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Dog Weight

7K views 33 replies 14 participants last post by  Brokengunz 
#1 ·
I have read a few posts on dog food, eating etc. I received an email from the owner of one of my pups. Female lab, 7 months old, she weighs 88 pounds. Says he feeds her 1 1/2 cups IAMS puppy twice a day adds 1 cup nonfat milk with one feeding. also slips in some meat he gets from the local diner. He says his last pup outweighed litter mates by 20 pounds, (dog is not FAT)
 
#2 ·
She may not be fat (or she may be???) but that seems way to BIG for her age. If she grows too fast, she will have problems with her bones and joints. You did not say if it was IAMS Large breed puppy or plain puppy. Labs should not eat regular puppy food...either LARGE BREED puppy or Adult. She is growing too fast and she certainly doesn't need "meat from a local diner" ! I would say she weighs twice what she should weigh at that age.

If it were a pup from one of my breedings I would be very worried, I would not want them to come back to me asking for $$$ when her hips go bad. In fact, I used to put a clause in my puppy contract that said they must be fed Large Breed puppy or Adult food or I would not guarentee hips, and my pups came from EXC X EXC.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Growing way too fast and too heavy for that age. My dogs don't ever get that big much less at 7 mo. I don't know the puppy owner but how does he gauge "not fat". I find that most people who don't run tests or trials tend to have fat dogs. Just about every dog that comes to me for training is overweight initially and they go on a diet.

If I were you I would advise the owner to feed the recommended amount of a large breed puppy food and cut out that other stuff (meat and milk). The above poster was correct, if this continues you may be looking at a puppy with bad knees, hips, etc.

I don't know if twice the weight is correct but something in the 50-60 lb range would be more normal for 7 months. How big were the sire and dam?
 
#5 ·
I agree with all of the above, plus depending on what you're looking for, the bigger gun dogs are a little slower... I like a well built mid sized athletic dog. skinny greyhound lookin labs aren't my bag and huge mastiff/rotty sized labs arent my bag. Hopefully the pup growing so large doesnt effect it's joints. Nothing worse than joint problems
 
#7 · (Edited)
We have a male at our place we're training, 10 mos. old, weighs easy 75 lbs and, he's not fat, just a big dog. He gets 5 cups of the breeder recommended large breed puppy food a day. I don't understand the milk thing or the "scrap" thing either; if you feed a quality feed, you shouldn't need to supplement, it's usually an owner "need", makes them feel good, not the dog requiring or needing it. Clarify the measuring utensil used, frequently the container used to measure isn't anywhere close to accurate.
 
#10 ·
We have a male at our place we're training, 10 mos. old, weighs easy 75 lbs and, he's not fat, just a big dog. He gets 5 cups of the breeder recommended large breed puppy food a day. I don't understand the milk thing or the "scrap" thing either; if you feed a quality feed, you shouldn't need to supplement, it's usually an owner "need", makes them feel good, not the dog requiring or needing it. Clarify the measuring utensil used, frequently the container used to measure isn't anywhere close to accurate.
Yes, I can see this. 1) he is a male 2) he is 3 months older and 3) he is 13 lb liter.
 
#12 ·
dog was weighed at the vet, he asked the vet about the dogs size, if she was fat, vet said no. my guy out of the same litter is 60 pounds and looks 50. one other male is 70 75 pounds
also, one other female was 10 pounds lighter than my male. View attachment 9008
MOst of mine are 45-50# at that age. One, years ago was 65# at 7mos (this pup grew terribly fast and liked to eat too). She ended up being my only pup (of ~12 raised here) in 20 yrs w/ HD. :( I'd be nervous and tell them to knock off the supplementation!
 
#11 ·
Most vets won't tell owners the truth on weight. I've seen a vet tell a man that his dog looked great...the poor little dachshund was so fat his "manhood" drug the ground!

I had one puppy that I sold that was like that...I want to say that he said he was 45 lbs at 4 months and warned him then that it sounded like he was getting too big too fast and 80 lbs @ 6 months old...dam is 65 lbs, sire was 75 in working condition. That puppy was dx with OCD in his shoulders not too long after 6 months if I remember correctly...OFA says it's genetic, other studies say conditional from overfeeding. I think it's the same as HD, there's a genetic factor and a conditional factor (otherwise we wouldn't say keep them light, no excessive jumping, when they're young, etc). That is the only puppy out of 4 large litters that the female had that was reported to have that problem, there was one more that was a bit heavy when I saw her at just over a year old and the owner thought she was solid muscle...I gently told him that she should loose a few pounds.

Which puppy is sitting on the GSD?
 
#13 ·
Agreed, with cutting the supplements...the purpose of the Large Breed food is lower protein and calcium to "grow them slowly"
 
#14 · (Edited)
It is hard to tell anything about the picture of the dog. It just looks like a black blob in the body.

My puppy weighed 45 lbs at 5 1/2 mo. He will be 6 mo. on Sunday. I was looking at him last night and decided to cut back on his food by 1/2 cup. I am going to get him weighed at the vet again on Monday.
 
#15 ·
I have never had a fat dog, maybe cuz I work mine all the time. Been my experience if I over feed, I get a mess in my kennels. AT seven weeks I had two pups that were bigger than all the others. My nephew has one, he is also big now, over 70 pounds, the other guy owners says his dog stopped growing after a certain point. when the pups were born I recorded their weight. I monitored their weight every week until they went to homes. Some of the pups just grew faster. The smaller ones I fed separately but they grew at the same rate.

Rio, at 3 months she weighed 40 pounds, 5 months 67 pounds(pictures), 7 months 88 pounds The dog in the pic. the shepard is 130 pounds.

Dog Mammal Vertebrate Dog breed Canidae
 
#17 ·
I have never had a fat dog, maybe cuz I work mine all the time. Been my experience if I over feed, I get a mess in my kennels. AT seven weeks I had two pups that were bigger than all the others. My nephew has one, he is also big now, over 70 pounds, the other guy owners says his dog stopped growing after a certain point. when the pups were born I recorded their weight. I monitored their weight every week until they went to homes. Some of the pups just grew faster. The smaller ones I fed separately but they grew at the same rate.

Rio, at 3 months she weighed 40 pounds, 5 months 67 pounds(pictures), 7 months 88 pounds The dog in the pic. the shepard is 130 pounds.
I have found that weights thru 8 wks don't always hold. One of my girls will be 2 in Dec. Consistently, she was just in the middle of the pack size/weight wise w/ her littermates. The girl that had the most bone, and consistently weighed more than the others (by 1.5 - 2# at 8 wks) is now only ~53# whereas mine is 62.5# in good working condition. I've had the opposite happen more often than not too. I co-own a half sister of the same girl who is weighing/measuring significantly smaller than the littermates. I've given up trying to guess based on puppy data. The most important thing we can do is feed them and exercise them appropriately, not too little and not too much. Then hold your breath til OFAs at age 2! :)
 
#20 ·
It is a little difficult to tell by the pictures but Tank looks overweight to me. I don't see much definition between the chest and stomach. A picture standing up would be much better. But the real definition is the layer of fat around the ribs. Is there a layer of fat or can you feel the ribs? When the sun hits on the dogs at a certain angle can you see the ribs definition a bit?

Hope this helps.
 
#23 · (Edited)
Love the chart by Dustin. Have a hard time believing that the 7 month old 88lbs Female is not at least 10lbs overweight or more. Heck I have a hard time believing that a female lab of any age is not overweight at 90lbs. I wonder what the % of body weight is fat for that lab and labs in general....

Tried to get my dog to stand on a bathroom scale that also reads body fat and it was pretty funny trying to get all 4 legs on the scale, then I thought to myself this is such a gooser thing to do......so I stopped haha
 
#27 · (Edited)
How the heck do I get drug into this stuff

If ya gotta kinda think if your girl is a bit chunky,, then ya prolly should buy her a dozen roses,a nice green dinner, and politely........... Never mind..... Bad idear
In fact I got chills running up and down my back just thinking what could happen

gooser
 
#29 ·
To the op
maybe ya should just pay attention to the important stuff like how's she bondin with ya?
hows the eye contact?
hows the two a you communicatin
how's she doin on the double T?

of all things to get your panties in a bunch over,,,you pick weight

MAN
 
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