Owner of 17-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier reveals secret to pet's long life

That’s a great age for a dog!

The Derby Telegraph report that a Derbyshire dog owner has revealed the secret to keeping his Staffordshire bull terrier healthy for nearly two decades.

Richard Dakin, 39, has been the proud owner of 17-year-old Blitz since he was just a puppy. This is an impressive age for this breed of dog.

According to Mr Dakin, from Swadlincote the trick has been a simple combination of love, exercise and the right amount of human food.

“I always tend to treat my dogs as humans, it’s just about treating them as one of the family and interacting with them often. People don’t interact with their dogs enough,” he said.

The RSPCA recommends that human food, such as raw meat, is given to dogs as a supplement every so often alongside normal dog food.

Although diet is important, Mr Dakin said the key is giving them the right amount of exercise.

“I shouldn’t say this because you’re not really supposed to feed your dogs like that but our dogs have lived longer than they were supposed to. They’ve always had little titbits of human food, whatever is left on our plates, and I’ve always fed them meat once a day,” he said.

“If you start feeding them bad food all the time then they will get overweight but its just as important to take them for walks.”

Mr Dakin said he would sometimes walk his dogs three times a day, covering plenty of mileage.

The technique has been a proven success and Mr Dakin’s other dog, Blitz’s sister Stella, lived until she was 17.

Both Stella and Blitz came from Mr Dakin’s friend and he helped to rear them from when they were born.

As the older sibling, Mr Dakin described Stella as the “clever one” while Blitz “isn’t the smartest dog.”

“I used to say it was like having a toddler in the house. Blitz was always running around, banging into things. He loves chasing bubbles around, if bubbles were out that would be it, he would be done for the day,” he added.

Like love at first sight, Mr Dakin was drawn to Blitz from the day he was born as he felt the need to look after him. He said:

“I chose Blitz because I felt as though no one would be able to look after him properly, he needed a lot of attention.

(Story source: Derby Telegraph)