Meet the World's Oldest Dog

The world's oldest dog proved she was a real party animal by celebrating her 21st birthday with a big bash and a cake, a Guinness World Records spokesman said today.

New Yorker Chanel is 147 in dog years. She struggles to see, hear and walk, but the off-white Daschund-cross, is still able to enjoy the finer things in life.

Her owners Karl and Denise Shaughnessy from Long Island like to dress her up in little jumpers and sunglasses or 'doggles' to protect her ancient eyes from the sun's glare.

Karl, a retired police officer, said: 'This dog is a real work of art.'
Chanel is recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living dog after she snatched the title from Bella, a 29-year-old Labrador cross from Britain.

Bella, who was 203 in doggy years, died from a heart attack in her Lincolnshire home in September last year.

Karl's wife, Denice, adopted Chanel from an animal shelter in Virginia when she was just six-weeks-old.

Denice, then 30, was working as a court reporter in the Army. She rescued Chanel for her 12-year-old daughter, but the dog became more fond of Denice.

"Chanel was always very athletic," Denice said, recalling how they used to run three-to-four miles a day together.
Even 21 years later, Denice and Chanel still enjoy walks around their suburbs. But the dachshund now has to be carried and spends most of her time in the Shaughnessy's kitchen.

"We don't have to take her outside to to go and we don't take her out at all in the wintertime," Karl said. "We try to protect her as much as we can." Chanel is starting to look a bit frail, is hard of hearing and fighting a battle with cataracts but her physical impairments are small in comparison to her grand age.#

She celebrated her birthday with a visit to the New York Dog Hotel and Spa where she was joined by some doggy friends.

Chanel's vet Phillip Zangara, of the Roosevelt Animal Hospital in Port Jefferson Station, N.Y said: 'She's the oldest dog we have ever seen.

"She is defying every odd right now. I'm surprised at just about everything about her. She has the body of a six-year-old." Chanel has become slightly crotchety with age and has been known to snap a nip at strangers. But Denice says she still has a fairly calm disposition.

'She doesn't like to be bothered or have her face washed.

'And she doesn't let anybody hold her except me nowadays,' she said.

Denice has thought about the future for her aged pooch. She hopes she will never have to make a decision to put her down/
'I absolutely love her so much, and I am really just hoping that when it is time to go, she just goes in her sleep,' she said.

The oldest dog ever recorded was Bluey, a sheepdog from Australia, who lived to be 29.