How old is Slobbermouth ?

In Sept 2004, I walked into Petsmart, and one of the local rescue groups was there with some dogs. One dog in particular caught my attention, he was listed as a 3YO black lab mix, he was about 50lbs. and sort of tall. She had just pulled him from a kill shelter the night before in Western Illinois, where he'd been found wandering, no collar, no chip, and no one claimed or adopted him, so he was going to be put down. He was super friendly, but very gaunt, and his coat was dull. His teeth were coated with gunk.

I looked at him, he had been dew clawed, and he had enormous feet. Something told me that this dog wasn't quite as "advertised", and a call was made to the husband, who came and was quickly smitten with this dog.

A trip was made to the vet that same day, she agreed with me that he was probably about 10 months old, most likely all lab, and that he would grow into those enormous feet. A quick tooth brushing, his teeth cleaned right up. He is now a very tall, 85lb lap dog.


I also had a coworker who adopted what she thought, and had been told, was a young adult Beagle. Turned out he was a young Treeing Walker Coonhound. oops!

It's pretty straight forward estimating age in a dog or cat over 8-12 weeks and under a year as there is a progression and age of tooth eruption that is consistent (with a little variation in toy breeds - they tend to be slower).

Then it's easy to identify a geriatric mouth, but again that varies by breed, dental care during their life, life style and diet.

The hardest age to estimate is 1-7 (or to late adult - later in some breeds).

Sometimes the best you can do is say young, middle age, old and really old.

Doug, DVM

raindove wrote:
No way to know for sure. I had a rescue dog once - one vet said over 7 yrs - another vet said young adult. Dog had good teeth but really cloudy eyes - so we either had an old dog with good teeth or a younger dog with bad eyes.

If you got her in 2004, she's over 10 yrs for sure. :B

Yep, even vets don't always know. Several years ago we took in a stray. When we moved to another area and found a new vet, we explained to him that we don't know the true age of the dog.
The vet checked him over and said, 'about three years'.
We had the dog over eight years at that point.

If she continued to grow, you're certainly within a few months of her birthday with your estimate. Dogs will get most of their size the first year but may add a little size and certainly will fill out in their second.

Having an opportunity to guess, an taking a chance at that guess, is better then not guessing at all. Is what I was told.

Anonymous

No way to know for sure. I had a rescue dog once - one vet said over 7 yrs - another vet said young adult. Dog had good teeth but really cloudy eyes - so we either had an old dog with good teeth or a younger dog with bad eyes.

If you got her in 2004, she's over 10 yrs for sure. :B

I have no idea of how old my baby girl is other than a guess from my vet. I gave the day in November that she found me as her birth date:)

Good guess........
Puppies reach adult height between 10-14 months

She was at full height when you got her so 10 July 2003 would have been 10 months and 10 March 2003 would have been 14 months prior to 10 May 2004.

So she is either 13 yrs. 10 mos. old (Mar. 03 date) or 13 yrs. 6 mos. old (July '03 date) tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Slobbermouth!

I don't think there's any way anyone can make a helpful guess over the internet.

What did your vet estimate her age to be at the time of adoption? That's likely to be the most accurate.

I know it's kind of frustrating sometimes to not *really* know.