Exact Answer: 12-15 years
Ideally, pugs are one of the dog breeds with unique physical features such as a curled tail, wrinkly, and short-muzzled face. They are of different colors such as black and fawn, with almost a square body, and muscular limbs. Their height ranges from 10-11 inches and weighs from 14 to 18 pounds or rather 6-8 kilograms.
Pugs first originated from China than in Europe around the 16th century, and later in the 19th century, they were popularized more in the United Kingdom with Queen Victoria.
How Long Do Pugs Live
A healthy pug has a lifespan of between 12-15 years. This can be achieved by ensuring that the pugs are well fed with high-quality food, kept clean that way avoiding any infections, frequent exercises to maintain a good weight, and majorly ensuring they have a healthy lifestyle.
Below are health issues that might interfere with a pug’s life span:
Pug Dog Encephalitis (PDE)
It’s not known what causes PDE. It infects pugs between the age of 2-3 years, which shortens their life span since it cannot be treated.
Diabetes
If diabetic pugs do not get well treated, other health issues will develop, and this will cause a shorter life span.
Fat and Obese
Obese pugs can highly suffer from various issues like heart problems, breathing difficulties, among other issues thus causing a shorter life eventually.
Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS)
BOAS can lead to various problems such as collapsing and heatstroke due to restricted airflow to the lungs, thus causing death if not treated immediately.
Neurological Issues
It is a disorder of the brain in which if it affects young pugs, it can cause death within a short period.
Reasons Why Pugs Live Much Longer
- Pugs engage in regular exercises to avoid getting fat and obese. Thus, this helps them to have a longer life span because of being in their appropriate weights.
- Given the importance of hygiene, pugs’ owners ensure they are well taken care of by providing them with good medical attention, feeding them with high-quality food, maintaining perfect weight through exercising, and keeping them clean to avoid health infections developing in them. Therefore, this highly increases the life period of the pugs.
- Most of the health issues developing in pugs such as obesity, diabetes, Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS) among others are treatable, if treated immediately, then it will increase the pugs’ lifespan.
- The gender of the pugs also contributes to how long they can be able to live. According to a Professor known as Steven N Austad Ph.D., female pugs have a much longer life, unlike the male pugs, which have a shorter life span.
- Pugs are kept inside the houses. Pugs can be highly sensitive to extreme hotness and coldness given their physical nature of respiratory problems and short noses. Hence keeping them indoors will do them justice and end up living for a longer period.
References
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1357034X95001001005