Puppy Growth Rate

By Larry Buhrandt

"How big will my puppy get?"

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 a lot of variables to ever be able to get an accurate answer for any individual dog breed. And even then, you will only be able to get an average "puppy growth rate" range...or a "ballpark figure".

But how does a person estimate how big their puppy is going to get? What you need to know is that puppies at different ages grow at different rates. The same way that puppies of different breeds grow 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.

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 reached 4 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 need to know if your new canine is going to reach 9 pounds or 109 pounds. You have to understand the puppy growth rate on the different dog breeds.

An average small breed dog, like a toy poodle will reach full weight by year one, at 8 pounds. A bulldog will reach 20 pounds 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 a great dane will reach 110 pounds by year one, and 130 pounds by year two.

What About Genetics?

But also understand that two male puppies from the same liter can also vary in size, the same way your two brothers can be very different in size. (I'm three inches taller, and fifty pounds lighter than either of my brothers)

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

Raising Your Puppy

Larry is an accomplished writer interested in sharing his view and knowledge on dog training, health and nutrition. More Interesting Blogs.