Puppy Growth Rate Explained

 

A new puppy owner is always going to ask the question "How big will my puppy get?"  To determine puppy growth rate, one has to consider a lot of variables to ever be able to get an accurate answer for any individual dog breed.And even then, you will be able to only get an average "puppy growth rate" range...or a ballpark figure.

But how is a person to estimate how big their puppy is going to get?What you need to know is that puppies at different ages are going to grow at different rates.The same way that dogs of different breeds grow at different rates.This will make it very difficult to pin point exactly to the pound, how big your puppy is going to be at one year.  And, if it will continue to grow larger in it's second year.

Determine Puppy Growth Rate

Generally speaking, here is one way to determine puppy growth rate.An adult dog will weigh about twice as much as it did when it was 4 months of age.And the rule of thumb for the giant breeds, your dog is going to double what they weigh at 5 months. 

So, before purchasing a puppy, a person really needs to do their research on all the different breeds of dogs.You have the right to know if your new puppy is going to reach 8, 18, or 118 lbs.You have to be educated on the puppy growth rate of the different dog breeds. 

Different Breeds Grow At Different Rates

An average small breed dog, like a toy poodle will reach full weight by year one, at 8 pounds.A bull dog will reach 20# at one year, and 35# by their second year.A larger breed dog, (such as a german shepherd) will reach 70 pounds by year one, and 75 pounds by year two.And the largest breeds, like the great danes of the world will reach 110 pounds by year one, and 130 pounds by year two.

NOTE: Two male puppies from the same liter can also vary in size, the same way two brothers can be very different in size.(I'm about three inches taller, and fifty pounds lighter than my two brothers)

What About Genetics

This then tells me, that genetics can also play a big part in puppy growth rate.I have a slender, long legged toy poodle at home that was really not suppose to get any bigger than her 6 lb. mother.Instead, she grabbed the genes of her mothers sister, and has topped out at eleven pounds.Just understand that puppy growth rate is an average, an estimate of what your dog could grow up to be.(And don't ask me to trade in my eleven pound poodle for any six pound poodle in the world.)

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