# Pup Weight



## Ted White (May 2, 2006)

GSD (male) just turned 6 months old. Weighs 64 lbs. I realize weights are all over the board, just like with people, but are there any opinions if this is about average? His dad is 85 lbs.

I let him put on a wee bit of fat (you can still easily feel ribs) since we're outside a lot and I'm in cold Michigan.

Thanks!


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## Gary Garner (Jun 30, 2007)

My bitch is just over 9 months old and weight 58 pounds...

How does your dog 'feel'....to you...ie: ribs, bones etc..the covering of fat..

What about his muscle structure...?

energy levels too ?

I'd like to see a picture or two of him also...if you can post some.


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## Mike Schoonbrood (Mar 27, 2006)

My thicker male pup is about 10 months old now and comes in at 64lbs.


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## Ted White (May 2, 2006)

Well, someone commented a week ago that he looked skinny. 

Gary, he "feels" just fine. He looks quite lean. Very little fat. As I said, you can easily feel ribs and before winter you could see them.

He's hyperactive I guess I'd say. Leaps vertically like a monkey when food is being served. Much more energy than other pups I've had.

I'd post pictures if I knew how...


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## Yuko Blum (Dec 20, 2007)

Ted,

Your pup sounds like he's in fine shape. They're supposed to be skinny growing up. Can you see any of his ribs when he's breathing hard?
I like to see a hint of rib on my dogs (pups and adults alike) when they're at rest and 3-4 ribs when they're really breathing hard.

If you want an "average" you'll have to look at your pup's parents and their growth rates.

Different lines can throw huge differences in size, weight, bulk, limb length etc.

My smallest shepherd is a 59-lb bitch (she's 11 years old now), my largest shepherd is a 97-lb male (20 months) and I also have a 75-lb bitch (10 months).

My two youngest were all over the place on the growth charts. Asking the breeder about their parents gave me a much more accurate projection of their final size. They all stopped growing (height-wise) at about 9-10 months but continue to bulk up and build muscle after that.

Best thing is to keep 'em thin, feed a quality diet high in meat - preferably a raw diet (with little or no grains) and that should keep the pup's growth slow and steady.


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## Mike Schoonbrood (Mar 27, 2006)

People will always tell you your pup looks skinny, just like people always look at me like I starve my dogs when I show them how much I feed.


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## ann schnerre (Aug 24, 2006)

i'm with mike, etc., ppl always say "he's kinda skinny, isn't he?". look at the pics of him in the photo gallery ("brix--almost 2.."). he's really in near-perfect weight. you can adjust weight if you think he's too fat (doesn't sound like it to me, BTW) simply by cutting down feed for about 2 weeks and see where he's at.

yuko's giudelines are good 

when i think one of the dogs is a little too heavy (and i'm really kind of a control freak about weight) , i cut back on one feeding (of 2) and give it 2 wks to see what happens with the weight. however, in young growing animals this isn't usually an issue--just don't increase for a bit. again, your eye/hand will tell you more than any chart as far as whether or not you need to increase/decrease/hold steady w/feed.


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## Ted White (May 2, 2006)

All excellent thoughts. Thanks a lot. I'll take a couple of pics. I'd say he's a couple three pounds heavy, anyway. I just feel guilty with the cold up here.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

I got curious since I usually don't weigh my dogs unless I see problems. I just go by feel and visual.
Trooper is 3 days short of 8 months and weighs a lean 63 lbs. Hard to measure heigh cause he's still thinks he's a squirmmy puppy. He looks taller then Thunder (25-26 inches) but his coat is lots fluffier. Thunder's weight is 77 lb.
Thunder's damn near perfect! Well...actually he is perfect but that might sound like bragging. :grin: :grin: :grin: :wink:


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Usually a pretty good rule of thumb is take the pup's weight when they are about 4 to 4.5 months old and double it and this will be sort of in the ball park for what you want to see.


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## Ted White (May 2, 2006)

Hmmm... Well that's interesting. At 4 months he was around 45 pounds. So while I have him a few pounds heavy right now (maybe 8%-10% heavy) he might top out at a healthy weight of 85 to 90, just like his dad.

I'm going to take some pics and see what the group thinks for weight. I think I'll trim him down to pre-holiday weight. We were travelling for 2 weeks (with pup) over the holidays and there was no free-running, only leash.


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## Ted White (May 2, 2006)

Pup seems to have a thin layer of fat directly under the skin, as compared to being attached to the chest. You can pull a handful of what feels like thick skin + fur. I wonder if some of this is temperature (winter) related.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

There are two kinds of fat: white fat and brown fat. White is for energy storage, brown is more for heat generation and thermoregulation. Human babies have brown fat that goes away as they get older. I found out last semester in my histology class that the brown fat has its color due to more mitochondria (for energy production). It's mostly newborn and hibernating animals that have brown fat.


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## Ted White (May 2, 2006)

That is just so interesting! So given the fact that my pup is 6 months old, whatever I'm lookin' at is likely white fat? Not attributable to the cold, then.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Brown fat is typically on the back (like between the shoulder blades), so probably not, though I'm not 100% sure. We used to be able to find a little bit of it on our adult mice in our research lab and last semester, I found some on the back of a (cadaver) adult rat we did in the rodent section of anatomy. I don't think dogs would have much once they can thermoregulate better sometime after birth.


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## Ted White (May 2, 2006)

That's great stuff to know in any event.


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## Dan Long (Jan 10, 2008)

My GSD seemed to have his weight correspond with his age up to a point. He was 57lbs @ 5 months, [email protected] 6 months, [email protected] 7 months, then he slowed down his growth a lot. He was 85lbs from about a year old until about 2 1/2, and now he's about 90 and nice and lean. He might still have some filling out to do but I'd like his weight to stay where it is now.


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## Ted White (May 2, 2006)

That sounds like what I'm looking at Dan. After looking at this issue and asking a lot of people, my pup is just large for his age. That doesn't translate into a giant adult. Just means he grew faster early on.


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## Dan Long (Jan 10, 2008)

I was amazed at times- at one point he went from 25lbs to 45lbs in one month. 10lbs a month was normal after 4 months old. We feed a raw diet, and that is supposed to slow the growth rate. I can't imagine how fast he'd grow if on kibble. We charted him for his 1st year, each month. The bottom line, a dog is only going to grow to it's genetic imprinted size. The slower they get there, the better it is for their long term joint health. Our Dane is about 115-120lbs, there are Danes her age that are much heavier, but she's in great shape- almost ripped looking, and she'll eventually get to the 150-160lbs that she's programmed for. 

A girl at a training class I was helping with had a nice young male about 9 months old. She was looking at my dog and said, do you think my dog will ever get as big as yours? I asked her what he weighed, she says "about 95". I said, he's already bigger than mine! But his body composition was totally different, he was soft and all puppy still. My guy is big, but not really out of standard. He's about an inch taller and a couple lbs over the desired size. I didn't want one of those huge oversized dogs and I'm glad he's where he is now.


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