I'm just wondering if there is any way to truly know a dogs age if you do not know when they were born? we are coming up to our 1yrs with the dogs and I know Sierra will turn 7 on march 3rd but am clueless as to how old Jack is, they were guessing 1-1.5yrs when we adopted him so not sure if I should just call him 2 or 3 when we comes to March when we adopted him, it's kind of sad not knowing his real birth date and age.

I heard you can sever a leg and count the rings.


We don't know Bubba's and Ridik's birthdays. What we did was round it up to the next year. It does suck not knowing the true date, but I don't think the dogs care when they get their birthday meals.

Personally, I think Jack would be maxing out at two years old in March. There was a lot of pup in that dog last time I saw him.

Typically when a veterinarian estimates an age on an animal it has to do with their oral health. There is no perfect mathematical equation, unfortunately, but it lies in the amount of dental tartar and wearing on the teeth. It is a very imperfect science due to the lack of history on most rescue dogs and is only truly accurate on the first 6-7 months of age. When a young dog is cutting its teeth there are very specific eruption dates for particular teeth that mark the age of the dog. After that though the age is calculated on the amount of dental tartar accumulated ( which is slightly inaccurate due to different diets affecting the amount, color etc.) and the wearing on the teeth( which is inaccurate due to the lack of history , if the dog was a chewer or if there was trauma to the teeth, etc.) and the stage of periodontal disease in the mouth (which can be inaccurate since some breeds are more prone to the disease than others and can affect the amount of tartar, calculus, and gingivitis on the teeth, furthering the difficulty in guessing an age). Like I said a very imperfect science, but its all we got.