Umm...FTA "Kraus and her colleagues Samuel Pavard and Daniel Promislow detailed their findings in the April issue of the journal American Naturalist."

Just an idea, but maybe they want people who are interested, to buy the magazine to get specifics.

Why not spend your time reading journals with the factual information you must desire? These articles, quite frankly, are for entertainment purposes, not so much for practical purposes. Articles from this form of media are usually only used as a means to scratch the surface of a subject otherwise it becomes a time consuming piece primarily researched for journal material. If you are looking for a more in-depth piece consider your local college where you can go beyond this article's capacity.

consider if the dogs live in a city a big dog would not get much exercise but to a small dog the house would be a large place for running around.

Breaking news!

No people taller than 7 feet live past 80, most centenarians are 5ft +.

all dogs are awesome know matter what size

I was thinking the same thing; right after reading it I thought "I didn't learn anything from this article" and I really wanted too, lol

@Bobster, I can only image what your ars looks like. Did that make you feel better? PFFT Can't Fix Stupid.

Having a 9 yr old collie-German shepherd cross of about 75 lbs, I wanted to have information that might help me keep him alive longer. Sure didn't get it here. (info aside from getting him 2-6 miles exercise/day, keeping him trim, giving him soft beds in every room, good food, fish oil caps, etc.)

Atheist, you must have no indepent thinking ability if you imply that the editor forced you to read the article. Each of us willingly clicks the articles we want to read. So you yourself are to blame for wasting your time.

Rachel, I had a German Shepherd that lived for 13 years. He got a lot of exercise in his prime chasing jackrabbits out in open West Texas fields and I always fed him the best dog food I could find. Near the end he had heart problems and lived with pannus on both corneas; eventually the pannus blinded him even with aggressive treatment. I've had many dogs over the years, but overall he was the best dog I've ever had. I still miss him.

Lemme guess, little dogs live longer than big dogs because big dogs like to get into big fights and get their tails handed to them...Well, ya dont live long gettin into neighborhood brawls these days...too many dogs with guns

Well, cr@p! I take the time to respond, and my computer ate it!

Rachel, like inMYday, I feed my German Shepherd the best food I can find. I've had several German Shepherds over my lifetime, and an Akita, and a Sheltie. Whole Dog Journal comes out with a dog food list every year that is excellent. I am also very particular about the treats I give my dogs--most are homemade.

And i'ts really important, these days, to avoid any food or treats with even one ingredient from China.

bobster, in case you've ever wondered, it is because of people like you that the GOP is regarded as the "Stupid Party".

We put down our Maggie, a golden ret-yellow lab mix in October. Wonderful dog, she was a large dog and lived to be 15 years old with a lots of love & luck. At 9 she suffered from ITP blood disorder. Most would have put her down then, but 3 blood fusions, a year of prednisone, she made it through. Than Sept 2011, we were told she had osteoporosis in her back leg and a mass in her lung. We took her home, made her comfortable and was told she will tell you when its time and she lasted a year. No chemo, just food we ate, she ate and up until the second to the last day she was going outside up and down 5 steps. My vet was thrilled - she was amazed that she lasted so long. My dog lasted longer than my mother-in-laws tiny dogs at 11.

I think if you love a large dog get a large dog, don't think way into the future whether it lasts 7 years or 15. Dogs & cats give you so much joy that the inevitable should never be part of the equation.

We own 7 dogs:

1. Female Yorkie - 10 lbs. will turn 10 yrs old this month. Owned since a pup (AKC registered pure breed). Still runs around like a maniac & acts like she is only 1 yrs. old.

2. Male Alaskan Malamute - 197 lbs. 31"+ at the withers, 9.5 yrs. old (will be 10 in July). Best dog I've ever owned. Definitely an Alpha male & the leader. (AKC registered pure breed)

He would be considered a giant Mal, though there really isn't any such thing (just comes from the larger bloodlines some breeders use). Very long large frame, huge head/legs/paws. Carries the weight well & doesn't look over weight. Though ideal weight for him would be 150 lbs. - 160 lbs. range.

Unfortunately, he has had hip dysplasia his whole life (since he was 10 months old). The breeder traced it back to my dog's sire & took that sire out of her breeding program back when we first notified her of what we found.

Needless to say now at his age, 9+, the HD keeps him from getting around too well so getting him to loose any weight is impossible.

3. Male Siberian Husky - 75 lbs, 8+ yrs. old (stray we took in back in 2005)

4. Male Great Pyrenees - 115 lbs., 5 yrs. old, 32"+ at the withers, bought as a pup from a large goat farm where the owner breeds Pyrenees on the side for livestock guardians

5. Male Great Pyrenees - 145 lbs., 5 yrs. old, 31"+ at the withers, litter mate of # 4

Planned on only buying 1 but once we put him in the car the brother started to whine & so we had to buy the brother too. I know we're suckers!

Even though they are litter mates they are very different. One is taller/long/lanky & the other more compact/stockier/heavier/ & temperamental.

6. Female Pomeranian - 17 lbs. approx. 4+ years old (stray we took in 3 years ago)

7. Female Chow - 74 lbs., 5 yrs. old. Former clients dog that we took in when she had to find her a new home

All of them except #1 & # 4 could lose some pounds. All are fed great food & very few treats. They just don't get as much exercise as they should.

Our dogs are able to get more exercise if they choose to since we own an all day-all play dog boarding facility & there are always tons of dogs to play with. They're just at that age where they enjoy sleeping more than running around & playing.

I have a friend whose female Malamute lived to be 18 years old (very unusual). I doubt my big guy will make it that long but I hope he is around for a several more years at least. Mals in general, especially 200 lbs. ones, don't usually live much past 12.

Don't let anyone tell you that you can't have very small & very large dogs living together in peace in the same house. Yes, they're are all spoiled house dogs & they run this place. We're at their service.

Humans who are unusually tall have a shorter life expectancy than humans who are average height. A major reason is the fact that their hearts have to work harder to push blood through more miles of arteries and to force blood upwardly a greater distance against gravity. Their hearts just wear out sooner than for the average person. Google it.

So you yourself are to blame for wasting your time.

Not true, BW-267706. Just like most of us, Atheist clicked on the article with the expectation that he would learn something from it. There is no way that he could have known beforehand that the article is useless and uninformative. What else can we expect from NBCNews.com except poorly written articles containing trivia? I'd change news sources in the blink of an eye if I could find a good, unbiased, well-written, on-line newspaper.

...it is because of people like you that the GOP is regarded as the "Stupid Party".

Wrong, Gumps. It's the Democratic party that is perceived as being uneducated and ignorant because so many Dems are doing nothing with their lives except sitting on their butts collecting welfare and expecting the government to hold their hands from cradle to coffin.

Oh scales, you could have taken the high road there and not gotten nasty, but you just had to, didn't you? You are wrong statistically, but don't let that stop you.

It's the Democratic party that is perceived as being uneducated and ignorant because so many Dems are doing nothing with their lives except sitting on their butts collecting welfare and expecting the government to hold their hands from cradle to coffin.

And where did you get that notion? Methinks you've been overdosing on Rush Limbaugh.

Hey Scott,

SA doesn't report on fashion news. Feel free to attack specific ideas of mine, but general lobs of being uncomfortable or offended are not the typical attributes of those I know who are interested in facts over comfort.

This article sucked. Perhaps the report coming out in April will be better.

Lastly, do you have evidence that my comments are giving you a bad reputation? I get private emails all the time from folks thanking me for different points of view. Why are you so worried about me affecting your reputation? Anyone judging you based on my words shouldn't merit one second of your time.

You write as though you still have residual effects of faith-talk.

Atheist, your statement, "This article sucked. Perhaps the report coming out in April will be better" actually makes Scott's point for him. This article was not *intended* to be better than the April report will be. It's neither a scientific article nor printed in a scientific publication; therefore, sadly, it probably was destined to fail to achieve your stellar standards.

Maybe if you limit yourself to reading only your beloved "SA," you can become a happier person.

I just know I am going to regret this but ...... why would the meal portions have a bearing in an article about life span?

I grew up regularly seeing people with German shepherds and Alaskan malamutes that lived 14-20 years. They were fed human food and raw meat that either they killed or their owners gave them. I feed my dogs dog food but I try to give them raw as well and plenty of exercise. My dogs are lab mixed with shepherd and I don't know what her offspring was mixed with. They are mother and son . She is 5 years and he is 4. They are very energetic and have not slowed down one bit.

I have raised and bred miniature Dachshunds my entire adult life. The average lifespan has bee about 14 - 15 years. By the same token I had a medium sized mixed breed Border Collie and German Shepherd that lived until age 15 and whose health only failed in the last 6 months of her life. Much depends on proper diet and exercise. I have a good friend that had an English Mastiff that lived until age 13 and he lived on 80 acres out in the Arizona desert with plenty of room to run, so I think the article may have been somewhat arbitrary.

Ellen, one reason your mixes may live longer and be healthier is that they are genetically diverse.

So the giant yip-yap that kept my whole neighborhood awake until we ran off the owners must have been the exception.

Haha. Love it!

I have one of those annoying little yap-yaps. I prefer her to some annoying humans, especially those who make comments about subjects they know nothing about.

I have 2 Chihuahuas, one of the yap-yap breeds. The older one is somewhere between 12-15 and she was a puppy mill breeder for the first 6-9 years of her life. I've had her 6 years and never heard her bark. Two months ago I rescued another Chihuahua and have trained her not to bark. It can be done if the owners have the patience to train them properly.

My sister has a Maltese and not only is it a yappy dog, it has that high pitched yap that goes right through your head. She has made no attempt to stop her barking so she does it for 10 minutes every time someone comes in the house.

F. Schrodinger--I just had to laugh! I prefer big dogs personally, but I had a chihuahua when I was a kid, and absolutely loved her. Her name was Poco, and she was funny and fun! My husband feels about little yippy dogs the way you do, although he is very kind to them when he is around them. We like to tease each other--he says they would make good shark bait. I tell him that when we get to Heaven, God is going to pair him up with Poco, and she will be able to TALK to him! ;)

Chiluver 1228, my hats off to you for the work you have done with your chihuahuas and bravo for rescuing two deserving K-9's!

Chiluvr--you are spot on. If someone doesn't have the time or ability to train the dog to be quiet, then in my opinion you don't need the dog. A tenant in my building snuck a "yappy" dog in despite a "no dogs" policy. Had the dog been quiet, there would have been no complaints and the tenant would still be here. An old man in an adjacent apartment building--same thing. He'd take the dog outside and stand around on the corner and let the dog yap at everything and anything that moved and jump up on passersby, even kids walking home from school. Not cool...

Our neighbors have a little yapper and two big deeper yappers who bark every single time we walk out the door. They all three have lived there for years and we have as well, and frankly it is seriously annoyed to be barked as continuously while I am outside. It used to be peaceful here and it's why we bought the place, but not any more...sigh. I love dogs...but there is no reason to keep barking and barking for years.

Different issues. Chances of dying versus so-called rates of aging.

It is all relevant. Being heavier makes things wear out quicker in your body, you just refer to it as aging. Get it yet?

"Heavy" is relative to the frame. They weren't comparing overweight animals with healthy weight animals, they were comparing larger breeds with smaller breeds. Big difference. A fat small breed dog would have a higher chance of dying than an fit small breed dog. So what? Not relevant to the article or the study.

Everythine is relevant. Being bigger from fat or just frame size still requires more work from your body. That is of course how I see things working in the world. I think this article, and a good look at humans, can show this just might be true.

I don't always agree with atheist, but he is correct here, I think. Rates of aging has more to do with this dog study and that has more to do with genetics, probably. Fitness and nutrition and environment do impact on those genetic potentials.

TruthComesHere, it seems to me that being overweight would have more'wear-out' potential than a big frame. If you have a big frame, then your bones can bear more muscle weight because they are bigger, and there will be more cartilage, etc., too. There is probably an optimum ratio for humans. And a certain amount of work, weight bearing, and exercise is important in order to keep things working at their optimal.

Enough-2735007 also makes a good point.

And do you know why? That's what they are researching. It didn't indicate they just discovered that large dogs don't live as long as small ones.

Linda, at least one of the researchers is at the University of Gottingen in Germany (sorry my computer does not have an 'umlaut' key for the 2 dots above the 'o') and the article does not say who funded the research. For all we know, it could have been funded by a dog food company working through the University, or the university itself if it has a veterinary program. Also, a future discovery about aging in humans could eventually come from this.

I have been in greyhounds since 1983 and have found that, as a rule, they live to be 12-13 years. The article made the point that there seems to be a relationship between weight (normal weight for size) and life span. Could it be possible that, although greyhounds are tall 27-30" at shoulder, because they weigh less than other breeds of similar height that they (greyhounds) have a longer life span. Worth investigating, I think. BTW, I am yet to have a grey with osteosarcoma, although I lost one three years ago to cancer of the peritoneum at the age of 10. Greyts rule!

dizzy, I can only speak from my own experience. Between us and at least three other couples we know with greyhounds, at least four of the dogs have died of osteosarcoma in the last 12-15 years. In one case, the people had the dog's front leg amputated, but he died six months later because the cancer had metastasized into his lungs. Most of the bone-cancer dogs had the cancer in their legs, but one female had it in her rib bones. One of our females also had a disease called Cushing's Sydrome, but with medication, she lived to be 11 1/2. One of our males had a thyroid problem and severe food allergies which we treated, but he died at 10 1/2 after having a seizure that we think might have been a stroke or a vestibular episode. We have also known only one of them that lived more than 12 years. Don't get me wrong. I dearly love the breed and will continue to have greyhounds because they are such loving and calm companions. These are just our personal observations over the years.

Google 'average lifespan for corgis' and see what comes up. It will depend on what the corgi is mixed with though.

I think I'll pick up a copy of the American Naturalist (April issue), as I am curious to see what the real findings are. As stated, this news clip really doesn't give you a lot of insight..

I'd also like to know why some of the larger breeds mature much later than little dogs. We had a lab that was still a big puppy at a year and a half, while our mini poodle (not a yapper, but does let us know when someting is amiss) seemed to mature faster. By "mature", I mean, still chewing on stuff (furniture), knocking people down, dragging you down the sidewalk (even with obedience training), etc. Plus, once they DO mature, is it just downhill from there? Our lab was smart as a whip, but so is our poodle. I expect all dogs to have a puppy spirit, but our lab was super-hyper! Plus, our lab had no idea how big he was, but our poodle knows we're bigger than he is and when other dogs are bigger than he is. Our poodle was a puppy mill rescue, so we don't know much about his first 7 months of life.

BTW - We gave our lab to a friend, as we moved to an apartment, at the time, and didn't feel that would be right for a large, active dog. He went to a home with 5 kids, a swimming pool and an acre lake! He lived a long, happy life (no cancer) - 15 years, and was very much loved.

I agree. My two best friends get all my love including plenty of activity, good nutrition and daily rides to anywhere. I believe, just like humans, dogs that are happy will live much longer and fuller lives.

At which point it is too late to breed it.

No, don't get a cat. If you enjoy birds, butterflies, toads, lizards, etc. DON't get a dang cat. They will destroy it ALL. It's their nature.

I enjoy those things, but when they are outside my house, which is why I have 2 indoor cats. They've killed two snakes that got into our house (we have an old stone foundation). My cats are great for keeping my house pest free, and they get along great with my beagle/shepherd/lab mix.

If you spay/neuter your cat and keep them inside, they don't have any opportunity to kill anything.

Of course, if a stray snake, spider, fly or mouse gets inside, then it's fair game.

Re: TheBobs. I had 9 cats for a number of years. The first to die went at 16, the last to die went at 22. So for 22 years I discussed our cats with cat people and our vet. With an acknowledged failing memory, I do not ever remember anyone suggesting that cats with any sort of frequency live to 30 years old. I'm not saying it can't happen, but respectfully suggest that the "typical" maximum age is around 20 yrs old - not 30.

You're not allowing for shrinkage. I used to be 5'5", but thanks to getting older, I'm now 5' nothing and getting shorter every day! So...I should live to 100, right?

I had a beagle and a yellow lab that both died at the age of 10. The beagle died of an untreatable form of lymphoma, and the lab to skin cancer two years after she died (he was two years younger than her). There are always going to be abberations in a study.

DOGS RULE!!!

Mongrels are a genetic crap shoot with no predictable results. You may get a winner or you may get a veterinary disaster.

Dog breeding done right screens for health problems and looks to produce sound animals.

The show ring is one of the worse places to look, but in fairness that varies by breed and breeder.

Working dog lines tend to be more physically sound (as in they won't break down) but you can still run into issues with cancer if someone isn't screening for that and trying to breed it out. Again, some breeders are better and more thoughtful than others.

Dog breeding is an art and a science. Get it right and you can reliably produce some fine dogs. Do it wrong and you get opposite. Put another way, you breed best to best, not junk to junk.

The problem is most buyers don't understand how breeding works. They see the cute pup on the tailgate at Wal Mart and buy with little regard for where the dog came from genetically.