Silly Questions About Dog Growth

[jaybeece]

My bullmastiff x looks like he's grown lately, but he's 4 1/2 and I would have thought he'd be done by now? My brother commented that he looks bigger and I think he might be right.

I don't know when they're supposed to stop really, but he was more or less full height at 6 months old which seems pretty early, all he's done since is filled out a bit. In fact he hit 42kgs at around 10 months old but has dropped to 38kg and I've struggled to put weight on him since then (don't know what he weighs right now though).

Does it sound plausible that he's actually grown? He used to refuse to eat more than 3 cups of food a day (adding raw bones just meant left over dry food), but he started to look really thin just before Winter so I tried him with 4 cups again (in addition to raw bones) and he's been right into it, in fact his appetite is the best it's ever been. He doesn't appear to have gained any fat either, he's still a walking rib cage so all that extra food's gotta be going somewhere!

To add more to my musing I'm wondering if it's because he seems really content? We've had so much trouble with dog aggression over the years and he's been through a lot of stress over it, but now he seems genuinely happy and is relaxing on walks, could it be that stress can delay a growth spurt?

Or maybe I'm just imagining things

Edited July 10, 2009 by jaybeece