a dog's age

[debbiej]

we frequently puzzle over Boris' age. he looks and acts so puppy-ish sometimes. when we got him his teeth looked like the teeth of an older dog. now after better food and nylabones they look as nice a Hilda's. someone told me a dog wouldn't get as well muscled as he is before two years. Is that true? the vet's office put his age at 18 months on his records, but I didn't talk to her about why. I wish I knew his age....or how to guess at it.

[JJsRiley]

from what I've heard vets can tell their age by looking at their teeth.

[JDUCE]

Could you cut him open and count the rings????

I would think a vet could give an estimate by the teeth. . .but your right, how much does teeth condition play a role. I will wait for someone with more knowledge to weigh in.

[sophie's-mom]

I spoke with a vet once about the practice of being able to tell age by teeth and this is what he told me.

It isn't a way to guess their AGE but if their adult teeth have already come in you can pretty much guess that they are older than 6 months even if they still look like a PUPPY!

On older dogs there is no real way to tell; too many factors play a part. You can guess that a dog with really worn teeth is quite old but a young kenneled dog can have worn teeth if they chew the cage, or if a dog is given a lot of bones to chew they will also have worn teeth.

Tarter can build up VERY quickly on some dogs teeth. So not any real luck there.

Basically what he said was, “a vet’s guess on age is just that, a GUESS.”

[HerculesMomma]

Originally Posted by JDUCE

Could you cut him open and count the rings????

Snort, chuckle, chuckle, snort Too funny!

I too wish I knew. Even with mine being an owner turn in, the only thing I had to go on was that at the time of his rabies in September 2003 he was down as 2 years old, but they don't put the exact birth date etc. He could have been closer to 3 years old then for all I know.

[frontierrots]

Here you go

http://www.rottweiler.net/forums/sho...&highlight=age