keeping in mind that i don't know all of neb's breeds....i know his mom was a husky/lab/probably beagle cross, dad unknown. mom was 30lbs when i saw her and underweight.

neb's growth seems to have stalled the last few weeks, or slowed greatly. he grew like a weed when i first got him, he's 4 and a bit months now.

neb is fed THK and wimpy raw (ground meat) - i'm going to start him on actual rmb's this weekend.

since i don't know all his breeds, maybe this can't be answered, but should i expect him to grow more? we're starting FR (for fun, and to teach me more about dog training, i recognize he's an off breed), and if he doesn't grow more he's going to end up being freakishly small.

what is the growth pattern for pups? by 4 months, are they starting to get close to their adult size?

Jennifer, how freakishly small is he now? (weight)
(glad you put the disclaimer under that photo that he's 7 weeks old there, otherwise I think you might have to abandon your goal of Mondioring )

Small breeds tend to reach their adult size by like 3-4 months or sometimes less. I mean Yorkies, Maltese, Shih-Tzu etc. (My neighbor breeds small dogs and her pups are almost the size of the parents when the leave).

Large breeds up to 2 years (Great Dane, Newfoundland).

So without knowing what kind of dog he is it will be a surprise.

I would guess that at 4 months he is still growing. By 7-8 months he should be closer to adult size. When my puppy (now 11 months and 65 lbs) was 5 months he was about 3/4 his current size and he was 53 lbs. His mother's ideal weight is 50 lbs.

at one time someone posted a German Shepherd growth chart. Your dog will likely be smaller. With a 30lb mom, he won't be huge.

He's 10.2 lbs now. I was going to say 'around 10lbs' earlier, but decided to re-weigh him when I got home.

I'll be excited if he goes over 15lbs!

I'm thinking he'll probably end up being wee. I just figured he'd end up AROUND mom's weight, but I guess that's not likely.

I'm just catching up on uploading pics and then I'll post some links so you can see what he's like now (and what a master canoer he is! he only jumped over the side once....talk about surprised puppy! i scooped him up literally a second later though)

I've sort of been all 'He's still growing!!!!' but maybe....not so much. It's a good thing I'm looking at FR for fun and to learn about handling/training dogs....

okay....

here are some pics from our trip to killarney in june. note: neb spent most of the hike in the snugli. the pics where teagan is unmuzzled is b/c there was nobody around(she was tethered to the table), including the picnic area that we stopped at on our way up (the muzzle was with us) - where she was allowed loose at a stop on the hike is where i have backpacked through several times before - i know the area well and know that you hear people about 20 minutes before you see them, and we also hadn't seen anyone that day. http://picasaweb.google.com/nuneons/KillarneyJune2008
it was foggy, but still beautiful. you can see the climb i mentioned in another thread, where teagan fell into a crack (on leash of course, and she was perfectly calm about me pulling her right back up)

here is the canoe trip neb went on to temagami. b/c the friend i took has some health issues and is out of shape, i was going to have to do most of the portaging. b/c of my tibial stress fracture, this made me nervous, so we did a shorter trip just on the river/lakes without portages. neb had a great time! the moose he apparently didn't notice, or if he did, he decided to stay quiet:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nuneons/TemagamiJuly2008
his lifejacket was just too big for him so that he kept on squirming out of it....errrr! i kept him on leash in the canoe as a result.

and here are some pics from today, so you can see how big he is (not very). he's not the best at standing still, but i did my best:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nuneons/NebJuly31

If he's only 10.2 pounds now at 4.5 months I wouldn't expect him to reach more than 25 pounds. Difficult to say but I would predict around 18-20 pounds full adult weight. That could be pushing it.

Don't despair for sport work if you are just doing it for fun and to learn

He's 17 weeks right now. I would be so excited if he reaches 20lbs! I'm guessing Dad was smaller than Mom....

And yeah, given his breeds(?) it really is just for fun and learning, so I'm not too worried. Since I also plan to run with him, I wouldn't mind some extra size, but he'll grow into it and if he's a shorter distance runner, than that's what he'll be. Though I suppose there's really no reason why you couldn't train a smaller dog to run longer distances, same as I did with Luc. He is part husky and probably beagle after all....

And would you consider changing your plans for mondioring, and maybe trying agility? He might be the perfect size then...

he is SO CUTE!

it's definitely a possibility. we've already started FR training (well, we've been out once, when he was 11 weeks, and then my vacation kinda got in the way of going out there), but nothing serious obviously. we're out to the field again monday, i've already emailed him to say that neb isn't growing.

he's actually going to be helping me w/teagan too....i'm hoping she can come monday for some post-group training as well, but we'll see. i need to be a stronger leader with her - just like with what she did to that little dog - she took advantage the second she could - now i find she'll be in a sit nicely while the dog next door is barking and being rude - but if i turn my body at all, talking to my neighbour, she breaks it. so i'm looking forward to working with him on that.

the one positive about doing agility is i could find somewhere in the city that trains it (my FR trainer doesn't train that kind of thing, he's more specialized i guess). the negative is i'd have to find someone who trains it

Edited by Jennifer Mullen (08/01/2008 09:48 AM)
Edit reason: edit: neb isn't growing....not not going!