How Long Can you Expect your Dog to Live?

Now that we have a puppy at home, we have really become very interested in all that has to do with dogs. 

For instance, I recently bought the audiobook of "Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know", a fascinating book about dogs behaviour. In this book, the author (Alexandra Horowitz), shows us that though humans bond with their dogs closely, they're clueless when it comes to understanding what dogs perceive-leading her to the not-inconsequential notion that dogs know us better than we know them. 

Since we have Lola (our puppy's name), we are also trying to investigate other issues regarding dogs that we think are important.

Although it's a kind of morbid thing to think about it, we have been discussing the issue of life expectancy. Yes! We have asked ourselves the terrible question: How long is our dog going to live?

We know that smaller dog breeds usually live longer then larger dog breeds. Our dog is a Chocolate Labrador Retriever which means that she is a large breed. So, I decided to do a little research and found interesting data.

Life Expectancy of Most Popular Dog Breeds

(data obtained from: http://www.pets.ca/dogs/tips/tip-46-life-expectancy-in-dogs-how-long-will-my-dog-live/)

Afghan Hound (12.0)

Airedale Terrier (11.2)

Basset Hound (12.8)

Beagle (13.3)

Bearded Collie (12.3)

Bedlington Terrier (14.3)

Bernese Mountain Dog (7.0)

Border Collie (13.0)

Border Terrier (13.8)

Boxer (10.4)

Bull Terrier (12.9)

Bulldog (6.7)

Bullmastiff (8.6)

Cairn Terrier (13.2)

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (10.7)

Chihuahua (13.0)

Chow Chow (13.5)

Cocker Spaniel (12.5)

Corgi (11.3)

Dachshund (12.2)

Dalmatian (13.0)

Doberman Pinscher (9.8)

English Cocker Spaniel (11.8)

English Setter (11.2)

English Springer Spaniel (13.0)

English Toy Spaniel (10.1)

Flat-Coated Retriever (9.5)

German Shepherd (10.3)

German Shorthaired Pointer (12.3)

Golden Retriever (12.0)

Gordon Setter (11.3)

Great Dane (8.4)

Greyhound (13.2)

Irish Red and White Setter (12.9)

Irish Setter (11.8)

Irish Wolfhound (6.2)

Jack Russell Terrier (13.6)

Labrador Retriever (12.6)

Lurcher (12.6)

Miniature Dachshund (14.4)

Miniature Poodle (14.8)

Norfolk Terrier (10.0)

Old English Sheepdog (11.8)

Pekingese (13.3)

Random-bred / Mongrel (13.2)

Rhodesian Ridgeback (9.1)

Rottweiler (9.8)

Rough Collie (12.2)

Samoyed (11.0)

Scottish Deerhound (9.5)

Scottish Terrier (12.0)

Shetland Sheepdog (13.3)

Shih Tzu (13.4)

Staffordshire Bull Terrier (10.0)

Standard Poodle (12.0)

Tibetan Terrier (14.3)

Toy Poodle (14.4)

Viszla (12.5)

Weimaraner (10.0)

Welsh Springer Spaniel (11.5)

West Highland White Terrier (12.8)

Whippet (14.3)

Wire Fox Terrier (13.0)

Yorkshire Terrier (12.8)

Of course, keep in mind that there are exceptions to any rule. These are just average values.