Yorkshire Terrier is world’s oldest dog

It seems that every few months we’re crowning a new world’s oldest dog – which is perhaps a sad thing and a poison chalice that no dog really wants to claim. However, the latest dog to be labelled as the oldest in the world is a Yorkie from Halifax. Billy, the Yorkshire Terrier, is the grand old age of 22 (around 154 if you convert it to decimal) and he is about to be officially recognised as the oldest dog in the world by to the Guinness World Records.

Despite being older than most cars on the road, older than most students and older than many parents in the UK, Billy (born in the 80s) has loads of energy and loves to run around all day. Sure, he’s lacking a few teeth and his sight has failed him in one eye, but he has another eye that works perfectly fine.

Betty Holdsworth, his 71 year old owner (who was in her 50s when Billy was born) takes him for a walk twice a day, which is more than most Yorkies get when they’re in the prime of youth.

She adds:

“He’s got so much energy.”

“He’s so affectionate and caring and he always wants to be near me. He just loves being spoilt.”

Mrs Holdsworth only recently adopted Billy after she found him at an RSPCA centre earlier this year. Billy was given to the RSPCA after he had outlived his previous owners, who had him as a puppy back in 1988!

Mrs Holdsworth continued:

“After my previous dog died, I decided I would like to get another one to replace it. I decided to go for an older pet because I don’t know how long I will be around and a puppy would tire me out.”

“They told me that they had this Yorkshire Terrier who was in a bit of a state.”

“But he is not frail at all. He still loves to play and he is quite vigorous about it, playing tug of war and chasing after things to bring them back for me.”

“He’s not showing any signs of slowing down. I think that is at least partly because of the quality of his life.”

To cement Billy’s place as the world’s oldest dog, the Guinness World Records just needs to rubber stamp his age and he’ll surpass the current old stager ‘Sako Wilde’, who lives in Australia. Sako Wilde is a spring chicken in comparison, at just 21 years of age.

In case you’re wondering about the oldest ever dog – his name was Bluey and he did way back in 1939, at the grand old age of 29!

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