The Dog Breeds That Live the Longest (according to a new study)
The New York Times published an article on a new study that looked at the longevity of a large number of dog breeds, as well as mixed breed dogs. According to the study, longevity estimates were generally higher for small dogs over large, females over males, and dogs with prominent noses over flat-faced dogs. This was clearly evident in the breeds with the shortest average lifespans, which were the Mastiff, Cane Corso, Presa Canario, & the Caucasian Shepherd Dog. On the other end of the spectrum were the Shiba Inu, Papillon, & Havanese along with the a few rarer breeds, including the Lancashire Heeler, Tibetan Spaniel, & Bolognese. Interestingly, the study did not find that mixed breed dogs (which were categorized into a single group) have longer lifespans that purebred dogs, as has been found in previous studies.
The study was based on a database of nearly 600,000 British dogs from various sources including veterinary companies, breed registries, and others. The large sample size is likely to provide statistical results that are more representative of the general population. However, it is also expected that some of the data sources introduce bias into the study. For example, pet insurance companies, which were the source of 17% of the data, provide a valuable source of information. However, older dogs, as well as dogs with pre-existing conditions are less likely to be insured. Additionally, some pet owners are not able to afford to pet insurance, which could skew the results toward longer than average lifespans since those owners may be able to take more drastic (e.g. expensive) life saving measures.
The study authors do acknowledge this, and note that they attempted to account for this by using a variety of data sources, including those from rehoming and welfare charities. It's also important to recognize that the data is all U.K based and thus, may not reflect what we would find from a similar study in U.S. dogs. Still, the study provides important information about overall trends in lifespan across breeds and is certainly worth a look!
Click here to access the full study, which is currently free. You can see the full table of average lifespan by breed (alphabetically by breed) by going to the supplemental materials table below the references and opening Supplemental Table 3. If you prefer to see them listed by average lifespan, you can find a version of the table in the NYT article.