how big will my puppy get

How Big Will My Puppy Get?

Almost the first question anyone asks when thinking about adopting or buying a puppy is – how big will he get? This is an important question to ask before you take the puppy home.

If you are hoping for a small or medium size of dog and end up with one of Mongo proportions, that miscalculation may be significant. Alternatively, if you want a huge dog and wind up with a powder puff pooch you may be unhappy for that reason.

It is really important to know what you are getting into when you get a pup, in terms of its eventual size, exercise and grooming requirements, likely temperament, personality, and energy level – to name but a few important considerations. And size does matter! Big dogs need more space at home and in the car, may need special fencing, cost more to feed and medicate, and require more physical strength to control.

Estimating a pup’s eventual size is not too tricky when the dog is purebred. You may get a pretty good idea by looking at the puppy’s parent or by looking up breed standards in a book such as the American Kennel Club’s Complete Dog Book. Breed standards will tell you a typical weight range for each breed as well as height at the shoulder, length of the muzzle, and much more! Sure, there are the occasional runts but these can be picked out by eyeballing the litter and assessing if they’re all about the same size.

It’s mixed breed pups that are harder to assess when it comes to growth potential. This is especially true in a situation where neither information about the breed or size of the puppy’s parents nor the exact age of the puppy is known. This is not an uncommon situation in humane societies or shelters where puppies just show up.

The younger the pup is, the harder it is to predict what size it will eventually be. Some estimate can be made if the puppy’s age is known or if there is known information about the parents. Of course, the mom will sometimes be around to see, but it may be impossible to know information about the sire.

Here are some considerations to give you a handle on a puppy’s growth potential:

If all of the above factors are considered, it should be possible to make a reasonable assessment of a pup’s estimated size and weight at maturity. And at least there will be no BIG surprises though admittedly even the best estimations are far from 100 % accurate.