World's oldest pooch? - Headlines about Dogs

March 24, 2009

She may be hard on hearing, need goggles for her cataracts and prefer her cozy bed over a trip to the park. But according to a recent Newsday report, Chanel, a 20-year-old wire-haired dachshund in Port Jefferson Station, New York, is basking in her new title of world's oldest dog.
The much-celebrated 20-year-old Chanel.

The next edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, due out in September, will make that title official. (Guinness demanded a birth certificate, dated photos and notes from veterinarians to seal the deal.) She's since become a darling of the international press and it's rumored that a producer for Jay Leno even wants to fly her to California.

In so-called "dog years" Chanel will be 147 years old on her 21st birthday this May. (To put this into perspective, if she were a human, she would have been born in 1869 — just four years after Abraham Lincoln's death.) Although, interestingly, a study recently debunked the mythical ratio of seven dog years for every human year because smaller species of dogs tend to live much longer than larger ones.

Pet parent Denice Shaughnessy, 51, told Newsday that at one point she couldn't afford her auto insurance and had to give up her car. She and her daughter lived on mac and cheese, and Chanel shared the meals. During good times and bad, Shaughnessy admits to pampering her pooch, including administering massages after runs and letting Chanel choose between dog food and the human kind. And when Chanel is ready to go, it will be her choice, says Shaughnessy, adding, "I just hope she goes peacefully in her sleep."

But in the wake of the Chanel media avalanche, Shaughnessy isn't the only one who hopes Chanel goes peacefully. Her title is now being contested by several people from around the globe.

The 100th anniversary of the birth of Bluey, a famous Australian cattle dog born on June 7, 1910, will be celebrated next year by the residents of Rochester, a small town north of Melbourne, Australia. Bluey herded sheep and cattle for 20 years, and allegedly lived to the ripe old age of 27. His secret to longevity? Lots of exercise and a diet of kangaroos and emus.

Rochester residents are reportedly peeved by all the hoopla over 20-year-old Chanel who has been "mistakenly hailed as the world's oldest living dog." According to a story from DogMagazine.net, Chanel's award has made "the canine world barking mad, because despite the error, she is rapidly becoming a world-famous bitch."

"This dog's age is no big deal," JT Cro growled on The Sun's website after the the U.K. paper picked up the Chanel story. "My grandparents had a dog before they passed away who was 33 years old in human years and in remarkably good health."

Of course, Guinness requires a dog's age to be documented, which bars many animals older than Chanel from the record book.