This might sound silly, but I have always had small to medium sized dogs and this is my first large breed so I'm not familiar with their growth patterns. The small dogs I've had usually were pretty much as big as they were going to get by 9 months.

Dom is 24 weeks old and weighs 43 pounds. He is at 21 1/2" at the withers. His parents were both a bit large 85-90 pounds.

From the growth charts I've found, he should be over 50 pounds by now and at about 70% of his adult size. I know these charts are very general, but he just seems a bit small to me for his age. Right now he's on the downward slope of teething and has all but about 10 adult teeth in. Does the teething slow down growth? Should I expect another growth spurt soon?

I know you can't get all that much from a pic, but here's his father Gladius Von Spartanville

I was told the father was 90 pounds but from the pic, it really doesn't look like it to me... And I saw the mother. She was VERY tall and easily well over 85. Very tall and broad for a female- and similar body style to the father.

Is my pup on track?

On track? Really as long as he's within good weight I wouldn't worry about how he compares to his parents. There is a lot of weight/height variation within breeds and even parents of similar size will produce pups within a bell curve of normality.

For example: my papillon's mother weighed 7 lbs with a height of 10 inches , her father weighed 8 lbs with a height of 9.5 inches.

The resulting three litters from these two dogs produced 14 puppies with adult sizes ranging from 3.5 lbs to 18 lbs and a height range of 5.5 inches to 13 inches. The average however was 7.5lbs and 9 inches.

I wouldnt rely,or worry about growth charts, every pup developes differentlY,

Try not to overfeed, and dont give too much supplements,dont give calcium supplements as this could lead to major problems down the line.

Keep him slim and trim, with moderate exercise.

He's nice and thin. You can see 2 ribs on each side and his waist is easily visible. I cannot overfeed him because when I do, he gets diarrhea. So his food is measured out very carefully. He could probably stand to gain a couple pounds, but I am not concerned too much about it. Once I finish the last bag and a half of kibble I have left, he's getting put on the Honest Kitchen. He isn't getting any supplements or vitamins either.

I guess he just seems small to me because I'm used to seeing my friend's shepherd who was topping 60 pounds at 6 months. I need to get that out of my head. Totally different dog, different lines, different everything.