# Size of Puppy vs. Adult



## kateann1201 (Jan 9, 2011)

I have no clue, but either way, CONGRATS on the new puppy, which ever you may choose


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Golden males are supposed to be no bigger than 24" at the shoulder and 65-75 in weight. 

If the golden is 85lbs, that is generally a metabolism (thyroid problems), diet (owner feeding too much food), and exercise (owner not walking or working the dog every day) issue. <- I kinda think it's mostly the dog getting too much food and not enough exercise.

My golden is a bigger boned golden and I tend to think his healthy weight is 76-78lbs. But he is barely 24 inches (he's closer to 23.5, actually). He's 85lbs right now - my fault and I'm working on fixing that. 

His dad was about the same height and his mom was a little thing. 

I really doubt you are going to find a full grown male golden shorter than 23 inches. And as I said, weight is what is healthy for that golden. I would not get that lower than 65lbs with an adult male or above 78lbs.

@puppy size - I wouldn't pay any attention to that. Some puppies are probably bigger than others if they get more food than the others. It all evens out as they grow up.


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## ggal (Nov 15, 2010)

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but this brings up a good topic. How do you pick a puppy? I'm pretty sure that our breeder will pick for us, but we have the option of "ranking" the puppy that we want when we visit for the puppy party. What exactly am I looking for? I have an older golden at home and two kids (ages 5 and 9). How do I know which puppy is right for us?


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

ggal said:


> I'm sure this has been discussed before, but this brings up a good topic. How do you pick a puppy? I'm pretty sure that our breeder will pick for us, but we have the option of "ranking" the puppy that we want when we visit for the puppy party. What exactly am I looking for? I have an older golden at home and two kids (ages 5 and 9). How do I know which puppy is right for us?


If your breeder is going to pick for you, I'd make sure your breeder knows what kind of dog you want to have in the long run or what kind of activities you are hoping to do with the dog. 

I didn't have first pick and it didn't really matter to me, but I did let the breeder know I wanted a dog for competition obedience. The breeder steered me towards a particular litter for that reason and in the end I had a puppy who was very biddable and attentive and outgoing. Not that it mattered, because all of the puppies in that litter had those same traits. 

I would guess if I had first pick, I'd sit down and pick a social, curious, and highly responsive puppy. With Jacks when I brought him home I could tap on the floor and he'd come running in to check out my hand. He was also the puppy who was happily greeting everyone at the breeders and trying to get everything into his mouth to carry around and play with. 

The curiosity and responsive traits as well as his social nature made him ideal for obedience training as well as regular household and border training. 

Our Danny was slightly different when we picked him - he was more independant and off on his own little puppy business. He wasn't so interested in other people as he was into checking out the visiting room we were in and playing with his littermate who was brought in with him. He was a great dog, but a little more difficult to train. He was more flighty.


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## Golden123 (Dec 6, 2009)

Sadie was about 8-9 pounds when we got her. Now she stays around 55lbs. 

Congrats on your pup!

Who's your breeder?


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## tbliss (Mar 26, 2009)

Thanks everyone. We are getting our pup from Cromwell Goldens, as that is where we got our first one, who is now 18 months old and wonderful. We are concerned #1 with temperament, as Maevis is very calm and gentle and we want her to have a "brother" that fits with her. Maevis is also on the smaller side (about 60 lbs.). In the event that we have a choice between two laid-back pups, one of whom is appreciably larger than the other, we wondered if picking the smaller one may be an indication that the pup will grow to be a smaller adult (i.e. he'll take after his mom more than his dad).


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## Bender (Dec 30, 2008)

My golden's breeder picks for everyone. She does take into consideration what sex and so on but in the end it's her choice, after the seven week temperament test and several different opinions on each puppy.

It's always been interesting if I'm over there puppysitting while new parents are also there. They always have their 'pick' and so on and it's based often on things like the puppy who doesn't bark much, or barks a lot, or whatever when they are there. Often the next hour it's a different story as to who is doing what! 

My advice is to do up a 'wish list' of what the ideal golden is to you - do you want the busy dog who wants to go play flyball and agility with you, or the couch warmer who is happy to snuggle up? Are you going to be 100% consistant with training and never break the rules or fall prey to cute puppy eyes and give in? If you have kids are you a strict parent with schedules or is it whatever gets them out the door at the last minute?

That kind of information will help the breeder figure out who is best suited to your home - after all they are there more to see things!


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

I doubt (but don't know) that you are going to estimate the size. From my understanding too, larger litters will be less big at certain ages than smaller litters...even though at adult age they will ultimately reach the same general size.


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## iansgran (May 29, 2010)

I think that genetics more than weight as puppy determine adult size. Jaro was 10 1/2 lbs (the smallest in the litter) at 9 1/2 weeks when we got him. Until about 8 months he was always among the smallest of the April 2010 puppies. Now he is right in the middle at 60 lbs. The smaller puppies may be more laid back in a large litter where there is jostling for mamma's milk. But I think given good health it will be genetics in the end so look to mom and dad. We also picked the smaller, not as excitable puppy because we wanted a smaller dog--wanted a female for that reason but not available.


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## Maxs Mom (Mar 22, 2008)

I read on some board, at 5 months there is a formula you can use to guesstimate their final weight. Don't know at all how accurate it is. I need to find it again, it was a link to a website. 

I am curious about Gabby. Right now she is ALL legs 4 months old. I wanted a 'smaller' dog after having GINORMOUS ones. Everyone thinks she will be big. I keep hoping she will stay "standard" which would be no taller than 22" for a female. She is 4 months, and in 2 months will be 2/3 her full size so I am told. 

The biggest puppy though does not mean the biggest dog. Just like with human babies. I was considered a big baby but I am petite. Only 5'2" and was the shortest kid all the way through elementary school, some low class level kids were taller than me. I use 'grandparents' as the average. If they were bigger, your pup may be, if they were smaller the pup may be. 

Heck does it matter? You are going to have a fantastic family companion.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

I don't think you can predict final size based on puppy size. A lot of growth has to do with how much they eat. So a pushier or hungrier puppy might just consume more and take an early lead. That doesn't necessarily mean he'll be bigger in the long run. That said, one of my dog was small as a pup and smallish as an adult.

How much of an outcross was the breeding? A line breeding will generally give you more consistency in the litter, and the parents' heights will be more predictive (not perfectly predictive, but more). An outcross will give you much more variation and less ability to predict.


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## tbliss (Mar 26, 2009)

Thanks. Although I am not very knowledgeable about genetics, I think this breeding was definitely not a "line breeding." Mom is a medium to dark gold from an American lineage and on the small end of the female standard. Dad is a light blonde from Eurpoean lineage and on the large end of the male standard. I figured based on those differences that their may be a large variation among pups. I just wondered if there was any way to tell from looking at a six-week old pup which parent's it was most likely to have.

Am I correct that even I darker colored pup (who would have inherited the "color gene" from mom) may still end up being on of the largest adults, as he could have inherited the "size gene" from dad? Or may color be an indicator of which parent the pup will look like (size-wise) as an adult?


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## NapaValleyGolden (Mar 24, 2008)

When we got Cody, he was 14 lbs at 8 weeks and was the largest of the 5 available males. His feet were huge and everyone who saw him said "he's going to be enormous!". He's now 23 months, and 66 lbs. Both of his parents were breed standard in size.


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

tbliss said:


> Thanks. Although I am not very knowledgeable about genetics, I think this breeding was definitely not a "line breeding." Mom is a medium to dark gold from an American lineage and on the small end of the female standard. Dad is a light blonde from Eurpoean lineage and on the large end of the male standard.


Do you know the pedigrees of the dam and sire (maybe you can post links if you do?) or are you assuming the background based on the look of the dog?


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## tbliss (Mar 26, 2009)

Thanks all for the replies. We are definitely going to be getting a pup from the litter, so I'm not sure that the pedigree information will be relevant to our issue. (But I appreciate the offer.) I was just wondering if there was any way to look at two eight week-old pups from the same litter and predict whether one will end of being smaller or larger than the other.


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## tuckerbailey (Feb 3, 2011)

Our one boy had normal size parents ..... he turned into a huge guy, huge paws, long legs....we called him elevator legs when he was 6 months old. He was about 105 lbs when he was slim..... He was an average size pup....


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## hvgoldens4 (Nov 25, 2009)

The size of a puppy at 5-6 weeks old has nothing to do with the size it will be as an adult. Each puppy has its own genetic code and will grow to the size it is genetically predisposed to, no matter what the size as a puppy. The smallest puppy in the litter could easily wind up being one of the largest as an adult.

The size of the puppies only tells you who is better at fending off their littermates for food.

If you are looking for a smaller dog, you should be looking at a breeding that has smaller parents.

As far as picking out a puppy goes, I place all our puppies in the homes that I feel they will do the best in. I take a lot of time getting to know our puppies and the families who will be making them a part of their family. A huge part of eveyone-the puppy and the family-being happy is that the puppy and the family mesh well together and the puppy's personality will fit with the families lifestyle.


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## jackie_hubert (Jun 2, 2010)

Cosmo was a mammoth puppy. At almost a year now he looks like he will be a 75lbs dog when he's full grown. The vet estimated he'd be close to 100lbs but obviously his parents' sizes have been a more accurate predictor.


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## Sally's Mom (Sep 20, 2010)

I have a golden girl who really was as big as she got by 6 months. At 6 months, she was 62 lbs and topped off at about 66 lbs. She is a big girl. Her offspring were all generaliy within standard... except one boy from litter #2, who grew to be 90#'s!! Girls should be 55-65 lbs, so a 60 lb girl is not on the small side. Boys generally run 10 lbs more. Girls are 21 1/2 -22 1/2 inches at the shoulder, boys are 1 inch more. So from the 2 litters my big girl had, I kept one girl from each litter. In the first litter, her daughter, Mantha was 8 lbs at 8 weeks. She is 62 lbs as an adult. In the second litter, the daughter I kept (with the 90# brother) was 11 lbs at 8 weeks. She is 59 lbs as an adult. I have found that actually some of the biggest puppies at 8 weeks, turn out to be some of the smaller dogs that I have bred.


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## AmbikaGR (Dec 31, 2007)

At 5-6 weeks about the only thing that can be predicted with any certainty is the sex of the pup. 
At around 8 weeks of age you might get a better idea as to what the dog's outline/proportions will be as an adult but the personal evaluating needs to be experienced and familiar with the lines. 
As stated seeing this is an apparent out-cross unless there have been similar breeding of these lines prior it would all be just a guess.
Temperament testing can be helpful but I have seen that done and the pups not turn out as expected. Even pups can have "off" days.


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