Measuring Your Dog's Height?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The other day Jack and I were leaving the vet's office as a young family with two small children were coming in. The little girl said, "Mommy, there's a humongous doggy!"

I hear this all the time. Jackdoodle is really large, and people are always commenting on his size. He is always, always the biggest and tallest doodle at every romp and dog park. He is much taller than any of the standard poodles or Labs we know, and even some of the working breeds like Rotties & most shepherds. At 87 lbs, he is also one of the heaviest of the poodle mixes we have met.

Yet he is "only" 25 inches at the top of the shoulder, when I flatten down his fur. (If I just hold the tape next to him without flattening down his fur with the other hand, he's at 27". )This is where a dog's height is supposed to be measured.

What confuses me is the number of DK members who mention that their doodles are 26, 27, and even 28 inches tall. I am really perplexed as to how there could be so many doodles here who are so much taller than Jack, as I never see one in person, and we see a lot of doodles, they are very popular here. 27 inches is really, really tall for a dog...that's the top limit on the standards for some of the biggest breeds out there.

So what I'm wondering is if these heights are being taken at the shoulder, if they are maybe eyeballed, and include the fur? Or if doodles just grow taller in other parts of the country and my humongous doggy is really a shrimp?

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

He complains about it, but he holds pretty still.
I'm also thinking it looks like the goldendoodles are taller on average than the labradoodles. I think it's Jack's big head that give him the appearance of greater height, lol.

[Zoe, Benny and Tyler]

I think there are a lot of big doodles out there. My Tyler is 9 months now and is also already 24.5 inches with fur flattened and measured where you measure. My friends doodle is at least 27 inches tall as he is much taller than Tyler.
My Benny is also 24 inches.
Probably in your area there are not so many standard sized doodles?

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Starlit( 8 months ) looks so much bigger and taller than Spud although Spud weighs 5 lbs more.

Starlit is hard to measure because her back is so long and swayed but I think I actually got her height right this time. Here goes.

Spud is 24 inches tall ( measured at the withers ) and looks like a shrimp.
Starlit is--25 inches tall and looks huge

Spud weighs 51.01 lbs
Starlit weighs 45.00 lbs

Look at the difference in this picture. Only an inch taller but she is so long. Is this deceiving?

I'll try to get a rear view picture of both together, LEGS of course, but you can see a huge difference this way also.

If they are standing together and I look at them from the back--Spud's legs appear to be many inches shorter. Starlit is ALL legs.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Is Jack LONG also?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Not particularly, but he is a little bit swaybacked; from the side, he reminds me of a horse. His rump is very high, probably higher than his shoulder.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Yeah, Starbutt, er Starlit too.
I've even gotten 27 inches if this girl would stand up straight once in awhile! But she is very hard to measure. I have pencil marks all over the walls. Do I sound like a mother? Stand up straight girl.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Boy is she ever. Calla has legs that could support a piano, as my father might say. Luca's legs are so thin I wonder how he runs so fast.

[F, Calla & Luca]

For what it's worth, Luca is 20" and Calla is 22-23". These are give or take measurements, I find you can get different numbers with the slightest wiggle. Anyway, I always think of him as a large medium and of her as a small standard. When they are both on the bed they are jumbos : )

[Linda and Murphy]

Karen, Murphy is 29 inches at the withers and weighed 99.3 lbs on Thursday. He was measured at an agility match with the calipers. (Not that it mattered..he has to jump the highest bar. I was just curious). We don't have a lot of doodles here, but apparently none are as large as Murphy.
I simply tell them "He's from Texas." lol

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Murphy might be the World's Largest Doodle!

[Linda and Murphy]

We were at our usual Saturday farmers market, when a little boy about 6 or 7 came up to us.( I must mention that he was very overweight.) He looked at Murphy, asked to pet him, and then told me. " LADY, if you didn't feed him that much, he wouldn't get THAT big."

[F, Calla & Luca]

Kids are too funny.