Size Of Puppy Vs Size Of Dog

[Simply Grand]

Does the size of a young puppy give you much of an idea of how big the adult dog will be? As in could 2 different breed puppies of about the same size at say 10 weeks turn out significantly different sizes as adults?

This really applies more to mixed breed dogs I guess, pure breeds being much more predictable, and I'm asking because of the number of conversations I've had with people who have a puppy they've brought home at 8 - 12 weeks, without meeting the parents, of about the same size as Saxon was at that age (Toy Poodle x Maltese, 4.8kg as an adult, 1.8kg at 10 weeks - I met his parents, he's the size I expected), and they are expecting to end up with a medium size dog because puppy is apparently a small breed x medium breed.

This would be assuming that the pup really is the cross (or pure breed) that the owners have been told. Is it possible that the pup could start off the size of a toy or small breed in the first 3 or 4 months, then actually grow to the size of a medium or larger breed?

And alternatively, could a pup be the size of a large breed at 3 to 4 months, and only grow to the size of a medium breed as an adult?

Hmm, should give examples of what I'm talking about:

Toy/small breed - Toy poodle, Mini Foxy, Pomeranian, CKCS

Medium breed - Kelpie, Cocker Spaniel, Staffy, Mini Poodle

Large breed - Lab, Rottie

Edited January 24, 2011 by Saxonpup

[ness]

Will give you an example of my purebred pedigree Border Collie girl.

She was 2.4kg at 11 weeks, 4.7kg at 13 weeks, finished up around 13.5 kg and 45cm.

Not sure if that is any help to you or not . So she is a fraction under breed standard but still a "medium" dog who wasn't that big as a baby. I know one of her litter sisters in contrast was heavier than her and finished up heavier then her when fully grown but was probably a little smaller again in height (well when I met her at 12 months).

Edited January 25, 2011 by ness

[Flaves]

Look at GSDs and rottis

Can be about the same size at birth but a rotti is usually bigger - heavier than a gsd at maturity

[Esky the husky]

My girl turned out very big for her breed, well over the perscribed height in the breed standard.

It was a bit of a curveball for us since I'd bought a crate etc for her expected adult size.

She had grown out of it by 6 months ;)

[sas]

The last 3 x-breed pups we have had as fosters have all grown much bigger than we expected, one of which was absolutely tiny and we had started to wonder if she may be crossed with a small breed.

We go on the safe side and say expect Medium-Large - you never know with crosses.

My Pedigree Great Dane ended up quite small and he was the smallest in the litter as well, although my breeder did say she's had other small ones become the biggest.

Edited January 24, 2011 by MEH

[Kirty]

A friend of mine once bought an 'Aussie Terrier cross' from a pet shop who was tiny as a pup - and ended up HUGE! He was some sort of wirey/scruffy crossbreed, looked sort of like 'Benji' but a lot bigger!

[Simply Grand]

Hmm, so there can be lots of variety. Even in purebreeds it seems. So is the size of the parents much of an indication? Or do you have to go back through generatioins of a pedigree?

[Lowenhart]

Parents can give an indication but one of the features of "hybrid vigor" is that the offspring grows bigger than it's parents.

In true hybrids like Ligers/Tigons, the offspring heavily outweighs the biggest of the parents species.

So whilst you can have 2 small sized examples of a breeds, the offspring of a cross will likely out grow them both.

In breeding 2 of the same breed together, you can get diversity in size. Usually this is traceable with sizable ancestors. A kind of "throw back".

Edited January 24, 2011 by Lowenhart

[dancinbcs]

Hmm, so there can be lots of variety. Even in purebreeds it seems. So is the size of the parents much of an indication? Or do you have to go back through generatioins of a pedigree?

Even then size is a lottery. Generally most purebred dogs will end up vaguely within the breed standard size but in breeds with a fairly big height range it is impossible to predict which end of the scale they will end up. I have had an 8 week old 3 kg puppy finish up near the top of our standard and weigh 21kg mature. I have also had some weigh 8kgs at 8 weeks and end up anywhere from 15kgs to 26kgs mature, all within the height standard.

With crossbreds, anything is possible.

[SpotTheDog]

I thought my dog, identified by the vet as 'bull arab' (for a given value of mutt) could conceivably hit the scales near 40kgs as an adult. He started out rapidly - got him at 12 weeks and he put on literally 1kg per week up to six months of age, where he was 22kgs. Then it all stopped, and in the next three months he's put on 4kgs to hit 26kgs now at 9 months of age.

I'd imagine he will max at 30kgs but won't get any larger, and may even stop shy of the 30kg mark. I've no idea if he's in for a second growth spurt.

At the moment he's at precisely that size you dread - nose at crotch height and tail at did-you-want-that-thing-on-the-coffee-table height.

[whiskedaway]

My Husky was the biggest pup in the litter. Even Husky people said she was a big pup. She's now on the low end of the breed standard and some people can't get over how small she is.

[Monah]

My spin was 10kg at 8 weekks and the largest in the litter. Males are normally larger than females in this breed, often 10kgs larger at adulthood.

sure enough, she ended up 'female' size and the males much larger than her Her paws too were really enormous (although they all do have very big webbed feet), hers were the largest.

I dont know if puppy size relates to adult size or not, but it's an interesting concept to study, any uni students here??

[Guest english.ivy]

My Pointer pup is a lot bigger [well taller] than I expected.

He was 8kg at eight weeks old and is now close to 30kg at 11 months old. I need to go weigh him.

Though the whole 'huge paws as a pup' judgement was correct with Badger, his paws were really big and chunky as a young pup. He certainly grew into his paws!