Dutch Shepherd Forum

I realize there are all sorts of factors at play so this is just for fun.

My pup was 32lbs at 21wks (5mo and 1wk), both her parents were about 60-70lbs. For the past few weeks she has been growing at about a pound per week. She's about 20/21'' tall at withers.

How big do you think she'll get? How do DS's generally grow? I figured she should have all of her height by the time she's 1 then maybe fill out a bit more?

In my experience, the fastest growth takes place until the age of 6 months. Then gradually slowing down between 6 months and 1 year. It is, at times, hard to tell how big a dog will get. I recently picked up a male pup, 3 months old. He was positively huge, 2x as big, compared to the 9 week old female that I got at the same time, and gigantic compared to the 7 week old one. The playing field had levelled out though. The girls are both bigger now. Maybe female pups, (like in humans!) develop faster but the boys catch up?
The male I mentioned above, is 7 months now, and 48 lbs. He will be big enough, but not outrageous. I think your pup will fill out to be her parents size. Upward growth until a little > 1 year. Filling out can actually take many more years. One of mine was not done until he was 6 years old!

Can you add a signature to your profile, Chooci, so your posts are signed and we know who you are?

Judith,
I'm interested in your comment regarding "filling out," the years that it can take and your dog who took six years to do so.

When you say "filling out," are you referring to that point in time when full bone, height and weight growths finally meet up with each other or ??? I'm thinking that you weren't just referring to weight?

In which ways did it take your dog the six years and were you aware, say, from his second year on through to his sixth that he wasn't done yet? If so, what were the clues? (E.g.: periodic gains in height, followed by weight gain...a 'rinse, lather, repeat' kind of thing?)

Adopted dogs can be underweight, but with one two-year-old I adopted I was told that her weight was where it needed to be but that she probably would be "bulking up" for another year.

Thor was 18-months when he came to us: I swear that he has gotten taller and broader in the chest. (His feet actually look bigger, too.) People who have never seen him but view more recent videos of him refer to him as "tall."

So--I'm interested in hearing more (or a good reading reference). If a dog is still growing, it seems that certain nutrients would be important in their continuing development and possibly certain "tasks" would be approached with caution (as in "green" limbs that kids have). So--any tell-tale signs, if such exists in a dog past year or two, would be good to know.

Hope I'm not over-thinking this, but this is very interesting.

I had a malinois male, who at two years looked nothing like the regal animal he turned into.
I had him since he was 7 weeks old and he had never been malnourished. I tend to think it was related to testosteron. (compare to studs vs geldings in horses) Same for some of the DS' boys. Some more than others, but the filling out mostly happened in the chest, shoulder and neck region. I should have taken a tape measure at the time, but did not know that there was so much expansion ahead yet. For bitches even, I have seen some bulking up. Not sagging, just bulk, but not as dramatically as for the boys. Less testosteron, maybe? (though some girls seem to have a lot of that too)

@Judith: you have no idea how happy I am to hear that your "male" is not going to be outrageously large

on filling out: my Dingo took his time too... at the age of 3, we finally felt like he was "fully grown". He no longer was the skinny agile type, but the more robust male. Looking back I have to say he has filled out even more, up to the age of 4,5-5. Now that he is 7 he still has that look, it did not change anymore like it did in his "early years"
I always like to show what I mean, so here's some pics


yes, comments on the ears are allowed... Dingo about 4 months old


Dingo as a youngster, about 10 months I guess


I love this one for an example. Dingo on the (vieuwers) left with his sister in the middle, they are about 9 months, on the right is their father Buido. Here you can clearly see the difference in width between forelegs. Dingo's are still very close together, where his dad has a much broader chest. You will see Dingo will grow into the same type of chest in the following years.


Dingo at approx. 1,5 years


here about 3 years


Dingo 6 years old


not a nice pic, but look at the chest here, 6 years old

Marj, great photos. I always esp like the one with the storm brewing in the background, how indicative of the breed!

I agree with you and Judith both on physical maturity and age. Seems to me that the males dont mature-out til around 2-1/2 to 3 and then it is bulking up beyond that. Would be interesting to research the correlation between growth and testerone. Females seem to develop earlier, but that is the same in humans. Like you said too, genetics is of course an issue as well.

It has always been hard to convince new puppy owners (particularly with the GSD breed) that they will ultimately be the size they are genetically proposed to be, that overfeeding, over-vitamining (such a word?) will not make them any larger and infact cause more problems structurally.

Oops, meant 'testosterone.'

GSDNanny wrote: It has always been hard to convince new puppy owners (particularly with the GSD breed) that they will ultimately be the size they are genetically proposed to be, that overfeeding, over-vitamining (such a word?) will not make them any larger and infact cause more problems structurally.

yes, I find that hard too. I have a short list of "important things" I hand to the new owners, it resulted in one pup being WAY too skinny, and two WAY too fat. So no matter how well you explain...

My parents get such a chuckle out of Sadie, being Basset hound people they keep telling me to feed Sadie more, she is too skinny.

Wow I didn't know Dutchies and Mals continue to fill out for that long! I always thought of them as relatively fast growing and maturing breeds.

My other dog is a Corso, I know all about filling out He pretty much had his height at about a year old but you would thing he doubled in how broad he is and his stance too at 3yrs, he's now 4. I loved the picture story that demonstrated the difference in stance as the chest develops.

Interesting... Koenig is already quite wide at 2 years old. He's got the lean lanky look though, overall IMO. I wonder how wide he'll get......lol.

Hi all,

Great post, we're trying to figure out if our little guy is a Dutch x (see my introduction post from today for pics).

If they continue to grow, how do you know when to up food intake? Our little man is presently 1 year and about 40 pounds.

I feed Gwen four cups of high quality food a day... I monitor her weight by how she looks and adjust accordingly.. She is crazy hyper and if I try to feed her any less, she would probably get skinny not too mention she would bug me ALL DAY long for more food.

Thanks Kristie, he searches around for food all day (but I think he'd eat a whole bag if given the chance , the vet said he was at a fine weight a few pounds ago, but I like him at his current weight (probably 2 lbs higher or so)
We'll wait and see, I wish I knew exactly what his mix was!

I never check weight, I check ribs My rule is, don't see the ribs, but feel them when petting, without any pressure. As soon as you cannot feel the ribs clearly anymore: too much food. As soon as ribs start being visible all the time ( not just when inhaling) they need a bit more. And never look at the food-bag for amounts, dogs are too different for making a standard on that, and they would love you to have a fat dog that eats a lot

"Thor" is 41lbs at one day short of six months old. We give him a diet of raw meat and about 1C kibble a day of the grain free type as a treat in his treat stick (which he rolls around and one piece at a time comes out and gives me a break). He gets two chicken backs a day 1-1.5 lbs and three sausages (3/4 lb) that I make from whole chicken carcasses with some offal, flax seed, green apple, carrots, broccoli and a sweet potato in a collagen casing

He has been growing at a rate of about 3lbs per week for the last couple months and I look forward to tracking his growth over the next year ( we weigh weekly). wikipedia has the breed standard size for males at 28 Kilos or 61.6 lbs.

I don't know if it is possible to increase weight by amount of food you feed (or not) but I do believe that "quality" food will make a difference in the overall health and help our dogs achieve the maximum that their genetic makeup will allow (for us that means a raw wolf diet)...

Mia is 28-30lbs and 18" at 5 month. she look very small and dident growth so much in the last 2-3 weeks. how much they left to grow after this age?

Sadie just keeps growing taller and longer, hasnt started filling out yet but she is only 7 months now.

Dingo is SO beautful!!! Forget the ear comments.....that "rack" is why we LOVE them! I tell my Zori everyday that I love her "rack"!

A little update..

Ripp is now just over a year old (Nov 10 was her BDay) and weighting in at 54lbs.

Athos at 5 months is 41lbs and almost as tall as Ripp (gotta measure her height..)