Growing like a weed! Will he be a giant?

[Elizabeth & Cooper]

Hi all,

Looking for some feedback on whether or not you can really tell a puppy's full grown size at 8-9 weeks. Cooper was middle of the pack when he was born/first few weeks and his parents are 40 and 50 lbs. However, he shot up in the last week or so and ended up being the second largest of the bunch. I took him to the vet today and he weighed in at a whopping 13 lbs (most of which I think is in his bootie). He's now 8.5 weeks and I'm comparing his weight with other dogs of friends of mine who are all now fairly large and he's definitely bigger than most of them at this age. I was predicting he'd end up around the 50 lbs mark but do you think I'm crazy? Will he be a giant? Or is it really too early to tell? Anyone out there with big baby pups who ended up slowing down?

Elizabeth (and Cooper the Trooper!).

[Heather Martinez]

Teddy is expected to be 50-55 lbs when fully grown (he's an F1 standard). Now he weighs 47 lbs at 8.5 months and at 8 weeks he was a little over 5 lbs.

[Katie, John & Parker pup]

Parker's parents were mid 60's I believe and he is a standard F1 as well. He is about 46lbs now at 7 months...but he shot up like a weed at first and now his growth has definitely slowed down for sure!

[Anne G.]

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but I ran across this growth chart for doodles:

http://goldendoodles.com/care/growth_chart.htm

 

Murphy's parents were both around 30 lbs. and she weighs that now at just 6 months old.

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

There are lots of discussions on this site regarding this. Try a "search". But the standard rule of thumb is the weight at 4 months times 2 and add 10. Lucca stayed in that formula and Izzy most likely will too.  She was 25 lbs at 4 months and at 10 months she's around 44 lbs. They do slow down. I remember at first she was growing so fast I thought she was going to be a monster compared to Lucca:). She'll weigh a little more than him once she has stopped growing. She has a few more months to go before she levels out.

[Heather Martinez]

At what age do you expect them to stop growing? Teddy will be 9 months at the end of August and I heard they stop growing around 9 months but I've also heard some dogs were still growing up to a year and a half!

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

Lucca grew up to 1 1/2. I would say the norm is about 1 year

[Jaime and Barley Barker]

Unfortunately, I don't have a weight for Barley at 8 weeks old. When I got him at 12 weeks old, he weighed 26.2 pounds and my vet thought he could get up to 90 lbs. (He rivaled our St. Bernard mix for growth in the beginning and put on 14 pounds in one month.) He's now a year and a half and weighs about 82 pounds, possibly more since I last weighed him about a month ago. I think he has more filling out to do and he'll eventually weigh 85-90 pounds.He's not fat, just big. He's an F2 by the way. I don't know if F2 tend to be bigger. Our F1, Daisy Mae, weighs about 74 pounds, and she needs to lose at least 7 pounds according to the vet. She was 6.4 pounds at 9 weeks old.

[Kathy, Harley & Roxie]

Harley weighed 17 pounds at 9 weeks, at 4 months he weighed 42 pounds, he is now 60 pounds at 6 months.  Vet and breeder at doggie day care believe he will reach 100.  Harley is a F1.

[Steve Drury]

Our Maggie came home at 10 weeks and weighed 11 lbs. She topped out at 70 lbs at around 1 yr old.

Our Daisy came home at 9 weeks weighing 7 lbs. She stopped growing at 6 months and 35 lbs.

Her parents were 35 lbs (same dad for both) and 70 lbs for both moms.

Daisy has lots of dad genes; Maggie has lots of mom genes (including shedding)

[Camilla and Darwin]

Darwin was 16lbs at 12 weeks, and is now 63-65lbs...

[Elizabeth & Cooper]

Thanks everyone. Sheesh... based on this he is probably going to be mighty big. I find it so hard to believe that he'd be double both his parents but I guess it could happen. I also guess that he may slow down a bit too and that it's probably too early to tell at this point. He has a big belly that makes up most of his size! He gained 1 lbs in the last week but I'm the rate will increase over the coming weeks! He's definitely one of the biggest little dudes I've seen at this age. I will love him regardless though he may be pulling me around when he's full ground (I'm only 5' 2")!

I am moving him onto a large puppy food right now (gradual move). Even though he was supposed to be borderline med/large I think it's a smart move to get him on that food.

[Camus]

Hi Elizabeth, I understand better your concern now, after I read this post. Wanted to say that I understand and wish Cooper didn't overgrow your expectations too much.

The height is also important. Measure Cooper's  height and if he is not very tall and just has big belly, it's good for you. Camus is tall  (17'') and slim  and has a lot of empty skin on his back (this indicates that he is going to grow much more). 

Here is how to measure the height http://sonic.net/~cdlcruz/GPCC/library/measure.htm 

And yes, I read stories of puppies who grew not very gradually but very much at the beginning and than stopped growing being still very young.

Check this thread http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/puppymadness/forum/topics/weight-...