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Of course there’s one politically-charged story dominating this week, so it’s time to talk about it: Guinness World Records has suspended the World’s Oldest Dog title from the late great Bobi, after unnamed sources called his true age into question. As you may recall, dearly beloved Bobi died last October at 31 years young. Literally the day news of his death broke the former World’s Oldest Dog, Spike, had his person call Guinness to reclaim the title. But more troubles were afoot apaw for Bobi. A government agency in his native Portugal failed to provide proof that Bobi was born in 1992, so now Guinness is reviewing their entire verification process:
How succession used to work: In earlier years, when the world’s oldest dog died, the record reverted back to the previous holder of the title if they were still alive. This was the case in October 2022, when Pebbles the toy fox terrier passed away and the former record holder, TobyKeith the Chihuahua, briefly retook the title, before an even older Chihuahua mix called Gino Wolf came forward, and the title passed to him. The dog that held the crown after Gino but before Bobi was Spike, another Chihuahua, who was recorded as 23 years and 7 days old when he first took the record in January 2023.
Plays for the crown began immediately: Spike is very much still alive and kicking. Sure, his lack of teeth means he can no longer eat his favorite snack of cheesy Doritos, but he is the same dog that Guinness had crowned less than a year earlier. On October 23 — the same day that Guinness announced Bobi’s death — Spike’s owner, Rita Kimball, wrote to the company to ask what she needed to do to find out whether Spike had regained the title of the world’s oldest dog.
Double vet verification: Guinness confirmed that the record would revert back to Spike and asked Rita to send a photo of the dog with that day’s newspaper to verify that he was still alive. But after Rita responded with a photo of Spike, Guinness told her that they now required further proof in order to give Spike the crown. “We are reviewing how we verify animal age records at the moment, so ahead of reinstating Spike as the record-holder, we would like to discuss the possibility of you arranging for a second vet to assess Spike and confirm his age. It’s likely many of our record categories will require a second opinion for verification in the future,” a Guinness World Records representative wrote to Kimball in an email.
Guinness won’t accept Spike’s old papers: Kimball had found Spike in a parking lot in 2009, and when she first took the dog to the vet they put him at 10 years old — an age that went on his medical records and vet bills. Six years later Spike visited another vet after a brush with a pit bull, and they agreed on a birth year of 1999, Kimball says. But when Kimball asked Guinness about re-verifying Spike, these vet estimates were no longer sufficient evidence. One way to estimate the age of an animal is by their teeth, something that Spike lacks, although Kimball says she still has a few loose teeth left over from Spike’s run-in with the pit bull in 2015. Without any teeth in Spike’s mouth to provide evidence, Kimball told Guinness that she was struggling to find a vet to verify her dog’s age.
Spike won’t be re-crowned: “We greatly appreciate your efforts in supplying the newly requested evidence, but at this stage we are unable to re-award Spike’s record,” Guinness World Records wrote to Kimball. “His original record is not affected by this review, but it does mean that for now we are unable to recognize him — or any other claimant — as record-holder.” Kimball is not pleased that Guinness is refusing to re-crown Spike as the world’s oldest dog. “I’m not upset that he got beat, that can happen. I am upset at the fact that they’re withholding his record, because this record would have nothing to do with this other dog,” she says.
Unnamed vets questioned Bobi’s age: Guinness World Records’ head of publishing and brand communication, Amber-Georgina Maskell, says that the company decided to review its age-verification process after receiving “some correspondence from vets” in the wake of the news of Bobi’s death. Maskell says that the company is reviewing the evidence it already has on file, seeking new evidence, and reaching out to experts and people linked to Bobi’s record-breaking claim. As Bobi was also the oldest recorded dog ever (the previous record holder, Bluey, died in 1939), that record title has also been paused. Guinness also has records for the oldest cats, llamas, and mice, but Maskell said that those categories are not currently paused.
Anyone remember the classic Mary Tyler Moore Show episode “Chuckles Bites The Dust,” where Mary completely loses it at a funeral for Chuckles the Clown? Yeah, that was me reading this article. And I love dogs!! But every twist and turn of this reporting had me reeling. Starting with the solemn recounting of the line of title holders, “Pebbles the toy fox terrier succeeded by a series of Chihuahua mixes TobyKeith, Gino Wolf, Spike, and then to Bobi.” Followed by a wrinkle no one saw coming: the tragedy of toothless Spike, unable to reclaim the crown due to a lack of incisors. “A tooth, a tooth, my kingdom for a tooth!” I don’t understand why exactly Guinness won’t accept Spike’s original papers, except for being extra cautious right now. In the midst of this great upheaval, at least we can all take comfort in knowing that the cat, llama, and mice records remain undisturbed.
I love dogs but this has nothing to do with the bestest boys and girls and all to do with their grifter owners. How do you get a verified world record by assuming your dog is about 10 years old 13 years ago? I’m sure he’s quite elderly but this does not seem in any way legit.
Exactly.
This owner is bonkers, really.
This is so dumb. My boy, Shorty (a cat) lived to 21 and died in my arms. My forever love. Who cares about titles when you have that?
Veterinarian here. All my colleagues and I agree that there is no way this dog died at 31 years of age. Even angry toothless Chihuahuas don’t live past their 20’s.
Lol @Dani thanks for the great post for and being a veterinarian!
The intrigue! They are all very good dogs, even if their owners engage in nonsense.
Dogs are angels, no matter their age, and even if they have a publicity-hungry guardian!
So many chihuahuas in that list. Perhaps there is a chihuahua somewhere, living in the wild and it’s forty.