# Doggy Month Math **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 6, 2011, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggy-month-math/587964 "2011-07-06T00:45:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![andrea\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecccb3/32.png) [@andrea\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrea_green)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggy-month-math/587964/1 "2011-07-06T00:45:57Z")
Everyone knows that 1 human year is equal to 7 dog years. Based on this assumption, would someone be so kind as to help me solve this super simple problem: What is the formula for calculating the age of a dog given its age in human months? For example, if a dog is 2 human years and 4 human months old, how old are they in doggie months? sorry for the dumb question, by my brain is taking the night off ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggy-month-math/587964/2 "2011-07-06T00:52:13Z")
The “7 years” is just an average and not a very good one for assessing the comparative age of a dog to a human. Consider a dog becomes sexually mature in one year which would put them on par with about a 15 year old human. After that their aging slows down. [This page](http://www.dogyears.com/) does a better job of breaking out relative ages of a dog to a human. For your math problem though you just want to divide 7 years by 12 months (7/12=0.583 years/month). So, 2 years and four months is: 7 \* 2 = 14 4 \* 0.583 = 2.33 14 + 2.33 = 16.33 human years old. ---
**Author:** ![andrea\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecccb3/32.png) [@andrea\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrea_green)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggy-month-math/587964/3 "2011-07-06T01:08:35Z")
thank you! ---
**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doggy-month-math/587964/4 "2011-07-06T01:36:06Z")
**Whack-a-mole** is absolutely correct, but there’s an (IMO) easier way. If 1 human year is equal to 7 dog years, than 1 human month is equal to 7 dog months. So, just multiply everything by 7. 2 years and 4 months times 7 is 14 years and 28 months. 28 months is 2 years and 4 months, for a total of 16 years and 4 months.