In other words, they have a mid life crisis too.
A new study has revealed something that dog owners need to hear...our pooches have their own form of mid life crises.
And fair warning, this is a little heartbreaking.
The research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, found the personality of dogs changes in a complex way over their lifetime.
The conclusion was reached after researchers from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest put 217 Border collies ranging from six months to 15 years through various tests to determine their personalities.
What they discovered was that the age of three (in human years) is the canine equivalent to the start of middle age.
And it's around this age that a dog's excitement and enjoyment for new situations starts to decline...we warned you this was heartbreaking.
They also found that dogs' attentiveness and ability to solve problems increase throughout early life, and then plateau at around six years old.
However, some traits remain unaltered by age.
For example, naturally active dogs remain that way all their life, while lazy pooches will always be, lazy.
Other interesting points from the study include:
- Dogs become marginally better at tolerating frustration with age, but they never really learn to deal with adversity.
- A sociable puppy will remain a social dog as they get older, while shy ones will remain shy.
Of the original 217 dogs that took part in the study, 37 were brought back to do the same experiments four years later.
Co-author of the study Dr Friederike Range says re-testing the same dogs is valuable for future research.
'Longitudinal studies covering multiple years and using the same method at both time points are very rare in the dog literature,' he said.
'Following up the same dogs across four years allowed us to address not only the question of personality stability, but also if there are individual differences in personality development, that is, if dogs with certain personality profiles change more than others.'
The takeaway from this? Cherish every moment with your pup!
