Skinny doodle!

[Texas Doodle Mom and Molly Rose]

Okay, we tried all the grooming products and tools and still had to just cut Molly shorter.  Her adult coat is coming in and for every one mat I released, I swear, five more popped up!  Now, she's cut very short (oh, it broke my heart to see her the first time, but I know it will grow back), and I can now see how SKINNY she is.  At 10 months old, she was almost 25 lbs., and now she's 23.5 (I don't think she ate much when we were out of town last weekend).  She's not interested in wolfing down her food, but she will eat eventually.  We expected her to be around 30 lbs., though her father was 28 and mother around 30. 

Is this just the awkward, gangly, teenager phase?  Or, do I need to fatten her up a bit?  She does get healthy treats (salmon or duck jerky, other pellet size organic treats).  The haircut really reveals so much!

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

If Molly is in good health there's no reason to fatten her up. She probably just has more of a Poodle build. Doodles 'fill out' after their first year (Lucy gained about 10lbs and Oscar gained about 20lbs after the first year - both standard Labradoodles). Lean dogs tend to be healthier in general, so I wouldn't worry.

[Texas Doodle Mom and Molly Rose]

Thank you! I was worried about her being so skinny, but she's healthy. I really can't believe how poodle-y she looks right now, but I am enjoying the break from stressing over the mats. We made grooming appointments for every 4 weeks while her coat changes, but I'm not sure how much there will be to trim in a month. Glad to hear she will fill out after year one. My shelties always looked gangly before one year too.

[Pat, Mary & Cooper]

Our vet did find that Cooper was a bit skinny around 1 year old...you could feel the bones on top of his back! But he his a good eater but was burning so much energy with all that exercise and playing that we had to make him gain a bit of weight...
We've always feed him all natural food ,but when we switched him to grain free we saw that the protein contain was higher and he started to put a bit of weight but especially muscle. We go to the vet's office just to weigh him and keep track of his weight gain. He just loves it there ,everybody knows him by his name, saying hello to all the nice staff and getting a treat once in a while! Now that Cooper is almost 19 months he stabilised his weight around 27 pounds , you can still feel his bones on his back but that's the way he is built. At least he gain some muscle !

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I think she is done growing - the smaller doodles are done by 8 months - so if she was weighing 25 pounds and now weighs 23.5 on the same scale, she might have lost last week when you were gone. I would add a little bit of kibble to her meals for a while.  Skinny is a good thing.

[Texas Doodle Mom and Molly Rose]

I put her extra kibble in a big kong today -- she liked that a lot.  We will sneak more of those in!  I too can feel the bony parts on the back and I'm sure she needs just a little more padding. 

[Texas Doodle Mom and Molly Rose]

What kind of yogurt is okay to freeze in a kong? Seems that would help add calories if she can handle the dairy.