The real test of health is how long do these dogs live. A study in the UK has looked at the median life expectancy (that is the age at which half of the animals in the study survive to) of dogs presenting to veterinary clinics. They found a median age of 12 years for all purebred dogs and 13.2 years for all crossbred dogs. Small breed dogs live longer and large breed dogs don’t live as long but when size is taken in to account crossbred dogs always outlive similar sized purebred.

In June 2016 I mailed out an invitation to everyone on my data base with dogs over 4 years old asking them to participate in an online survey. We had 401 responses and 91 of these were from owners who’s dogs had passed away.

We found that in these 91 dogs the median life expectancy was 14 years.

This is a great result, consistent with the UK findings which clearly show that crossbred dogs live longer than purebred dogs of comparable size. This paper is available online if anyone is interested in more information.

The Veterinary Journal. Volume 198, Issue 3, December 2013, Pages 638–643,.Longevity and mortality of owned dogs in England.. O’Neill, D.G, Church D.B, McGreevy P.D, Thomson P.C, Broadbelt D.C.