# Calculating puppy age?



## GSDream (Jun 25, 2015)

I have a random question about how to calculate my puppy's exact age. It seems that dog ages are often referred to in weeks at first, with 4 weeks = 1 month.

So, when you bring the puppy home at 8 weeks, it's also considered to be 2 months old. I assume this is done because of their rapid growth and rate of change each week at that stage.

But if you calculate a month as a calendar month, say, from the 20th to the 20th, then the puppy's age works out a little differently 

For example, Meadow was born on 20 July 2015. In calendar months, that makes her 5 months and 17 days old today. But if I continue counting her age as 4 weeks = 1 month, then she's 24 weeks and 2 days, or 6 months and 2 days old today.

Not a massive difference, I know... I'm just curious as to how you all prefer to calculate the ages? Of course it gets easier after they've turned 1 year old; then everyone naturally uses the calendar year


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## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

For the most part I feel like weeks are only counted up until 16 weeks... after that it becomes months until about 18 months. of course you get a break at 12 months and get to say a year


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

GSDream said:


> I have a random question about how to calculate my puppy's exact age. It seems that dog ages are often referred to in weeks at first, with 4 weeks = 1 month.


Actually, since there are not exactly 28 days (4 weeks) in any month but February, a 4 week old puppy is not 1 month old.



> So, when you bring the puppy home at 8 weeks, it's also considered to be 2 months old.


Same here - 8 weeks is not two months, since most months are either 30 or 31 days long, and 8 weeks is 56 days. Two months (again, with the exception of February) would range from 60 to 62 days. 



> But if you calculate a month as a calendar month, say, from the 20th to the 20th, then the puppy's age works out a little differently


That would be the correct way to calculate months. If your puppy was born on the 20th, he'd be a month old on the 20th of the following month, and two months old on the 20th of the month after that. 

Whether you choose to keep track of your puppy's age by weeks or months is entirely up to you. But weeks are from the day of the week to the same day of the next week, and so on, and months are from the day of the month to the same day of the next month, and so on.


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## melissabrinkley74 (Dec 5, 2021)

So I have a question I have a German that is 30 weeks how old is he in months ?


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## LuvShepherds (May 27, 2012)

I figured it out mathematically. Right around 7 months. 30/52 x 12. Find the percentage of weeks in a year then multiply by the number of months in a year.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

melissabrinkley74 said:


> So I have a question I have a German that is 30 weeks how old is he in months ?


At work we use 4.3 weeks per month as an average. A 30 day month is 4.28 weeks and a 31 day month is 4.43 weeks. Only February is exactly 28 days, unless it’s a leap year. 

You can figure it out exactly by counting the number of days in the exact months and dividing by 7, if that’s important to you. You still may need to round it though.


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## LuvShepherds (May 27, 2012)

If you divide 30 by 4.3 you get very close to the same number I did. Around 6.9+ months.


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## drparker151 (Apr 10, 2020)

Until 6 months I went by weeks, after that I switched calendar months, so my girl will be 18 months on the 19th. At some point I'll switch to years.


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