Is my doodle a runt?

[Ollie's Mom]

So this is not a big deal BUT I paid decent money for an F1b doodle. He's 75% standard poodle and 25% standard golden retreiver.  Or so I was told when I picked him up at 7.5 weeks!  Ollie is almost 8 months now and is 35 pounds soakin' wet. I grew up with large dogs so I was hoping he would grow to be 60-70lbs.  When I google average F1b weight I see 50-100.  So, what would you fellow doodle lovers/owners do? Get him DNA tested, if he's not what they say he is ask for half my $$ back? Obviously I'm not going to get ride of Ollie, love the lil stinker.  But I am a bit miffed when everyone asks "oh is he a MINI?"  (I'm about to start saying yes!)  --seeking your thoughts doodle kisses friends!

[Malenie Piscetelli]

He is definitely a mini doodle. Mine 56 lbs and she is standard . When she was about 9 mos , she was about 46 lbs

[Katie & Roo]

Do you know the size of his parents?

[Ollie's Mom]

I was told standard poodle (black) mixed with standard golden and standard poodle. I only saw pictures of the parents.

[Kathryn Clark]

I'm sorry this happened to you! How frustrating! I think he's definitely on the smaller side. Our medium multigen labradoodle was supposed to be 35 pounds at full size and is now 45 pounds at 7 months so I have no clue if this is as big as he'll get or there'll be more growing. Perhaps you can ask about the rest of the litter? Is there anything in your contract like a disclaimer regarding size? I know there's a lot of breeding between sizes so sometimes you just don't know what you'll get. He's really cute!!

[Mindy Rapp]

My doodle is 42-43 lbs full grown.  She's not a mini, but she's much smaller than some other ones I've seen.  I like her little size. I can pick her up and carry her if I need to.   She is half and half, but the Golden Retrievers were smaller show Goldens.  The breeder said she would be about 50 lbs but she never got there.   

[Ollie's Mom]

How do you know when they are fully grown? Well I suppose it's obvious when he stops gaining for 2-3 months! BUT do you remember when that was?

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Oscar's mom was 40 lbs. and she was a small standard. His father was 55 lbs. Oscar was the so called 'runt' of the litter (he was as small as the smaller females) and we chose him because we wanted a 40 lb. doodle. He grew and grew and now weighs about 75 lbs. fully grown! Its really a crap shoot because genetics from previous generations can come into play and throw a wrench in the best laid plans. My guess is Ollie will ultimately be about 45 lbs. which is a small standard.

[Ollie's Mom]

Do you recall when Oscar (love the name!) stopped growing?

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

LOL... we wonder sometimes if he has stopped growing! For some reason he just keeps looking bigger to us, and he's now 2-1/2 yrs. I would say, though, that the majority of his growing was finished by 1-1/2 yrs. Due to his being a bigger dog he just grew slower. When he was Ollie's age he was well over 44 lbs., probably closer to 50. If you're interested, here's a link to a discussion on his weight progression (with pics), that I started when he was 11 weeks old.

http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/puppymadness/forum/topics/do-you-...

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

I just want to clarify, that when I say I think Ollie will ultimately be about 45 lbs., that's at about 2 yrs old, after he's filled out.

[Veronica Z.]

My girl is an F1 Goldendoodle (Golden Retriever X Miniature Poodle) and at 2 years old she is 19.8lbs. We wanted a big dog but quickly came to appreciate her portable size as well as the fact that mini/petite Goldendoodles from a breeder are actually crazy expensive out here in California, much more so than standard doodles. We didn't get her from a fancy breeder but don't they usually do all sorts of testing and provide certificates, etc.?

I also seem to recall most breeders, out here at least, not feeling comfortable making guarantees about size. Especially since they are a mixed breed. What did the contract state?

[Ginny Nightingale]

Although with those parents, it would be unusual to get a 40 pound dog, it is always possible--there are standard poodles and golden retrievers that are on the smaller side and if you did not meet the parents it is hard to know how big they really were. Even though the one parent was a purebred, there can be size differences among poodles and the F1 doodle could have been on the smaller side too--sorry you did not get "what your ordered" but if you look around on our site, you will see that many of us have had a doodle change color, end up bigger or smaller than we expected, curlier or straighter than we expected--etc! And we love them just the same! I can not imagine that you would get any money back--most pups just come with a health guarantee, not a size guarantee--there would be too many refunds! :)