The majority of all new puppy owners ask the question “How big will my puppy get?”
To determine puppy growth rate, one has to consider all of the variables to ever be able to get an accurate answer for any individual dog breed. And even with all of this information, you will only be able to get an average “puppy growth rate” range…or a ballpark figure.
But how can you guess how big your puppy is going to get? What you really need to know to understand this, is that puppies at different ages grow at different rates.
The same way that puppies of different breeds are growing at different rates. This makes 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.
How do you Determine Puppy Growth Rate?
Generally speaking, here is one way to determine puppy development rate.
An adult dog will weigh about twice as much as it did when it reached four months of age. And the rule of thumb for the giant breeds, your dog will double what they weigh at 5 months.
So, before buying a puppy, a person really needs to do their research on the different breeds of dogs. You really need to know if your new canine is going will reach 9 pounds or 129 pounds fully grown.
You need to understand the puppy maturation pace on 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 bulldog is expected to reach about 20 pounds at one year, and 35 by their second year.
A larger breed dog, such as a german shepherd could reach 70 pounds by year one, and 75 pounds by year two.
And the largest breeds, like a great dane will reach 110 by year one, and 130 by year two.
But also note that 2 male puppies from the same liter can also vary in size, the same way 2 brothers can be very different in size.
(I'm around 3 inches taller, and 50 pounds lighter than either of my brothers 🙂
What About Genetics?
This then tells me, that genetics can also play a big part in puppy maturation rate.
I have a slender, long legged toy poodle that was not suppose to get any bigger than her 6 lb. mom. Instead, she had the genes of her mothers sister, and she topped out at eleven pounds.
Just understand that puppy development range is an average, an estimate of what your dog could grow up to be.
(And I wouldn't trade my 11 pound poodle for any 6 pound poodle in the world. 🙂
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