Our dogs are our best friends fur-ever. 🐶
Gino is Alex Wolf’s best friend, and his story is one for the books!
At 22 years 96 days old, he is the world’s oldest dog living so, of course, we simply had to meet him and find out everything we could about him. 🔍
Gino’s story
Alex Wolf (USA) adopted Gino when he was a sophomore at the University of Colorado. Along with his roommates, he decided that it would be nice to have a pet to keep them company while they were all living away from their families.
Soon enough they adopted Gino, a two-year-old Chihuahua mix.
Nobody could have imagined that, 20 years later, Gino would become the oldest dog on Earth!
In fact, Alex is now 40 years old and has had his good pal Gino for half of his entire life… and counting! 🤩
“I've taken great care of him over the years and he is still in relatively very good shape…” Alex commented. “And really cute still which is surprising considering his age!”
When he was younger, Gino used to love walking around the neighbourhood on his own, but with his vision getting worse over the years, he now prefers to be rolled around in a wagon instead.
He has been a good boy his whole life and is now enjoying a life of leisure!
His favourite activities include:
- Car rides 🚗
- Napping by the fireplace 🔥
- Getting back scratches 🤗
Eating habits
Gino’s diet is also very interesting. As he eventually got bored of always eating the same foods, Alex tried to find ways to spice up Gino’s meals.
More recently, Alex has even started making Gino’s meals from scratch! Boiled chicken and carrots with rice is one of Gino’s favourites. 🍚 🥕
And to drink, Gino’s special “cocktail” consists of goat's milk with sprinkled pumpkin powder and fish oil!
What a classy doggy 🍹
Health
Gino’s health is good overall even though, as one would expect, his vision and hearing aren’t as good as they used to be.
And, even though he’s gone through some rough patches in the past, his most recent tests came back extremely positive. 😍
“He’s always come across more human than dog. Even at a young age, he felt like a wise old man!” – Alex Wolf
Finally, we asked Alex what his advice would be to anyone raising a long-living dog. Here is what he said:
“Love them unconditionally and make sure they are always well cared for. Keep them active, feed them well, show them lots of love. Give them back massages, scratch their favourite spots [...]. They deserve to be well cared for and treated like an extension of you.” ❤️
Even though Gino is definitely one of the oldest dogs we’ve ever seen, he’s still not the oldest dog ever.
That title still belongs to Bluey, an Australian cattle-dog who lived to be 29 years 5 months old (from 1910 to 1939). 😮
We sure hope Gino continues to live for many more years with a happy and healthy life – and lots of back scratches!
