I don't know if anyone has ever aimed for life span in breeding. As a
general rule the smaller the dog the longer the life span.

Growing up we had a chi hua hua/terrier mix who lived to be 13. My cousin
Tim has a small shepard mix roughly about 30lbs who is now 16. She's
developed some hearing loss and site loss but it still going. Then I had
two lab mixes Barney 50lbs who died of cancer at 11 1/2 the Brandy 60lb who
died two months later of a brain tumor. The best guess on her age was
roughly 10 1/2.

No matter how hard we try to keep them healthly their age just catches up
sometimes. It would be wonderful if they lived much longer. I know it was
hard loosing Barney I knew he was sick. Brandy on the other hand was a
complete shock to come home and find her hardly able to walk and then
paralyzed only 3 days later.

Celeste



wrote in message
oups.com...
Eight years ago, when my dog Molly seemed elderly, I launched a thread
on 'breeding a long-lived dog':

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.p...d+dog&hl=en &

There were several good posts in that thread. Now I return to the
topic.

Molly, as it happened, was not as elderly as I then thought. She lived
another seven years, and was active and youthful even with a good-sized
liver cancer. Her disability was compressed into the last two days of
her life; at 50 lbs and 15 years she had a good lifespan and was
largely healthy.

It's been about a year since Molly died and the family demands for
another dog are getting very strong. I'm almost ready. I would like,
however, to as much as possible select for a longer lifespan.

As we understand the genetics of aging better (telomerase activity,
etc) I'm guessing it will soon be relatively easy to breed a dog that
ages more slowly (measure telomerase activity in potential breeding
dogs). I doubt that's had an impact yet. So what progress, if any, has
been made in the past 8 years? Is there now a breeding progam for dogs
that age more slowly (ideally including crosses between longer lived
purebreds)? (Long life span being a blend of slow aging and low
incidence of early onset disease.) What mid-sized (50 lb) breeds seem
to combine slow aging rates with low onset of early disease? [I know
there are other criteria for which people select dogs, but lifespan is
particularly important for me. I can only stand seeing so many dogs
die.]

john

meta: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, longevity, lifespan, canine, dog,
selective breeding, life extension, long lived, longlived, long-lived