[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by FlyingNimbus

Huh, that doesn't make sense. I don't understand much about genes, just that when you add different genes you end up getting healthier dogs/animals/people/etc. So wouldn't two different dog breeds bred together be healthy? Especially if both have been tested and lack any genetic issues? I don't know I thought it would add more to it. I forget how yorkies were made, but wouldn't breeding the breeds that made the yorkies together(doing the same process) add new lineage into the gene pool? Thus replenishing it? Like I said, my knowledge on genetics is rather limited- and I want to understand better so I can know what essentially makes a great dog.


I mean one question that's been bugging me and I haven't wanted to ask because I was afraid of offending anyone.

I love dogs, don't get me wrong. But I rarely seem to hear of cats needing to be put down at their later stages(I knew a lot of people with older cats and the cats end up passing away naturally without need of much intervention), so why do dogs end up getting severely ill when they get much older? I dont know much about cats, but it's just what I am going off from a comment a friend told me today. (she is however a cat addict)

Is there something that could be done to fix much of dogs health problems? Like dogs in general end up getting cataracts at a later state or so I've been reading. Isn't that something that could be prevented? Not sure if the same happens to cats. What about going deaf, or poor hearing quality?

Why were there some dogs that have lived 20-30years? What separates those dogs from the every day dog you see now a day? And apparently size doesn't even matter, because according to the Guinness world record- the oldest dog is an australian cattle dog named bluey(he died at age 30).


If I recall those are medium to large dogs? Below that, there was another one which was a kelpie and it lived 30 years as well. Apparently there were authentic records for these things.

There are other dogs who made it easily to age 20-25. So why are these dogs living longer? Is it their diet? Do they have a cup of wine ? (a joke) It just makes me wonder, how these things work. It probably has to do with genetics- but if it is, is there anyway for them to make it a thing they can pass on?

I mean life expectancy can be trivial as it doesn't count for accidents or sickness but it's the best thing we have. Also, bluey died peacefully in his sleep according to a few websites that reported on him.

In my vet assistant class my instructor said its very rare an animal dies peacefully in their sleep there is normally a lot more to it.