There are exceptions to these general trends, and the findings may not apply to dogs outside Britain, where breeding practices – and gene pools – may be different, the researchers noted.
More research will be needed to determine why some breeds have shorter lifespans than others. Some breeds are genetically predisposed to serious health problems, but breed-related differences in behavior, lifestyle, diet, environment or other factors could also play a role in shortening some dogs’ lives, experts said.
“Now that we’ve identified these populations at risk of early death, we can start to look at why this is happening,” said Kirsten McMillan, author of the new study and data manager at Dogs Trust, a dog welfare charity in Britain. . which led the research. “This provides us with an opportunity to improve the lives of our dogs.”
The study is based on a database of 584,734 British dogs, which the researchers collected from breed registries, pet insurance companies, veterinary companies and other sources. These types of records, which may be prone to various biases, are not necessarily representative of Britain’s general dog population, the scientists acknowledged.
But Dr. Audrey Rapple, a veterinary epidemiologist at Virginia Tech who was not involved in the new study, said the researchers’ use of many different data sources was one of the study’s strengths. “I think this is a fantastic approach,” he said.
Most of the dogs were purebreds, representing one of 155 breeds. the rest were combined into a single cross-category. The researchers categorized each breed’s overall body size into small, medium, or large, and its head shape into flat-faced, medium-sized, or long-faced.
Across all dogs, the median lifespan was 12.5 years, the researchers found, but the median lifespan varied “quite dramatically” between breeds, Dr. McMillan said. Lancashire Heelers, a petite herding dog breed, were Methuselahs, living an average of 15.4 years. However, the much older Caucasian Shepherd Dogs had an average lifespan of just 5.4 years.
