Just heard from a Doodle parent that weight size of puppies in litter comes from Dad.

[Joann Valerio]

Can any one comment on that? Thanks

[Becka]

I can only speak from personal experience, which is this: if that were always the case my dog would weigh 70 pounds instead of 55.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

That doodle parent is misinformed, or you misunderstood. Size comes from both parents, just like every single other feature, and just like people. Are you the same size as your father, lol? Genetics in dogs are no different than they are in the rest of the animal kingdom. 

[Joann Valerio]

Thanks Karen. Please accept my friend request. Need to talk. Thnx

[Christine & Shelby]

My Shelby, a Multi-Gen ALD is a medium 40 pounds. Her mom was a 40 pound medium and her dad was a 24 pound mini.... So based on our experience that would be false.

[Nancy]

Definitely not true with both of my Multi-Gen ALD.  I agree totally with Karen.

[Ginny Nightingale]

Well, I have to add that there are both larger and smaller dogs behind those parents and the pup can take totally after one of those larger or smaller ancestors. Case in point, a doodle I raised whose mom was 38 pounds, dad was 28 and  he is 48! Another one--mom was 48, dad was 28 and pup was the smallest in the litter--now the biggest adult at 48 pounds--totally took after the larger dogs in his pedigree--no sign of the mini-poodles that were behind the dad. He has a sister that is 28 pounds--she got more of the mini-poodle genes. 

The way it works in humans (and maybe dogs?) is that each person get a number of size genes (not just two) and they are averaged to some extent--you could get all the tall genes that your average sized mom has (she has those genes, plus shorter or average genes and ended up average height when all were combined). And added to that were all the tall genes your dad had--he too is average height and has other genes as well but you got all the tall ones--so now, you are much taller than either parent. It is a bit like shuffling a deck, dealing out the cards and getting all Queens, Kings and Aces!

From my experience, the same thing happens in dogs, but I have no proof, no scientific evidence--just a lot of observation as I have raised pups. 

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

I completely agree with this and that you even have to look past the parents generation. My boys mother is a good example, she is a 85lb Bernese Mountian dog which is on the smaller side for Berners but she obviously carries genes for much larger dogs (probably from her parents or previous generations in the breed) because most of her pups are much larger than her. No proof behind that either just what I noticed :)

[Leslie J]

Here's an interesting article about dog size:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-makes-small-dogs-sma/

It seems it's actually pretty complicated!

[Ginny Nightingale]

Yes, it is! And it is not an average of the two parents' sizes, that is for sure! This was an interesting article--thanks for sharing it.

I think that the gene that stunts growth in the article is a bit like the short gene I was referring to---but I oversimplified it quite a bit...

[Lori, Daphne, Lucy & Pippa]

Daphne's father weighs 9 lbs and her mother weighs 45. Daphne weighs 25 lbs.

[Joann Valerio]

Lori: How old is your Doodle now?

[Lori, Daphne, Lucy & Pippa]

She's three years old