This story begins with the death of a dog.

It’s never an ideal way to start something off, but in this case it’s unavoidable.

The dog was a toy fox terrier from South Carolina, her name was Pebbles, and she was 22 years old when she died at home beside her owners Bobby and Julie on October 3 last year.

At the time, Pebbles was officially recognised as the oldest dog in the world. She had taken the title from a Floridian Chihuahua called TobyKeith in May 2022, in a crown-snatching drama reported by media outlets around the planet.

In reality, Pebbles was not the oldest dog in the world – she wasn’t even close – but the news of her passing in October prompted obituaries from People magazine, the Daily Telegraph and CNN.

Something about this particular world record really gets people talking. It could be the pictures that usually accompany articles about it: an unthinkably old dog, usually blind, usually grizzled, sitting politely but mindlessly beside their certificate. The picture of Pebbles, with her cloudy eyes and tiny pink bow, certainly fits that description.

Or it might be the way these stories tend to be reported, in a charmingly irreverent way that focuses on the dog’s silly quirks – or more often than not, the owner’s. Pebbles was widely described as a country music fan, and her 22nd birthday was marked with a bubble bath and a rack of ribs for dinner.

But for Mark McKinley, director of central records services at Guinness World Records, it seems to go deeper.

‘There’s something that resonates with people when we celebrate an “oldest” record,’ he said.

‘The fear of getting old is forgotten when you see someone living to a ripe old age and still going strong, even when that someone is a dog.’

The power of the title of ‘world’s oldest dog’ is so strong that since 2002, Guinness World Records has received more than 800 submissions from owners around the world who believe their pet might be older than all others.

But the company could not have foreseen what would happen in the wake of the sad death of Pebbles the toy fox terrier last autumn. In the space of six months, five dogs would hold the title – and that run would end in a truly remarkable discovery at a farm on the Iberian peninsula.

When Pebbles died, the question of the heir to the throne was fairly simple to answer. The Chihuahua from Florida who held the title before her was still alive.

Named after the US country singer whose hits include Should’ve Been a Cowboy and Beer For My Horses, 21-year-old TobyKeith became the nominal world’s oldest living dog for the second time.

His owner, Gisela Shore of Greenacres in sunny Palm Beach County, told Guinness World Records: ‘We adore him so much and achieving this record is a testimony of the loving home we have provided for him.

‘TobyKeith is such a blessing. I am so lucky to still have him in my life.’

She would not have known then that the wheels were already in motion at the records company’s HQ to unseat him yet again. The explosion of news about the death of Pebbles had led many owners around the world to wonder whether their old pup might be old on a global scale, and submissions were already being processed.

‘Whenever a record gets publicity we start to see an increase in applications,’ said Mark. ‘This has been no different.’

But first, a short word about ‘dog years’.

The most familiar method of calculating a dog’s equivalent age to a human is to multiply their age by seven, a theory that would have Pebbles passing away at the eye-popping age of 154.

However, many vets argue it’s better to take into account the significant maturing the animals go through in their first two years of puppyhood. A more accurate way of looking at things might be to say dogs age the equivalent of 21 human years by the time they turn two, and then add four years for each additional birthday. That approach would mean Pebbles died at the more realistic – albeit still impressive – human age of 101.

But inevitably, there are extra complications, particularly in relation to the size and the breed. Numbers from the Journals of Gerantology, cited in the Wall Street Journal, say the first human year is equivalent to 10.9 years for a Miniature Poodle and 26.8 years for a Great Dane. According to research from the University of Melbourne, this may be down to the additional strain on the physiological processes of larger dogs.

For those biological reasons, it tends to be small breeds that dominate the age-related records. TobyKeith was a Chihuahua, the smallest breed of them all. It was a Chihuahua mix that would take his place.

Like the departed Pebbles, Gino Wolf from Colorado was 22 when he was named the world’s oldest living dog in November last year – less than two months after TobyKeith regained the title.

(Quick sidenote: This seems to be a common age for record-holders in this category. The first ‘oldest living dog’, named when Guinness World Records was launched in 1955, was a 22-year-old cross-bred terrier from Yorkshire with the unfortunate name Toss.)

Gino’s owner, Alex Wolf, was able to celebrate the new year alongside his little record-holder, but it wasn’t long into 2023 when he himself was knocked off his perch and Spike from Camden, Ohio, became the fourth claimant for the title in a little over four months.

Spike, yet another Chihuahua, was certainly a crowd-pleasing candidate for the title. He had been found abandoned in a local car park by his now-owner Rita Kimball when he was nine years old and looking severely neglected. He jumped into her car seat when she offered it to him, and 14 years later, he was awarded his certificate by Guinness World Records.

Once again, everything came back round to Pebbles. Rita had seen a picture of her on a segment of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and knew then that her dog was older. Her application had been processing while the previous two title-holders were celebrating their victories.

Rita said: ‘I informed my co-workers and they were thrilled.

‘It was very exciting to see everyone clapping and congratulating me for my little guy.’

But the jubilation, unlike Spike, was destined to be short-lived. Rita was on a cruise ship a little over two weeks later when she got a text from her local news station, Channel 7, asking for her reaction to Spike being beat.

She said: ‘Of course we were somewhat disappointed, but we are optimistic folks, and congratulated the newly crowned king.

‘After all, the new guy lives in Portugal and Spike is here in the US, so that makes him the oldest living dog in the United States.’

Yes, news had come in from across the Atlantic Ocean; news so momentous that it had taken 10 months to make absolutely sure it was completely true.

On June 7, 1910, a Cattle Dog was born in the town of Rochester, Australia, and named Bluey. Her first owner died when she was 14, already a senior dog by any normal measure, and she was adopted by farmer Les Hall to help him keep control of his cows and sheep. He would have been forgiven for thinking he was keeping Bluey active as she lived out her final years.

However, at that point Bluey was not even halfway through her life. She kept sniffing and barking around the farm for another 15 years, until she was sadly put down in November 1939 at the grand age of 29 years and five months old.

When she died, Victoria’s Horsham Times wrote in tribute: ‘Inquiries were made through dog lovers’ journals all over the world to find if anyone owned an older dog. But the record was unchallenged.’

It remained that way for decades, as Bluey’s name went down in history as the dog with the longest verifiable life – and even gave her name to an Australian cartoon character beloved by children and families across the world.

But all that changed in February of this year, when an application was dropped on the desk of Guinness World Records’ Portuguese-speaking records manager.

‘She saw that there was something significant when she first saw the application and shared it with the wider business immediately,’ said Mark.

‘There was a mix of excitement and apprehension internally. With records of this type people do not always have the evidence available to support their claims so the fear that this may not be verifiable was always present.

‘When the evidence started to come in, the relief was palpable.’

The application pertained to a brown and white, barrel-shaped Rafeiro do Alentejo living on a farm in the Portuguese village of Conqueiros. His name is Bobi, and he didn’t just break Spike’s record – he vapourised it.

On May 11 this year, Bobi will turn 31. Even using the more conservative method of calculation, that’s 137 in human years.

He’s the oldest dog ever to live, beating Bluey’s 83-year-old title, and the first dog to ever reach the big three-oh. He was born during the presidency of George HW Bush. He was alive at the same time as Audrey Hepburn, Richard Nixon and Kurt Cobain. He is older than Miley Cyrus, Harry Kane, and the country of Slovakia.

‘The realisation that Bobi was, not only the oldest dog living, but also the oldest dog ever was another level of emotion,’ said Mark.

‘There was a genuine feel that we had uncovered something historic.’

Bobi’s extraordinarily long life began in quite inauspicious circumstances. He was one of four male pups born in May 1992, in an outbuilding where the Costa family stored wood. The father of the family decided he already had enough animals on the farm, so he buried the newborn pups in a hole. However, unbeknownst to his dad, eight-year-old Leonel Costa had saved one little dog. He and his brothers kept Bobi hidden until his eyes opened – at which point they knew their parents would not bury him.

Leonel became inseparable from Bobi as they both grew up, and they would walk together to school in the morning. In correspondence over email, Leonel’s continuing love for his dog shines through and, endearingly, he always refers to him entirely in uppercase as ‘BOBI’. It was his friends who said he should get in touch with Guinness World Records, as they all knew he would get the title.

Leonel, now 38, said: ‘I thought that as an owner, I would have to do this for BOBI – he deserves it, he was a warrior all his life and I, as an owner, had that obligation.

‘Contrary to what many people think, nothing is gained financially with this whole process. On the contrary, it was an expense, but knowing that I had everything to prove, I couldn’t go without doing this for BOBI, he deserved it.’

Then began the painstaking process of providing all the evidence needed to support the claim: photos, videos, newspaper articles, witnesses, birth records and reports from multiple veterinarians. The work took months.

Bobi and Leonel were at home together when the call came through to say Guinness World Records could confidently confirm he was the oldest dog on the planet, and the oldest in history.

Leonel said: ‘It is a source of pride as an owner to be able to pay homage to my dog while he was still alive.

‘For me, tributes, whether to people or animals, should be done in life and not after death.’

Congratulations came from local schoolchildren, in the form of a book containing their drawings of the local celebrity behind a cover saying ‘Obrigada Bobi’. Since the news was announced, visitors have travelled to the farm from the USA, Canada, Japan, Italy and France. His 31st birthday party next month will be attended by journalists and vets from around the world.

But beyond his newfound status, not much has changed in the life of Bobi. Leonel does his best to keep up the four factors he says are responsible for his dog’s long life.

The first is enjoying good food. Bobi eats the same as his owners – grilled fish and meat are his favourite. The second is living in the ‘calm and peaceful’ countryside. The third is never being tied to chains or leashes. And the fourth is the most simple of all.

‘I think that the love and affection we have given our whole lives has also helped not only BOBI but all the animals,’ said Leonel.

‘We love them very much and we do our best not to lack anything.’

This story began with the death of a dog, but remarkably, it ends in the not-death of four.

At time of writing, TobyKeith, Gino Wolf, Spike and Bobi are all still alive, members of a very exclusive club. Together, the four ‘oldest dogs in the world’ represent the extraordinary impact that a close bond between owners and their pets can have.

‘I just wanted to give that merit to my dog,’ explained Leonel, when asked what made him apply for the record. ‘And if possible, help the world realise that it is possible for animals to have a long life, you just need to know how to love.’

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