 42 pieces.
• From 21 to 30 days of life : the lower incisors and fangs of the jaw appear.
• From one month of age to 3 months: here the wear of the baby teeth or grinding occurs. Remember that baby teeth are thinner and more square than permanent teeth, which will be somewhat more rounded until they are shaved or worn down.
• At 4 months: we will observe the eruption of the permanent central incisors, and they will be present in both jaws.
• Up to 8 months: definitive change of all incisors and fangs.
• Up to one year of life: all the permanent incisors have already emerged. They will be very white and with rounded edges or “fleur de lis” as they are known. The final fangs are also already found.

How to know the age of an adult dog

• From one and a half years of age to two and a half years: We can see wear or grinding of the lower central incisors, which will begin to show a more square shape.
• From 3 to four and a half years: we will notice that the 6 lower incisors will become square, mainly due to wear.
• From 5 to 6 years of life: the wear of the upper incisors due to grinding will be evident, ours is in the years prior to old age.
• From 6 years of age onwards: greater wear and tear of all the teeth will be observed, there is more tartar and the fangs also become more square than pointed. They can also lose pieces, but it will depend on our dog’s diet and the lifestyle he leads. From this moment on, the dog prepares to enter its stage of old age, which begins at 7 years of age.

If, despite reading this article, you still do not know how to identify the age of your dog, whether adult or puppy, do not hesitate to go to your trusted veterinarian.