I have had dogs my entire life first field dogs in Iowa and for the last 12 years miniature schnauzers in Iowa. My origianal pair of brittanys lived to be about 17 my second pair of brittanys lived to be about 12 and my 3 schnauzers lived to about 10. I attribute the huge discrepancy in lifespan to exercise. I ran my original pair of dogs in Iowa fields for 2 hours a day. the second pair had the same regiment until i moved to florida when they were nine and because of pigmy rattlers and alligators I never ran them in florida. they died 40% younger than my first pair. Finally my schnauzers were never exercised and they died around 10. The one real difference in all of their lives was the amount of exercise they participated in daily. I’m a believer in exercise.
