Dogs see a steady decline in quality of life once they hit their expected lifespan. A dog is expected to have a score of 5.95 using a new system, with a score under 5.35 at a higher risk of death. Dogs’ quality of life dropped by 0.05 points each month after they reach their expected lifespan.

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0301181

From the linked article:

Dogs see a steady decline in quality of life once they hit their expected lifespan, according to international researchers who say understanding how dogs age is increasingly important as veterinary medicine improves. The team developed a system that allowed dog owners to measure their dog’s quality of life giving them a score out of seven, and followed the scores of 34 dogs over time once they reached their expected lifespan. They say using their system, a dog is expected to have a score of 5.95, with dogs who score under 5.35 at a higher risk of death. During the study, the dogs’ quality of life dropped by 0.05 points each month, which the researchers say gives us an understanding of what normal ageing looks like in a dog so we can better pick up when something is wrong.

This is really interesting! I’ve only skimmed the study so this may have been addressed, but I wonder how different it’d be if the answers had to be given by >1 owner (in a multi person household). I suspect as pets reach their old age, some owners might not notice a drop in QoL due to slow and steady decreases, or potentially be in denial about a QoL drop. And on the other hand, you might see things like owner fatigue or anxiety come through in the answers as their pet ages.