telling age of a dog?

Cahill

Cahill

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can you tell the age of a dog? (like you can with horses teeth) ?

i have looked on some rescue sites and they tell you the age of the dog,this is ok if they have the history of the animal but i have seen some where they have no history of the dog and put the age.are they just guessing?

thanks.
 
Yeah its the same with horses, checking teeth can give a good indication of age, would just be a guestimate but at least people have an idea of the age of the animal. Looking at the animal overall can help too, coat condition/colour - any greying etc. xx
 
You can estimate but as far as I am aware there is not an accurate way of ageing a dog, certainly not just on appearance, perhaps blood tests would give an indication, I'm not sure. Wear on teeth can be a clue, but some young dogs that chew stones can have very blunt teeth, just as some old dogs can have gleaming white teeth that look as if they belong to a much younger dog. Grey muzzles aren't an indication imo, I have had dogs that have gone quite grey round their muzzle at 3 or 4 years, and others at 10 and 11 who have hardly a white hair.
In a lot of cases I think they are just guessing, and they should make it clear to prospective new owners that they are not sure of a dogs age. Another bugbear of mine is when they refer to a dog as e.g. GSD cross, when in actual fact they have had the dog brought in as a stray and have no idea what its breeding is.
 
There are some "rescues" that label lots of dogs as 3-4 years old as it is easier to find adopters than if they listed them as 8-9 or age unknown.

No way to tell accurately and even with a familiar breed & a strain within that breed it is only possible to guestimate- young , young adult, full grown, middle aged senior, elderly.

I have a dog here for rehoming at the moment and know his exact age. If I took five years off that no one would doubt me. ( & the homecheck on Sat went ok so he goes tomorrow)
 
I don't think there's really an accurate way, just guestimates. If it's a stray, sometimes it might have the DOB logged on the chip even if they can't trace it back to an owner.
 
It used to be the more tartar they had on their teeth the older they were. Now with all this raw feeding and pearly white teeth I imagine it is very difficult to tell
 
It is difficult to estimate the age of a dog using its teeth.....some level of experience will allow you guesstimate but it is not precise at all!My lab if judged by her teeth could come in as a young dog she has lovely teeth-very little tartar and little wear :D shes 11 and a half! In general is just guesstimation unless your talking about a young dog versus pup.

Cattle sheep and horses are all possible to work out a estimated age due to eruption times of the teeth, and as horses have a different type of teeth and constant eruption means that levels of wear can be seen and associated with ages. Its not presise either but a lot more reliable and recognised compared to dogs...
 
just an after-thought,do any of you use doggy toothbrushes and paste? (on your doggies, of course)
 
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