will be? I know it would just be an estimate, however. I found a site online that says at 6 mos of age, a GSD pup is about75% of what their adult weight will be. Is this pretty accurate? Is there a good way to find out? I was just curious as to whether there's a way to know ahead of time about how big a dog will end up. I know what the standards are for the GSD, but there are so many dogs that are not within the standard, I was wondering if there was a formula to estimate by.
Wait till the dog is an adult. Between 2 and 3 years old. Put the dog on a scale. You will then know how big the dog is going to be for the rest of its adult life.
Anyone that tells you they know a formula is full of it.
I saw a formula someplace that said to take the weight at 4 months double it and add 10 pounds. With Jerri she was 40 pounds at 4 months so that would be 40+40+10, 90 pounds for her. She will be 1 on Feb 10 and weights 85 pounds now so that should work out fairly close in her case.
It's a crap shoot. My youngest grew very quickly up to six months...would have guessed her to weigh over 80 lbs at adult weight. Nope - she's 22.5 inches and weighs 63 lbs and has been since she turned a year old (she's almost 2 now). On the other hand, my older GSD grew very slowly until she was almost 3, but ended up being 26" and 74 lbs...can't really just based on parent's size either as her mother weighed 80 lbs and dad was about 90 lbs.
Wait till the dog is an adult. Between 2 and 3 years old. Put the dog on a scale. You will then know how big the dog is going to be for the rest of its adult life.
Anyone that tells you they know a formula is full of it.
Ditto what Deanna says.
I get emails every week where people want me to estimate the size of their dog based on how much they feed!
seriously, does it really matter? It's beyond your control even if you did have a formula to figure it out.
I tell people, enjoy your puppy cause they grow up fast. Don't worry about things like how much they are going to weigh.
The important thing is to keep the pup on the lean side and growing slowly. It puts less stress on their joints.
This is often cited as a reference on growth for German Shepherds. http://www.nwk9.com/weight_height.htm
I think the chart weights are based on a dog kept in lean, athletic shape that adheres to the GSD standard.
The female I'm raising tracked it very closely. I kept her on the lean side. Now, at 17 months, she is 62# and just a bit under 60 cm. She is also pretty trim.
Using Lisa's formula ... Nikki's weight @ 4 months was 37# which would predict 84#, which would be pretty rolly-polly -- getting in to black Lab territory. The formula also predicts a weight of 93# for the male in the chart listed above. The chart lists 76# for an adult male. So, that rule of thumb seems a bit high for working GSD's that are within the standard.
For the mathmatically inclined, the growth chart for a female GSD
yields the following polynomial curve fit.,
y = 0.007x^4 - 0.1632x^3 + 0.655x^2 + 9.2254x - 2.8056
where y : Weight in pounds
x : age in months
note: x^n means to take x to the n power, x^2 is x squared, x^3 is x cubed.
R^2 = 0.9997 (a measure of the goodness of fit of the curve to the underlying data, 1.0 is perfect)
For a male,
y = 0.0065x^4 - 0.1476x^3 + 0.459x^2 + 11.131x - 2.5674
R^2 = 0.9997
The data was fit over the interval of 1 to 12 months. The curve should not be extrapolated beyond that interval.
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