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Puppy Growth Rate


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The technique I use is to lay a straight piece of wood or plastic as level and as close to the withers as I can with one end touching the wall. Mark the wall and measure from the floor. Dog must be standing straight.

 

Our terrier was measured by his foster carer with a ruler or tape measure from the side and we were told he was 12 ins. He was actually 14.5 ins and that's a dog that stands full square so is easy to measure. I don't try to measure the dog directly because of the potential for significant error, especially with a wriggly pup.

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Tweed was chowing down on 4 cups a day, but he just slowed way down to about 2.5 cups. I hope this means his never ending growth spurt is slowing down. Of course, it just might be the teenage boy starvation phase during which young adult BCs look like concentration camp survivors.

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Tweed was chowing down on 4 cups a day, but he just slowed way down to about 2.5 cups. I hope this means his never ending growth spurt is slowing down. Of course, it just might be the teenage boy starvation phase during which young adult BCs look like concentration camp survivors.

 

Risk would eat anything put in front of him but beyond a certain point it just goes straight through in semi liquid form. I give him as much as his digestion will tolerate. I was feeding 3 meals a day to feed him up but dropping him to 2 larger meals has firmed up his poo. Whatever I feed him he will behave and look as if I am starving him. If his poos weren't normal I would have him checked for EPI.

 

His parents are neither big nor small, neither chunky nor finely built. Nothing remarkable either way. I'd be worried about him if I didn't know that his rate of growth isn't unusual in his family and dogs don't turn out small. It doesn't help that he is surrounded by unrelated bitch pups of a similar age that are enormous.

 

Just goes to show that there is no such thing as a normal BC.

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At -26 weeks, Molly weighs 42#, stands 22.5" and went from stout legged and short backed to long legged and long backed. She is a complete athlete and runs faster than any dog I have ever had. She's sound as a trumpet and I swear she is making up for lost run and jump time.

 

I believe she is nearly done growing and is about to have her first heat. Apparently she is doing EVERYTHING at breakneck speed.

 

 

Yep, first heat happened last week. Weird dog.

 

She is now 44#, same height but looks short legged again as her body gained mass.

 

I can hardly get her to eat. She doesn't even touch food until well into the afternoon and then I have to jazz it up with some especially yummy things or she picks at it and runs to the garden and eats some beans (well, frost burned beans, now). Again, strange dog.

 

She has crossed from puppyness into a higher state of awareness - this is the youngest any of my dogs have ever done so - you know that state, where you can see that they have started to make really adult connections. She could care less about any other dogs or people, even children now. She's fine being alone, she's fine being with me, she's fine being with the pack - alone or with me - but the days of running off to see the interesting stranger seem behind her. Could be a phase.

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I'm glad I'm not the only one with an adolescent who has less interest in food. Having dealt with old dogs for such a long time, I was concerned it was a sign of a health issue. But he seems fine - good energy level, developing lots of muscle, and eliminating without a problem.

 

He's eating, he's just not as thrilled about it as he used to be. And he is always eager to take food in training - it's just his bowl that seems to lack interest for him at times.

 

Now that I think about it, I do remember putting food in a hollow ball for Speedy because he needed to be entertained to be interested in his food when he was young. I guess I thought that was just a quirk of his!

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Well, in my case, I REALLY hope it's six months :)

 

But they change, not necessarily growing but filling out, until around 18 months although they are mostly done, by the eye test, around 14 months. IME. But I suspect it's all over the place.

 

 

I would be very surprised if my 44# 6.5 month old got much heavier. I suspect she will finish in the 50# range and 24" in height.

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Bandit just had another noticeable growth spurt at 7 1/2 - 8 months old!!! I didn't think he had another one in him, but he got bigger again!!

 

If he has another growth spurt like that, he will be as big as Dean!!! At the height he is now, I expect he will be about 43 pounds when he fills out!!

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Keeper also lost interest in food at around 6 months! He was INSANE about food when I got him, and now he eats well enough, but he'll leave it half the time for a little while. He also chews his food, which is a big change! :)

 

At 8 months Keeper now weighs 39 lbs. I haven't noticed him growing up any since he was maybe 6 months, so he probably has a little more "up" to do, but I'd guess he's mostly finished. He probably has a lot of "out" to do yet. He's the spitting image of his dad (albeit a little scaled down) and he's a very heavily muscled dog. A solid 50+ lbs, but definitely doesn't look it. Keeper's mom was 39 lbs. I suspect he's going to split the difference, maybe 45 lbs?

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Aed has never had a ton of interest in food. We typically just add something to it, even as simple as vegetable oil, and he eats it, though. I think he also just gets bored the times when he doesn't have to work for it.

If he's kept up a steady rate he should be about 20lbs now at 18 weeks, but I don't trust our scale much so we'll see at the vet on Tuesday.

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Hmm, I was wondering if Cal was starting to get tired of her food or something was wrong. She's been leaving her food too and returning to it when she gets hungry again (she used to inhale it all in less than a minute).

 

Does anyone have a BC/Lab mix? I'm wondering if the lab part will make her get bigger than the average female Border Collie.

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Since female Labs are bigger than the average male BC, I would say that there is next to no chance that a Lab/BC wouldn't be bigger than a BC. The only way would be if the BC gene for size was for one of the really small BCs, or if there was a growth hormone issue.

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