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For [decades / decadence] , dog lovers have been incorrectly calculating the age of their pet pooches. People have [tradition / traditionally] worked out their dog's age in "human years" [at / by] multiplying by seven. However, researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine in the USA have come [up / down] with a new formula. They say it more [precisely / precision] determines canine age. Their new method requires a little more than simple [physical / mental] arithmetic to work out a dog's age. It involves a comparison of the [genomes / gnomes] of dogs and humans. Scientists had to analyse [that / how] DNA changes as humans and dogs age. The scientists [regard / regarding] such DNA analysis as the best way to measure the ageing speed of [marsupials / mammals] .

The researchers analysed blood [stamps / samples] from 105 Labrador retrievers. After a bit of number [crushing / crunching] , they created a graph to show the [different / difference] rates at which canines and humans [old / age] . They said a one-year-old dog is [similarity / similar] to a 30-year-old human, while a four-year-old hound is comparable to a 52-year-old person. Researcher Trey Ideker said by the time a dog [wretches / reaches] seven years old, its ageing slows. He said: "This makes [nonsense / sense] . When you think about it, a nine-month-old dog can have [purpose / puppies] , so we already knew that the 1:7 [ration / ratio] wasn't an accurate measure of age." The researchers said their new formula doesn't fully [location / address] the fact that different breeds of dog age at different speeds.