question about sheepie size, how to tell how big he'll get
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| The better way to tell is to look at how big his parents were. If there were large, it's a good chance he will be, too. 6 months and 52 pounds is a good size and right on track for his age. |
| ^^a VERY good indication of how big he'll get
Also look at his paws? are they huge? Paws are also a good indication. I think big dogs tend to grow faster than little dogs, so I would assume his size at about 7 months will be his adult size/shape. He'll start to fill out and become more muscular but not grow in length/height (Please someone correct me if I'm saying gibberish.) |
| 52 lbs at 6 months is a decent size, but measuring him at the shoulders will give you an indication as well. At 6 months he still has some growing to do. |
joanna21 wrote: I think big dogs tend to grow faster than little dogs, so I would assume his size at about 7 months will be his adult size/shape.
They do seem to grow fast but I would not count on 7 months being fullsize. My Maggie grew another inch or 2 after I got her at 12 months old. . . She was around Chum's size and now she is clearly taller and longer. And her paws looked ridiculous when I got her -- HUGE -- and now they look proportional. I think she stopped growing closer to 15 months. . . |
joanna21 wrote: I think big dogs tend to grow faster than little dogs, so I would assume his size at about 7 months will be his adult size/shape. He'll start to fill out and become more muscular but not grow in length/height
(Please someone correct me if I'm saying gibberish.) It also depends on the breed. Bear is still growing at a steady rate though not as dramatically as when I first got him-- which was at 6 months. He's grown a few inches taller and a whole lot longer. |
| You are right Val, sheepies keep growing in height till about 16 -18 months old.
They grow in spurts, sometimes they go up in leg and look all leggy then the rest of the body catches up. Other times they look all body and no legs but by the time they are around 16 months most of the rapid growth stage is finished and just there bodies are filling out more. Full maturity is anywhere from 2-4 years old depending on the lines that they come from, some are early maturing, others are late maturing  |
| I was just at the Vet's with Stella and we were both laughing at the fact that just 5 months ago she was 12 lbs, now at 7 months she is 65 lbs and showing no signs of slowing down. Her legs are long and her paws still HUGE. I think they will grow far beyond 7 months. |
| Did you ever notice how HUGE their paws are when they step on your foot? lol |
| Allie is 5 mths old and weighs 31 pounds....Her mom was 65pds, Dad was about 68pds....My Vet said, rule of thumb, double their weight at 5mths? As anyone heard of this? Allies back comes to my knee right now..I would be very happy with 65pds! |
| OH gosh...
sorry if I confused anyone! (My cocker spaniel stopped growing in size at 6 months.. and now is only filling up in muscle, bone) Then how heavy does a typical male OES get? I thought around 70-75lbs... no? Female? (60-70?) Or does weight not matter and size(height, width) more important? |
| I always heard average Males get to be 70-90...I was surprised Allie's daddy is as small as he is! |
ccnwater wrote: I always heard average Males get to be 70-90...I was surprised Allie's daddy is as small as he is!
We passed 90 awhile ago... 
Clyde's solid, but square. He's built like a tank! |
| At 6 months old Bosley was 48 pounds. He is 16 months old now and is 68 pounds. He seems to be about average size for a sheepie, but maybe a bit on the smaller end for a male. I assume he'll put on a few more pounds, but not many. |
| Barney was from a puppy mill so I don't know how big his parents were/are.
When I got him at almost 6 months old he weighed a little over 50 pounds and his paws were HUGE. At 23 months, he now weighs in at 96 
To me, he doesn't even look that large, if you know what I mean. I mean, when I see him, I don't think 'giant dog' because he is so stocky and well proportioned. They definitely grow past 7 months. I would say that with Barney, he stopped growing quickly at around a year, but then it was a slow and steady filling out (broadening of his chest) and getting less lanky. When we had him weighed at Christmas he was low 70s...so he gained a lot of weight (not fat) since then. My parents' sheepie girl Maggie is smaller...at about 73 pounds (which I think is a little skinny for her)...but she's been as heavy as 80 pounds. |
| Jack is over 100 lbs....he was up around 110 but we've been cutting back the food and treats. He came this way, so I don't know his growth rate. He's big, perhaps too big in my opinion.
MO can barely hold 65 lbs......she's actually too small. When she stopped growing in height around 9 months, I waited for the chest to expand........and I'm still waiting, 7 years later, LOL. So the 70-90 average is right on. Males can get bigger but hopefully the move to breed bigger sheepies has passed. What with hip problems, we don't need bigger, we need better and if that means looking at the lower end of the standard, fine by me. |
| Allie was 12 pds when we brought her home at 8 wks..Most of the other liter mates were already 15-17pds! I think she may have been the runt? |
barney1 wrote: To me, he doesn't even look that large, if you know what I mean. I mean, when I see him, I don't think 'giant dog' because he is so stocky and well proportioned.
I catch myself thinking about this all the time. Walter's just about to tip 70lbs at 8 months. He comes to just above my knees (20-something inches, haven't measured lately). To me he just doesn't look like a "big dog." I think it also has something to do with seeing him everyday, because everyone who sees him occasionally is like "HOLY COW, YOUR DOG IS HUGE." I guess my point is, I think Walt's going to be a moose. His mother and grandmother were very tall...lots of legs though. |
| Walter is so cute! I love his coloring ! ! Has he started to turn grey yet? I am hoping Allie stays black, but the very bottom back legs are already looking grey...Her mom turned grey, dad was still black at 2yrs old.... |
My two sheepies are on the smaller size. Max just turned 3 and weighs about 61 pounds, and Miller who we think is about 19 months, weighs about 66 pounds.....when I got him as a rescue he only weighed 38 pounds  |
| All of my Sheepies have matured between the ages of two & three.
Hannah's dad was 120-130 pounds and her mom was over 100. She just weighed in at the vet today at 95 lbs. The vet didn't say anything about her being overweight. But she's not really in tip top shape either. I didn't ask because I don't really want to cut back on her treats.
When Hannah was 5 mo. she weighed 49#. We got her at three months and she had the most gigantic paws you have ever seen and she was more the size of a small dog than a puppy. I guess it's relative what you consider huge. I tend to think of her as my little girl until I hug her and someone notices her head is twice the size of mine.  |
| The Gooch still seems to be growing! He will be 2 in October. I keep getting worried because he's got all this skin that is I can pull...worried he's going to fill into it some day!
Murph-Murph is small...but that's compared to The Gooch! Everyone thinks he's a girl when we go out! He HATES that! LOL! |
| Ben and Fozzy (unrelated males) are both coming up on their second birthday. Each weighs 90 pounds. Ben is tall and leggy with a well defined chest. Fozzy is short and built like a bratwurst. They are fed identically, and Fozzy is much more active than Ben. Go figure. |
| I think Pepsi is also built like a bratwurst. lol
He is also 2 yrs old and on the short side for a male. He is probably 85-90 lbs. Only 23 3/4 inches at the withers. Rags (Female also 2 yrs old and no relation to Pepsi) is 3 inches taller than Pepsi. Very leggy and tall. She's the perfect weight at @75 lbs. |
| Pogo was 64 lbs. at 6 mths. At 9.5 mths. he was 84 lbs. and has remained at that weight to his current age of 4 years.
I also hear people comment that he is a big dog, but I really don't consider him big...(tee, hee, he's still a lap dog)...I consider a St. Bernard, Mastiff, or a Great Dane a BIG dog! |
| My Sheepdog is at 105 lbs and she is not fat, just large |
| My first OES was at a good weight at 100 lbs; he got fat for a while when my son went away to school--up to 120. Archie is very skinny at 88 lbs. I'd like to put a few more on him, actually. Sherman was 78 lbs at 8 months; his sister/litter mate was 63 lbs. At 6 months they were 55 and 50 lbs, respectively. Sherman's paws are still huge; Sophie's are very dainty. I thin she's gotten most of her size. Sherman, probably not.
BTW, when I first decided to get an OES, the breed book I was reading said that females were about 65 lbs; males 70-75. Boy was I shocked when my first guy passed that mark early on. |
| While they grow fast and will continue to do so until aprox 18 months..at 2 years they tend to bulk up - becoming bigger in the chest area. Kinda like a scrawy kid turning into a muscle guy.
Marianne and the boys |
Marianne wrote: While they grow fast and will continue to do so until aprox 18 months..at 2 years they tend to bulk up - becoming bigger in the chest area. Kinda like a scrawy kid turning into a muscle guy.
Marianne and the boys Very true. They realize their maximum "tank" potential around that age! Clyde turned 2 last September and I can see the difference in how much he's broadened from last year to now. If we put treads and a gun turret on him, he could join the army. |
ButtersStotch wrote: Marianne wrote: While they grow fast and will continue to do so until aprox 18 months..at 2 years they tend to bulk up - becoming bigger in the chest area. Kinda like a scrawy kid turning into a muscle guy. Marianne and the boys Very true. They realize their maximum "tank" potential around that age! Clyde turned 2 last September and I can see the difference in how much he's broadened from last year to now. If we put treads and a gun turret on him, he could join the army. He already has the camo... |
Our Ted is just 6 months and I weighed him last week.he is 70 lbs, i measured him to the whithers and got 23 inches! For the very tiniest of the litter and leaving mum at 5 weeks I think he is doing very well. The puppy teacher we have told me to feel his knees, if there is still a knobble of bone there then he has more growing to do, and yes there is and his feet are still huge!!!  |
| At 6 months and 23" tall and 23" long Barkley was 50 lbs.
Your Ted must be big boned or my Barkley is underweight! |
| Oscar's in "tank mode" as well. He has stabilized at about 103 lbs.at 2 1/2 years old, but I just noticed that his car harness and his walking harness are both at the max, and now getting a pinch too tight, even though I can still feel his ribs. And that's with him shaved. Time to move onto X-large! |
| You need to be able to feel the ribs without pushing in on the skin! LOL
My neighbor's little poodle "Rusty" was about 20 pounds and should have weighed maybe 9 or 12 at most... but you could still feel the ribs if you pushed hard enough! 
Boy was he a little butterball! I think they've got him down to about 16 at this point. They finally put him on a diet because his legs couldn't handle the weight. |
I can just feel Teds' ribs (puppy fat ) but his dad was described as a big boned teddy bear dog...thats how he got to be Ted  |
| Oops...... forgot to mention big long tail. Can clear a coffee table in one, that weighs a bit |
| LOL can he be weighed without the tail? Hold it up! Rest it on a coffee table! LOL
That's funny. I did have a 106 pound boy; he could probably have lost 10, maybe even 15 pounds to be in tip-top shape. I always thought he looked pretty good. Our current guy came to us at 99, and is now at 83. I don't want him to lose any more weight, but I can't feel his ribs, he has too muich skin hanging around. He also has loose flews on his lower jaw. I guess he might be part Shar-Pei? |
| My sheepie was 55 lbs and a little under a year (vet's estimate) upon adoption (really lean...don't know how long he was wandering in the woods but I would guess it was for some time). It took about 3 mos to get to his current weight (80 lbs give or take a lb or two) and he is still holding at that lean weight. He will be two in Feb. (a guesstimate but hey every dog needs a birthday!)
I took him to meet an adoption prospect sheepie gal today and was really shocked to see the difference in size. She was almost 5 inches shorter than him and weighed about the same (what a cute little "butterball" though!) She growled and barked incessantly at him so, needless to say, no adoption there.
Maybe I should rename him "Lanky' instead of Shaggy? Is there a sheepie basketball team around?  |
7skydive wrote: Maybe I should rename him "Lanky' instead of Shaggy? Is there a sheepie basketball team around? If you start one you should recruit Bailey from AZ...he's got the legs for it |
| As my grandmother (Phoebe) used to say "Puppies and little boys grow into their feet and ears" |
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