Picking puppy ...

[Joann Valerio]

A breeder recently told me that she could tell if the puppy would have short legs.
Thoughts/feedback?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I don't understand what that means. Short legs compared to the other pups in a litter? Legs that are shorter than they should be proportionately? Any dog's legs should be in proportion to his body. Or are we talking about overall height here? 

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Are you looking for a small dog? Is that why the subject of short legs came up? A breeder can give you a pretty good estimate of what size of the pups of her litter will be.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

A good experienced breeder can, lol. 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

You are referring to over-all build, correct? You are looking for a more poodle build than a stocky build?  I would think an experienced breeder would be able to recognize basic structure and help you select what you are looking for.

[Ginny Nightingale]

By 7-8 weeks, the overall conformation of a dog is pretty obvious--if the length of the back is equal to the length of the legs--making a square shape--then the dog will probably have good proportions. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

And that happens to be the breed standard for Poodles, BTW. All three sizes. 

[Ginny Nightingale]

An example...

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Actually, if that were a Poodle pup, he's be considered to have very short legs for the length of his body. 

This is more what the breed standard calls for:

[Wendy and Myla]

This looks more like "the length of the back is equal to the length of the legs" than the above photo.  I was confused!

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

It looks to me like the difference between a labby or retriever build (Ginny's photo) and a poodle build (Karen's).  My ALD has more of the retriever build/bone.

[Kaitee and Orwell]

Given the genetics of the parents you described in another thread, I would expect a more poodle-like body where the length of the legs will be close to the length on the back. 

Some retriever bodies do come to rise sometimes in backcross litters, though. For example, my boy, who is an F2b is basically a poodle with a blocky lab head. He has a brother who is 20 lbs heavier, but the same height at 28". He definitely has more retriever tendencies than Orwell even though they came from the same litter.