Small Puppy

[Australian Labradoodles]

We are no longer breeding Australian Labradoodles but we kept a boy from our last litter (July).  He was very tiny and I had to bottle feed him so I, of course, became very attached to him.  The other pups are almost double his size.  We bred large standards but had a few small standards that cropped up occasionally.  But this boy is very small.  He only weighs about 20 lbs at 4 months.  The other pups we have had weighed between 30 and 40 lbs at this age.  Do any of you have an AL that was about this size as a puppy and is now grown up.  I'm very curious to get an idea of how big he will be.  What ever size he ends up we will love him but we have never had one so small.  When his siblings were 8 weeks old their weights ranged between 12 and 16 lbs while he was only 8 lbs.  Pety is a real sweetheart of a pup and is everything a AL is known for BUT it doesn't look like he will be a standard.  His father is 25" and his mother is 24".

[Ginny Nightingale]

My puppy has an ALD for a mom who weighs about 50 pounds, but his dad was smaller--about 38 pounds. He weighed 20 pounds at 16 weeks and is now 10 months old and weighs 35 pounds and is about 18 inches at the shoulder.

[Lynda Kamrath]

If you were breeding standards, then yes he is rather small.  But if you use the 4 month rule and double the weight at 4 months and add 5 pounds, you will have 45 pounds for the expected adult weight.  My ALD weighs 47.5 pounds, so that is not so small.  If you consider human infants who are often very small at birth (under five pounds), they end up being about the normal size at full growth.  He probably won't end up as large as the normal standard, but he will be a pretty good sized pup.

[Dos Doodles--Sam & Luke]

Our dog Sam was tiiiiiiny when we got him.  4.8 pounds at 9 weeks.  I don't have the progression of weight gain handy, but I can tell you he was and is always light.  His parents are both mediums, but Sam's grandfather on mom's side is a big ol' chocolate ALD.  Sam is a stunning 26" but weighs about 52 pounds at about 21 months old.  He has really long legs and a fine-boned frame.  I think you have to look more at the build than the weight.  A 50 pound dog can significantly vary in height. How tall is he at 4 months?  What does his lineage look like?  He could be a shrimp, or he could just be a slow/late bloomer!  Sam didn't really get serious about getting big until he was about 6 months old.  Then he just really shot up.