Dogs Mortality (lifespan and causes of death)
The typical lifespan of dogs varies widely among breeds. Based on questionnaire surveys of owners in the UK, Denmark, USA, and Canada, the median longevity of most dog breeds is between 10 and 13 years. The breed with the dubious distinction of the shortest lifespan (among breeds for which there is a questionnaire survey with a reasonable sample size) is the Dogue de Bordeaux with a median longevity of about 5.2 years, but several breeds, including Miniature Bull Terrier, Bulldog, Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Bloodhound, Irish Wolfhound, Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, Great Dane, and Mastiff, are nearly as short-lived, with median longevities between 6 and 7 years. On the other end of the spectrum, the longest-lived breeds, including Toy Poodle, Border Terrier, Miniature Dachshund, Miniature Poodle, and Tibetan Spaniel, have median longevities between 14 and 15 years. The median longevity of mixed breed dogs (average of all sizes) is one or more years longer than that of purebred dogs (all breeds averaged). As a rule of thumb, small breeds are longer-lived than large breeds, but some of the longest lived large breeds have median longevities nearly as long as those of the shortest lived small breeds, and some of the breeds with the shortest longevities are medium-sized.
"Median longevity" refers to the age at which half the dogs in a population have died and half are still alive. Individual dogs, even in breeds with low median longevities, may live well beyond the median. The dog widely reported to be the longest-lived on record is "Bluey," purportedly born in 1910 in Australia. He died in 1939 at the age of 29.5 years. Bluey is usually identified as an Australian Cattle Dog, but the first Australian Cattle Dog breed standard was written in 1902, only eight years before Bluey’s birth. It is unclear how closely Bluey was related to the breed as it exists today. The Bluey record is anecdotal and unverified. The longest verified records are of dogs living to 24 years.
