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!

[Remidoodle]

My pup grew A LOT between 8 months and 1.5 years.  I can't quite remember how much he weighed at 8 months, but we were convinced he was a runt and laughed about how the breeder told us he would probably be 70-75 pounds, thinking he would never get close.  Now at 1.5 years old he is almost 70 pounds (68 at his last vet visit) and hasn't even quite filled out yet.

[Ollie's Mom]

that makes me feel better Remidoodle!  I actually called the breeder today and she said FEED him. I have been limiting him to 1.5 - 2 cups of Canidae per day but she says give him more food even throw in some table scraps (bread, etc)... I HAVE been giving him peanut butter in his kong almost daily. Anyhow she said feed him and he won't get fat then slow it down at 18 months. thoughts?

[Lori, Daphne, Lucy & Pippa]

What is the recommended amount of food for his size on the bag? I personally don't think its a good idea to overfeed. They can get overweight very quickly and its so much harder to take off the excess weight! I have an F1b who is 8-1/2 months old and weighs 33 lbs. Most likely she is full grown. Hasn't grown since about 6 months old. My other mini weighs 22 lbs and she also stopped growing between 6-8 months. You might want to post this question to Karen in "The food group". She will definitely have some advice on feeding table scraps and other foods. She is EXTREMELY knowledgable on all things about dog nutrition!

[Ginny Nightingale]

That is ridiculous! First, let's make sure he is underweight--feel his ribs and spine--are they protruding or can you just barely feel them thru the skin? If there is a layer of skin over them that gives a bit of cushioning so that they do not protrude, his weight is fine.....she can't tell you to feed him if she does not know what he looks like...this makes me really question your breeder's judgement! 

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Do you know what he weighed at 16 weeks.  you can double that and add about 5-10 lbs and that will give you an idea.  I think he has probably slowed down in his growing but should continue to put on weight for another year or more.  Just more slowly.

[Tracey & Spike]

Spike is a mini and we just had his first yearly exam today and he's a whopping 30 lbs! Ha! With that said he grew a fair bit between 8-12 mths.
Is it an F1b you wanted? I always thought an F1b should be a poodle (mini or standard depending...) crossed back to a first generation doodle. In our case his dad was the purebread poodle to a female mini doodle. I could be totally wrong here though. I might be misinterpreting your reference to percentages. You can always ask your breeder for info on his parents. Get their weights. Might give you an idea of who Ollie is taking after size wise.

[Ginny Nightingale]

An F1 is 50 % poodle, 50 % golden retriever, so if that dog is crossed to a poodle, then the offspring are 75% poodle and 25% retriever--that is what she meant by the percentages, Tracey. 

[Tracey & Spike]

Gotcha!

[Nancy and Georgia Brown]

Standard poodles and golden retrievers come in a huge range of sizes. If you don't know the weight of the parents and they didn't give you any estimate on the weight based on other litters, it's hard to know what the weight would be. 

And there are always smaller and larger pups from most litters. 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

How tall is he at the shoulder?  You have to remember that dogs are not made in a factory so what you 'order' is subject to intangibles that don't come with specs but with 'predictions.'  Because they are simply mutts (however you fancify that), the predictions can't be given with absolute confidence.  I have a daughter who is 5'10" and one son who is 5'7" neither fit our predictions from their birth weights or even toddler years.

[DJ & Chance]

I thought mine would be about 30-35 lbs given the size the the parents but he turned out to be 20lbs.  But he is the cutest bundle of pure doodle joy--love him, mini, maxi, whatever, its doesn't really matter.  

[Erin and Wrigley]

Wow, he's adorable! (I love the way doodles sit! - LOL) Anyway, I'm on the reverse side so I'm thinking this is quite common & can understand your plight! (Mine's a medium & should weigh in at 40 lbs fully grown, however, he's 30 pounds just shy of 5 months! Yikes!)