A dog’s age

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

An old dog wearing glasses while asleep.
It’s been a dog’s age since I could let someone else make all the decisions.
(Photo: Lisa Fotios/Pexels | Text: David/ArtisanEnglish.jp)

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Idiom: A dog’s age

Do you ever have times when you wish you were a kid again?

I sure do.

It’s been a dog’s age since I could let someone else make all the decisions.

The strange part is that when I was a kid and didn’t have to do anything, I yearned for the days when I would decide everything.

Now that I make decisions every day, I wish I were a kid again.

It just goes to show people are never happy.

You’d think that with most dog-related idioms such as dog-tired, a dog’s life and go to the dogs having negative images today’s idiom, a dog’s age would also be negative and imply hardship of some sort.

but it doesn’t.


A dog’s age just means a very long time.


If you have a university class reunion, you can say to someone, ‘I haven’t seen you in a dog’s age,’ and it only means you haven’t seen them for a very long time.

It’s more a statement of fact rather than a statement with a negative nuance.

Speaking of long times, my wife and I haven’t enjoyed a restaurant meal in a dog’s age.

We don’t often eat out; it never was our style.

We did frequent an Indian restaurant near Shirahama about once a month for a good curry and delicious naan.

Now, because of COVID-19, we don’t feel comfortable doing that.

Delivery is not an option in the back of beyond where we live.

It’s been a dog’s age since we didn’t have to wash the dishes after eating, and it looks like it’ll be a while longer before we feel comfortable eating out again.

Oh well, we’ll have to keep on keeping on, I suppose.


Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test

This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 78.

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.



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