The honour was temporarily held by a Portuguese dog called Bobi, who died in October last year at the alleged age of 30 years and 266 days. But Bobi has been stripped of the title after an investigation by Guinness World Records officials.
The Guinness review found it “no longer had the evidence it needed to support Bobi’s claim as the record holder”.
There were doubts about the claim initially, with sceptics pointing out photos of Bobi’s feet appeared to show they were different in colour as a puppy and then in his dotage.
Bobi was a purebred Rafeiro, a Portuguese livestock guard dog, who wrested the honour of being the world’s oldest dog from the Rochester-owned cattle dog Bluey. Acknowledged as the world’s oldest dog when she died in 1939 aged 29 years and five months, Bluey was owned by Rochesterites Les and Rosalie Hall, and there is a mural in town honouring her life.
Authentic records of dogs living for more than 20 years are rare and generally involve smaller breeds.
Several Australian cattle dogs have died in recent years with their owners claiming they were more than 30, however their ages could never officially be confirmed.
To mark the 80th anniversary of Bluey’s passing, Rochester residents in 2019 commissioned a mural in the town to celebrate the dog.
Bluey’s owner’s daughter Edna Staley was just 10 when her father’s dog passed away, but said at the time that her father and the dog were inseparable.
Edna described her late father, a grocer all his life in Rochester, as a stickler for the rules, which came in handy when proving Bluey’s age.
He had shire registration records dating back to Bluey’s birth.
“All my memories of her were as an old dog and I remember her being very loyal to the family,” she once told Campaspe News.
“I remember her walking up the street with my mum and waiting with the pram outside the store on the main street while she went shopping. She would keep an eye on the children because the pram was too big to go inside.”
She said Bluey never went to a vet, and the only real health problem she encountered was arthritis towards the end of her life.
“I’m not sure why or how she lived so long, but she lived differently from how pets live now,” Edna said.
‘‘In those days, your dog would just get the scraps of your dinner and other food around the place. We didn’t buy dog food or anything like that.”
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