# How to increase the longevity of your dogs



## GandalfTheShepherd (May 1, 2017)

Hi all,
Been reading all these sad posts lately about young dogs passing way before their time, it's heart breaking! Personally I've had two
Shepherds in the past that also passed away much too young (not like it's never enough time anyways). For those of you that have had shepherds that lived past 10 years old what did you do? What did you feed? What supplements did you give? We love our pup so much, he is our best friend! I want to do
everything I can to give him the longest life. Currently he eats raw food, takes supplements, gets marrow bones, eggs every couple days, and gets plenty of daily exercise including lots of swimming during the warmer months. He was a very sick puppy and I wonder how this will effect his later years? 
Thanks!


----------



## Shooter (Nov 19, 2016)

GandalfTheShepherd said:


> Hi all,
> Been reading all these sad posts lately about young dogs passing way before their time, it's heart breaking! Personally I've had two
> Shepherds in the past that also passed away much too young (not like it's never enough time anyways). For those of you that have had shepherds that lived past 10 years old what did you do? What did you feed? What supplements did you give? We love our pup so much, he is our best friend! I want to do
> everything I can to give him the longest life. Currently he eats raw food, takes supplements, gets marrow bones, eggs every couple days, and gets plenty of daily exercise including lots of swimming during the warmer months. He was a very sick puppy and I wonder how this will effect his later years?
> Thanks!


Very good subject for a thread Gandalf. I am one who has suffered the loss of one too soon.


----------



## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Longevity is genetics and luck.


----------



## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

I think you're setting the bar too low at 10 years. I think getting them beyond 12 is very rare, so those are the dogs that are special.

My last one made 11 before cancer got him, and he started out life as a starved, emaciated adolescent, with pneumonia. 

We rotated good kibble for him (Prairie NV, Wysong, and many others), but he also ate a lot of fresh produce -- we pureed some veggies or fruit, and he stole snacks from trees and vines in the yard much of the year (figs, blackberries, apples, sour cherries, and guavas). 

I would say his challenges early in life didn't impact him late in life....except: his cancer was that the bone cancer hit him EXACTLY where there had been a pano lesion on an xray as a pup. It could be coincidence, but...no one knows.

I was just talking to a vet I love about GSD cancer this week, and she said to look at Nutrocept:
https://functionalnutriments.com/products/nutrocept/
The company has a parallel OTC product called EverPup that's about half the price. I'm not sure what the difference is. Their line is interesting because some of the ingredients are targeted to apoptosis (they also make Apocaps). The problem is the dang flax seed they use -- one of mine is allergic.

I also think environment matters for them, as for us. There are places in the U.S. where the expected lifespan _for people _is much shorter than in other areas -- compare Louisiana and Colorado! I would bet the dogs follow the same regional patterns. I also think exercise and body mass for them over a lifetime probably matters just as it does for us. The obesity trend for pets likely carries some statistical risk of shortening life spans.


----------



## Nurse Bishop (Nov 20, 2016)

I like the feeds of the Purina feed company. I trust the nutritional science behind them. I had a horse live to be 40 years old on Purina complete horse pellets, not old horse food covered with molasses, Purina 200 for breeding horses. Now I'm feeding Inga Purina 1 Large Breed after Purina 1 large breed puppy. She is healthy, lively, beautiful coat, eats every bit of her food with just a bit of hot water on it. Is available at grocery stores everywhere. Sure there is luck in the length of life of us all.


----------



## HHH (Dec 5, 2017)

Agree with Jax. Two of my GSD were 13 year and none of those got something special diet or supplement, neither when they were young or old. They was never skinny or fat, and had a normal activity.


----------



## Dunkirk (May 7, 2015)

I guess stress in a dog's life would be a longevity factor. Living in a peaceful environment versus a contentious household, and the temperament of the dog, highly strung versus chilled.


----------



## Thecowboysgirl (Nov 30, 2006)

I think I am on board with genetics and luck. 

I know an aussie breeder who has recently lost two dogs young-ish to cancer. She barely vaccinates, feeds raw with all the supplements. I'm talking like 10/11 years these dogs go. 

I lost my Florida ditch dog GSD mix to cancer at age 10. Other than the huge tumor, he was full of energy and life and did not act old at all. 

My girl is 11 now, and she is still enjoying her life very much. I am trying not to let a single day go by without appreciating her and trying to make sure she and I enjoy ourselves together, because I don't know how much longer she will be with me. My vet has said "oh she'll make fourteen or fifteen, easy". If a sneaky cancer doesn't get her, she just might.


----------



## dogfaeries (Feb 22, 2010)

I figured I’d have Sage until she was old, but in her case a freak infection got her when she just turned 5. When she was first diagnosed I asked my vet why this happened. He said “bad luck”. 

Scarlet’s grandmother is still frolicking around, and will be 12 in Feb. Her sight is going, and she’s a bit dotty, but she’s enjoying life. I hope Scarlet gets her longevity!


----------



## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

My goal in this life is to get mine to 15 plus, all of them. I know that might not be realistic but I keep that in my head at all times. I'm not a quitter....LOL. My oldest is 13(not a GSD but a 60 pound mix). One day she couldn't walk, I freaked out and thought oh no this can't be it. She eats good, asks to go out, has great hearing and sight plus APOLLO gets her playing quite often. Just those darn legs. I have never done so much research so fast in my life. I got her stabilized and just pray for the best.

For all of them..

I will never feed kibble again, vaccines are at a minimum, I've moved away from any flea treatment(I still give .3 ccs of ivermeticin for heartworm May-Oct every 45 days), I give filtered water, I no longer use chemicals to clean or wash clothes, no more candles or sprays(essential oils only) and I make sure they are not stressed and are exercised. They get Spirulina, bee pollen, colostrum, garlic and some get CBD oil. 

I can only hope for the best and I know I give it my best.


----------



## Nigel (Jul 10, 2012)

I've only had one not make it past 12 and had two live happily beyond 14. I didn't know any better and feed them whatever, even crappy fast food cheese burgers when we were on the go. My lab mix got bone cancer at the site of where he had broken his leg at 2. I thought the plate they had used may have been to blame, but who knows.


----------



## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

https://www.springtimeinc.com/product/longevity/All-Natural-Dog-Supplements

...not just a play on words, my dogs have done great on this.


----------



## tim_s_adams (Aug 9, 2017)

I've only had 2 dogs previously, myself personally. My family has raised dozens...big family, lots of dogs around always...mostly mixed breeds. 

But my dogs have always been GSD ( though the first was mixed with lab to some degree). All of them lived past 12, and none had any arthritis or GI or hip problems at 12. No cancer, no other health issues... What I can say is that I never "babied" any of them ever. Most lived outside a lot of the time, ate different food one week to the next, and all of them got way more exercise than I see people advocating for puppies now. Running miles per day, jumping way more than is commonly prescribed, and playing and interacting with other dogs and puppies. 

Maybe dogs are fine living in crates and being treated like tools, but in my mind they're so much more complex than that...

Most of the GSDs I have known in the past have made it beyond 15, some in better health than others, but the lifespans we're all seeing now to me is alarming! It's way different than I've been used to my whole life...

I think it's environmental, these short lifespans. But I also think that people always want more...more drive, more aggression, more focus...it's not healthy, or balanced, or right, but it does sell...


----------



## voodoolamb (Jun 21, 2015)

My last two crossed the bridge at 14 and 17. Both large breeds. The 17 year old was a Rott/GSD/Pit/Chow/? mix according to wisdom panel (for what ever that's worth)

Varied diet based primarily on whole fresh foods with some emphasis on "super foods", focus on hydration, lots of sunshine, no leashes, minimal vax/antibiotic usage, limited pesticide exposure, lots of love and luck.


----------



## Muskeg (Jun 15, 2012)

I do think it's mostly genetics and luck. 

If you are serious about longevity, the best studies I've seen show that living in a state of semi-starvation- eating very few calories- does extend life significantly. I'm not going to do that. I'd rather eat now and die at 90 vs 100. Since my dogs and I exercise together, we all have athletic body condition, but are not elite-marathoner skinny. I don't want to starve myself or my dogs to live a few extra years at the very end of my life. Quality vs. Quantity. 

I've yet to see any reliable studies showing that supplements make a difference. Not living near a super fund site (hard to do, check out a map) is a good plan if you can manage it. 

My female's sire is now a healthy 14 years old. For a larger dog, 88 lbs working weight, and a dog that titled to KNPV PH-1 (pretty demanding on the body), that's not bad at all. He looks good! I am hoping he passed that on to my girl, and his grandpups.


----------



## WIBackpacker (Jan 9, 2014)

I lost my (probable, exact mix unknown) GSD/BC at 14.5. She might have made it to her 15th birthday, but the time came to let her go. Blood tests were inconclusive, she wasn't in pain, but her body was starting to fail her. It might have been a cancer we couldn't pinpoint, it might have been something else, but by that time it wouldn't have made much difference.

She ate a basic kibble. Added fish oil capsules in her senior years. She got lots of exercise, traveled with the family, grew up with me. Nothing special. Standard vet care, spayed. She swam in the river and chased her football right up until her last summer.

Even though I can't prove or scientifically justify that it will make any difference, I have attempted to provide successive and current dogs with "cleaner" food, radically scaled back on chemicals used in my house (for my benefit as well as theirs), phased out a lot of plastic in favor of glass/stainless/wool, and I do add supplements to their food.

I won the genetic/luck lottery with my dog who lived that long, now I'm trying to stack the deck so that the rest of my dogs can stay with me as long as possible.


----------



## tim_s_adams (Aug 9, 2017)

Does anyone know if European GSD lifespans mirror the U.S.? Just curious...


----------



## Nigel (Jul 10, 2012)

tim_s_adams said:


> Does anyone know if European GSD lifespans mirror the U.S.? Just curious...


My wl male (5 yrs) and wgsl male (3 yrs) are both from imported parents. Hope to have an answer to this in about 12 years or so. :smile2:


----------



## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

Genetics are a big factor in determining life span. This is a big hobby-horse of mine. 

When I was young, the lifespan of a GSD was said to be about 12 to 13 years. Now I hear of popular studs dropping dead at 10 years of age, or even younger, and I hear owners saying they consider any years after 10 to be 'a gift'.

Now, I studied genetics at university. If you inbreed too closely with either plants or animals, the first thing that happens is you get a drop in fertility and longevity. 

Gee, ya think this MIGHT be what's happening with purebred dogs?

Fortunately, my show line girl is a total outcross (ASL/GSL) and at 10 years of age, is still very healthy and active, but if I go back and look at the German show line side of her pedigree, the same dogs pop up as many as 14 times in 7 generations. 

You will see similar intensive inbreeding with the American showline dogs. Here's an example...scroll down to read the comments, which come from a breeder who gave up on the American show line dogs, because so many were dying at a young age, or suffering from serious genetic health issues. If you look at the linebreeding on this dog, you will not see any common ancestry in 4 generations, but I've clicked on the icon to show the 7 generation linebreeding, which tells an entirely different story! YES IT DOES MATTER - it's called backmassing, and it DOES affect your dog's genetic makeup, when there are that many common ancestors in the 'back 40' of a pedigree! [Edit: you will have to click on the tab for linebreeding to see this for yourself.]

Karizma's Nicaragua

So, if you want your GSD to live to a ripe old age, avoid excessive inbreeding (line breeding) and pick a puppy whose parents and grandparents have live long, healthy lives.

One of the offspring of this dog belonged to someone I know, and he passed away recently at the age of 10. I am not surprised.


----------



## tim_s_adams (Aug 9, 2017)

Nigel said:


> My wl male (5 yrs) and wgsl male (3 yrs) are both from imported parents. Hope to have an answer to this in about 12 years or so. :smile2:


I've read lots of comments about how Europeans view and treat their dogs much differently than we typically do in the U.S., so I was thinking more about environment, nutrition and lifestyle for dogs living in Europe. Obviously this would not apply to imported dogs....

But I hope you're able to provide good news down the road still!


----------



## Muskeg (Jun 15, 2012)

Tim- Good question. I did some pretty extensive research on my malinois female's pedigree to see how long her relatives lived. Most are in Europe (Belgium/Netherlands) For those that were recorded, it seemed to mirror the US. Average age was from about 11 to as long as 17 years. 

Her paternal grand-sire died at just 11 (entire life in the Netherlands). Her father is still going strong at 14 (imported to US at around 4 years old). Her father's brother died at 13 (still in the Netherlands). Just got word on her maternal grand-dam, who was imported from the Netherlands to here, bred a few times, and found emaciated by AC. Horrible story. She is 12 years old now. Hope she finds a good home for her golden years.


----------



## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

Muskeg, is this the female (grand dam)

Horrible!:crying:

https://www.ksat.com/news/acs-looking-for-clues-after-emaciated-dog-with-mysterious-tattoo-rescued-from-home


----------



## Joys (Nov 6, 2017)

I’ll vote genetics. My lab lived over 17 years. I was on a budget and at times fed her generic dog food and all sorts of table scraps. 
She did get regular exercise, she loved to swim. That may have helped.


----------



## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

This explains the dangers of backmassing a lot better than my original post:

The Fable of Old Blue 
by C.A. Sharp editor of the "Double Helix Network News"


THE FABLE OF OLD BLUE Consider the hypothetical case of Old Blue, Malthound extraordinaire. Blue was perfect; sound, healthy and smart. On week days he retrieved malt balls from dawn to dusk. On weekends he sparkled in malt field and obedience trials as well as conformation shows, where he baited to - you guessed it- malt balls. 
Everybody had a good reason to breed to Blue, so everybody did. His descendants trotted in his paw-prints on down through their generations. Blue died full of years and full of honor. But what people didn't know was that Old Blue, good as he was, carried a few bad genes. They didn't affect him, nor the vast majority of his immediate descendants. To complicate the matter further, some of those bad genes were linked to genes for important Malthound traits. 

A few Malthounds with problems started showing up. They seemed isolated, so everyone assumed it was "just one of those things". A few declared them "no big deal". Those individuals usually had affected dogs. All in all, folks carried on as usual. 

Time passed. Old Blue had long since moldered in his grave. By now, everyone was having problems, from big ones like cataracts, epilepsy or thyroid disease to less specific things like poor-keepers, lack of mothering ability and short life-span. "Where can I go to get away from this?" breeders wondered. The answer was nowhere. 

People became angry. "The responsible parties should be punished!" Breeders who felt their programs might be implicated stonewalled. Some quietly decided to shoot, shovel and shut-up. A few brave souls stood up and admitted their dogs had a problem and were hounded out of the breed. 

The war waged on, with owners, breeders and rescue workers flinging accusations at each other. Meanwhile everybody carried on as always. After another decade or two the entire Malthound breed collapsed under the weight of its accumulated genetic debris and went extinct. 

This drastic little fable is an exaggeration--but not much of one. Here's similar, though a less drastic example from real life. There once was a "Quarter Horse stallion named Impressive. The name fit. He sired many foals who also exhibited his desired traits. But when they and their descendants were bred to each other, those offspring sometimes died. Impressive had been the carrier of a lethal single-gene recessive trait. No one knew it was there until they started inbreeding on him. The situation of a single sire having this kind of drastic genetic effect on a breed became known as the "Impressive Syndrome". 



Many species and breeds of domestic animals, including dogs, have suffered "impressive Syndromes" of their own. But cases like that of Impressive are only the tip of the iceberg. A single-gene recessive becomes obvious in just a few generations. But what about more complex traits? 

This is not to say that those popular sires we so admire are bad breeding prospects. Their many excellent traits should be utilized, but even the best of them has genes for negative traits.

The problem is not the popular sires, but how we use them. For a century or more, inbreeding has been the name of the game. (For purposes of this article, "inbreeding" refers to the breeding of dogs related to each other and therefore includes line-breeding.) By breeding related individuals, a breeder increases his odds of producing dogs homozygous for the traits he wanted. Homozygous individuals are much more likely to produce those traits in the next generation. 

When a male exhibits a number of positive traits and then proves his ability to produce those traits he may become a popular sire, one that is used by almost everyone breeding during his lifetime, and maybe beyond, thanks to frozen semen. 

Since the offspring and grand-offspring and so on are good, breeders start breeding them to each other. If the results continue to be good, additional back-crosses may be made for generations. Sometimes a sire will be so heavily used that, decades hence, breeders may not even be aware of how closely bred their animals are because the dog no longer appears on their pedigrees. 

This is the case in Australian Shepherds. Most show-line Aussies trace back, repeatedly, to one or both of two full brothers: Wildhagen's Dutchman of Flintridge and Fieldmaster of Flintridge. These, products of a program of inbreeding, were quality individuals and top producing sires. They are largely responsible for the over-all quality and uniformity we see in the breed ring today - a uniformity that did not exit before their birth nearly three decades ago. 

Working lines have also seen prominent sires, but performance traits are far more complex, genetically and because of the significant impact of environment. They are therefore harder to fix. Performance breeders will in-breed, but are more likely to stress behavioral traits and general soundness than pedigree and conformational minutiae. The best working sires rarely become as ubiquitous as the best show-line sires. Not every popular sire becomes so because of his ability to produce quality offspring. Some have won major events or are owned by individuals with a knack for promotion. Such dogs may prove to be wash-outs once their get is old enough to evaluate. But a lot of breeders have been using the animal for the few years it takes to figure that out and the damage may already have been done. 

Use of even the best popular sires, by its very nature, limits the frequency of some in the breed gene pool while simultaneously increasing the frequency of others. Since sons and grandsons of popular sires tend to become popular sires the trend continues, resulting in further decrease and even extinction of some genes while others become homozygous throughout the breed. Some of these traits will be positive, but not all of them. 

The owners of Old Blue, the Malthound in the opening fable, and those who owned his most immediate descendants had no idea what was happening under their noses. They were delighted to have superior studs and even more delighted to breed them to as many good bitches as possible. 

Dog breeding and promoting is an expensive proposition. One usually winds up in the hole. But owning a popular sire can change that. The situation looks like a winner for everyone--the stud owner finds his financial burden reduced while breeders far and wide get to partake of his dog's golden genes. 

No one breeding dogs wants to produce sick dogs. A small minority are callous and short-sighted enough to shrug genetic problems off as the price you pay to get winners, but even they do their best to avoid letting it come to general attention. We need a total re-thinking of how we utilize stud animals. No single dog, no matter how superior, should dominate the gene pool of its breed. Owners of such sires should give serious consideration to limiting how often that dog is used, annually, through its lifetime and on into the future, if frozen semen is stored. The stud owner should also look not only at the quality of the bitches being presented, but their pedigrees. How much will the level of inbreeding be increased by a particular mating? 

The bitch owner also needs to think twice about popular sires. If you breed to the stud of the moment and everyone else is doing the same, where will you go when it comes time to make an outcross? 

Finally, the attitude toward genetic disease itself has to change. It must cease being everyone's dirty little secret. It must cease being a brick with which we bludgeon those with the honesty to admit it happened to them. It must become a topic of open, reasoned discussion so owner of stud and bitch alike can make informed breeding decisions. Unless breeders and owners re-think their long-term goals and how they react to hereditary problems, the situation will only get worse. ________________________________________ 
C.A. Sharp is the editor of the "Double Helix Network News". This article was printed with permission and may be reprinted provided it is not altered and appropriate credit is given.


----------



## Armistice (Oct 12, 2017)

I'm glad this thread was started to shed some insight. I see too many forumers who are making posts about their GSDs leaving us at 3-6yrs old. I just can't believe how often it happens

My thought is genetics and luck

I've heard of healthy, active people drop at 50yrs old. I've seen heavy smokers live well into 80-90s. My dad's side has a history of cardiac problems. I know I need to keep in shape when I'm older to stave it off

My family's yellow lab mix was 12 when we had to put her down. She was having a lot of trouble getting up and incontinence for about a year then she started to drop weight quickly and getting worse and we knew the time was coming so decided to let her go. We fed her cheap Pedigree and Alpo from PetSmart as well as some food left overs. She still had lots of energy up until that last year

My in-law's last border collie was put down due to a tumor in her nose around 8yo. However, the black lab/ Aussie shepherd mix they had before the BC is still going at 15. They've been feeding their dogs Costco brand food for decades as well as other food left overs


----------



## car2ner (Apr 9, 2014)

tim_s_adams said:


> Does anyone know if European GSD lifespans mirror the U.S.? Just curious...


My boy's sire passed at age 11 and as far as I know his mother is still alive. She was recently retired and adopted out to a new home. I think she is 8. The father was from Belgium, the mother from Germany.


----------



## GandalfTheShepherd (May 1, 2017)

Does the pedigree database tell you how old their ancestors are? When they passed away? What they passed away from? I'm curious if it doesn't why this isn't changing and becoming more of a priority.... I've tried looking it up without success and instead tried contacting the breeders of my pups ancestors and a few did get back to us (lots of very interesting stories too!). We met his grandparents and they both seemed very healthy at 12 years old.


----------



## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

Gandalf, that information is very hard to find. Since the PDB depends on the owners of dogs, or those researching their dogs' pedigrees to input the information, it's not always possible to find this sort of information. Rules have gotten more strict lately, but still some owners can't be bothered to put in anything more than their dog's name, sex and registration number. 

If you see anything more than that, it usually means one of the pedigree moderators has added it, or someone like myself who enjoys working with pedigrees.

The GSDCA does recognize dogs that have made it to 12 years or beyond, but it doesn't seem that the list of dogs is available to the public.

https://gsdca.org/german-shepherd-dogs/the-13-club


----------



## Jenny720 (Nov 21, 2014)

I agree with genetics with luck or fate thrown in the mix. Ironically the mixed breed dogs I had growing up did not make it past 8 years old- due to one with kidney disease, car accident , and heart attack during thunder storm. 
Our poodle died young for a little dog he was around 12 or so- he had a stroke and back issues- we never knew how old he was we found him with a chewed off tail in the street. My collie lived till 13 years old she passed away in my arms due to natural causes it was sudden was not feeling right her last day. We had american eskimos a smaller breed lived to 16-17 years old.

My first dog living on my own was a gsd who we got when he was 2 years old lived till 12. We had to put him to sleep due to arthritis. My King Charles cavalier lived till 9 years old due to heart problems died in her sleep. I hear chihuahuas are the healthiest of breeds not sure how true that is. I always know german Shepherd had hip issues did not all the other health issues they have. I don’t know what I would do without my dogs its Hard to think about.


----------

