It's a dog's life for a small US pup this weekend after a European rival stole his bone.
Two weeks ago, Spike, an Ohio-based chihuahua mix rescue dog, was crowned the world's oldest dog. The dog Bobi, a dog guarding livestock in Portugal, grabbed the title faster than a string of sausages two days ago, CNN reported.
Bobi, who is now a record-breaking 30 years and 267 days old as of 2 February, has not only been declared the latest world s oldest dog by Guinness World Records, but is also recognized by the data keepers as the oldest dog on record. Spike was only 23 years and seven days old, as of 7 December 2022.
According to Guinness, Bobi has lived his entire life in the rural village of Conqueiros, in the Leiria district of central Portugal, with the family Costa. He is a purebred Rafeiro do Alentejo, a Portuguese livestock guardian dog named after the Alentejo region of southern Portugal from which it originates. The average life expectancy for the breed is between 12 and 14 years.
Bobi was born on 11 May 1992 in an outbuilding where the Costa family kept their wood. He was part of a litter of four male puppies.
Leonel Costa, now aged 38, told Guinness that he was eight years old. My father was a hunter, and we always had many dogs by the way of explaining how Bobi had beaten the odds many times over, he said. Unfortunately, at that time it was considered normal by older people who could not have more animals at home to bury the animals in a hole so that they would not survive. That was not Bobi's fate.
Leonel Costa's parents entered the outbuilding a day after Bobi and his brothers were born, while the mother of the puppies, Gira, was away and took the litter, but on her return the mother persisted in visiting the outbuilding.
When Costa chased Gira inside, he discovered Bobi, who it seemed had been mistakenly left behind as his brown fur camouflaged him among the logs.
Costa has put Bobi's longevity down to his calm, peaceful environment, far from the cities almost 31 years later. According to Costa, Bobi has always eaten human food. Bobi doesn't hesitate and chooses our food and ate what we ate, because they ate too Between a can of animal food or a piece of meat, Bobi doesn't hesitate and chooses our food, said Costa.