How long do Cairn Terriers live? June 01, 2018 16:05

Barring anything unusual, your average Cairn is going to live anywhere between twelve and seventeen years.  Having said that, we know of a considerable number of Cairns who have lived a full eighteen, nineteen and even twenty years.  In a recent call out to Cairn owners on FB there was generous sprinkling of seventeen year olds and an amazing twenty-one year old!

In one reference article they say that your pet will go on for many years "if fed the right nutrition and given plenty of affection".  Given those parameters I don't know why our beloved breed doesn't live for a few centuries at least!

Apparently, as a guide, a well-maintained dog will weigh 6kgs as a female, and 7.5 for a male, those are considered the optimum weights for continued good health.

This is where we are on the scale; our first two Cairns lived till fourteen and sixteen.  Our second died at seven, to that vile affliction cancer, he was robbed; we were devastated that he hadn't lived his longest life.  Cairns four and five are twelve years old, a little over the weight guidelines, but still walking and swimming and living their best lives.  Finally, Cairn six is the puppy; she is six months old and growing like a weed!

So the record for longest-lived Cairn is for Cairn mix Gracie from Wales, adopted when she was sixteen and going strong at twenty-one.  A couple of points here, first note this is a mix, and I have always been told that mixes are stronger, and second, this dear little thing was adopted into a brand new family aged sixteen, just imagine that!

For the record, the oldest dog outside the wonderful Cairn, ever officially recorded was an Australian Cattle Dog called Bluey who died aged twenty-nine years and one hundred and sixty days in 1939.  

We hope this answers the question: how long do Cairn Terriers live?