Dogs, leap years and things you’d probably rather not think too much about
Thursday, February 28th, 2008 by AaronI try not to think about philosophy or mathematics in the shower but sometimes, it’s inevitable. I was in the shower thinking about the story about babies born on Leap Year that I had to write for today when I started thinking about dog years.
If dogs age seven years for every year a human ages, and if Leap Years occur only every four years, how old would a dog born on Leap Year be?
It turns out that question is not nearly as confusing as it sounds once you work it out on paper.
• A boy or girl born on Feb. 29, 2000 would have aged eight years after celebrating their birthday on Friday but it would only be their second birthday.
• A dog born on March 1, 2000 would have aged 56 dog years by Friday.
• A dog born on Feb. 29, 2000 would have aged 56 dog years by Friday, but would only have celebrated 14 birthdays.
City editor Aaron Aupperlee called the Barstow Humane Society to verify this logic, and the worker there emphasized that the number of birthdays a dog has doesn’t change its biological age. She said the average dog lives for about 16 human years or about 102 dog years. Leap year dogs live for the same amount of time.
“Trying to cheat to make you younger doesn’t count, even for a dog,” she said.
Jason Smith — Staff Writer
