Question re: coloring and size

[Joanie]

Hi Everyone :)  So Lani is almost 8 months old.  She went to the vet yesterday to get the first vaccine for Lyme and goes back in two weeks for the second dose.  Anyhow, she is up to 28 pounds!  My first question is, should I expect her to put on more weight and if so until what age?  The breeder said she should get to 45lbs, but I wasn't sure when Australian Labradoodles stop growing?  Another question is she's cream colored and everyone at the Vet's office couldn't stop commenting on her beautiful coat and how many different colors it is.  I always say she's like an oatmeal color but the vet was saying it's more of a grey especially on top of her back.  She does have black hairs mixed in with her cream coloring and is a fleece / wool coat.  Her daddy was jet black and her mom was a cafe color.  Do you think she will keep changing colors?

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Wow, first let me say that she is adorable and I love her name.  That being said, you ask two pretty tough to answer, with any certainty, questions.  If you know her weight at 4 months your best best is to double that and add up to 10 lbs and that is a best guess estimate.  My girls at 32 weeks (8 months) were at 47 and 42 lbs and they have topped at at around 60 and 80 lbs.  So, I would say that she has a little ways to go yet.  As for the color, that is a tough one.  She hasn't gone through the coat change yet so it is really hard to say.  The blacks, chocolates and reds can fade as they mature, but the cream/apricot don't always change too much although I have seen one that had a lot of apricot turn completely creamy when she went through the coat change and I've seen some cream ones get more apricot.  So, it is like a "surprise" !

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

Cooper (ALD) grew til she was about 1, then had another growth spurt when she was 1 1/2 so Id say Lani still has lots of growing to do

[Joanie]

lol awesome :)  I keep noticing her growing and growing... I guess I will just tell my husband she is Clifford the Big Red Dog hahaha.  Do you know at about what age she should go through the coat change?

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Should be soon - at just under a year!  Get your combs and brushes ready! ;)

Luna "filled out" a bit at just over a year (didn't gain height any more but gained muscle).

[BG and Gavin]

Gavin was 61lbs at 8 months and he has topped out at 66lbs at 2.5 years old.  He was an early bloomer I guess :)

[Elizabeth & Cosmo]

Cosmo is a medium Australian Labradoodle, and he weighed 29.6 pounds at 8 months. Now, at 22 months, he weighs 41 pounds. His rate of gain began to slow significantly at about 10 months old.

He may be classified as a small standard now, because he crossed the 40-pound threshold. But he is still a very nice-sized dog!

Cosmo is cafe in color, and his coat is diluting in some areas as he gets older. In some places, his coat looks almost cream or even lavender in some lights. If you look at the individual hairs, he has a mix of different colors, too.

Judging from her photos, I would say that Lani is cream with apricot on her ears and back. Because of her black pigment (on her nose and lips) and her dark eyes, plus having cafe and black in her parents, her main coat color will probably remain cream. The apricot areas may lighten, but I don't think she will dilute all the way to parchment or white.

Those are just my guesses. Coat color is determined by the interaction of several genes and can be hard to predict. Coat color in these dogs is generally similar to coat color in poodles. (If you Google that phrase, you'll find lots of interesting info!) You can see photos of the basic poodle colors here:

http://arpeggiopoodles.tripod.com/poodlecoatcolorsoverviewofallcolo...

Whatever color or size she ends up, Lani is a precious girl!

[Joanie]

Thank you so much for all this great info!  I love watching Lan grow and change.  It's so hard to believe when you look at her pictures from just a few months ago how different she looked.