Japanese dogs experiencing their golden years -3/11/96-

The average dog in Japan lives 1.5 years longer -- the equivalent of six more years for a human -- compared with four years ago, and it is largely due to changed attitudes among dog owners, a group of university researchers said. Researchers at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology who produced the finding after a national survey of veterinary clinics, said the primary reason for the increase is the spread in vaccines which has stemmed the number of infection-related deaths. But they said the underlying reason is that dog owners are increasingly treating their pets like family members instead of mere pets. The researchers said that on the downside, dogs are experiencing increased rates of cancer and heart disease, typical complaints which contribute to deaths among the human population. Masuo Ogawa, professor at the university's Agriculture Faculty, who supervised the survey, said crossbreeds are living longer than pedigree dogs. Ogawa said data on some 4,200 dogs in 39 prefectures collated since 1990 shows the average canine life span in 1995 was 10.1 years, with a 1.5-year increase in four years. But a close analysis shows that the crossbreeds gained 2.2 years and purebreds gained 1.1 years in their life spans. The group said that contributing to this is an increased tendency among dog owners to treat crossbreeds as well as any pedigree dogs, with the result that the more vigorous crossbreeds are living longer. The Japan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals last year gave its award for the nation's longest-living dog to a female West Highland White Terrier called "Spot'' who this year turned 22 in Tokyo's Meguro-ku. A dog is normally treated as the equivalent of a 15-year-old human by the time it is 1 year old, and subsequent one-year increases are treated as the equivalent of five human years. On this basis, Spot would be considerably older than Japan's popular 103-year-old twins Kin Narita and Gin Kanie, who are from Nagoya, and make frequent appearances on talk shows and in television commercials. Copyright 1996 Mainichi Daily News Mainichi Daily News