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So, How Big Will My Puppy Get?

Whenever you consider getting a puppy, remember that he or she is going to grow up!!! Despite being cute, adorable, and SMALL, your future dog will be much larger. You need to adequately prepare for that - if you are going to have a big dog, you really need a yard for him/her to play in and he/she is not likely to be an acceptable apartment dog. However, if you are looking for a guard dog, protector dog, or a dog you can take long walks with, a small dog just won’t cut it. Small dogs are small and their legs have to pump much harder during long walks - tiring them out much earlier than a larger dog.

One of the primary indicators of a puppy’s eventual future size is his or her parents. By seeing both his/her dam and sire, you can get a good understanding of how big your puppy will he/she grows up. The parents size is a strong indicator of eventual size - but not all puppies will follow in their parents footsteps.

Another indicator of eventual future size is the breed of the animal. Typically, chihuahuas are going to be a particular size (and a toy chihuahua will be every smaller!). This helps you to know that if you are buying a chihuahua, your puppy is likely to fall within a particular size range.

However, you will run into trouble when trying to identify mixed breeds. I once had an Alaskan Malamute with accidentally encountered a small male dog. We never saw the small male dog, but the puppies produced by the Alaskan Malamute had the perfect beautiful markings of their mom, but were short, squat, and heavy set. Several had their dam’s long hair, but others had very short hair. This is a perfect example of how mixed breed dogs can end up with a variety of odd features that were not present in one or the other parent. However, it is typical that the puppies will take after the size of the dam and not of the sire.

If you are lacking some of this key information, you can try looking at the paw size. Bigger paws will mean a larger future puppy. Nature does not allow for misshaping like a tiny dog with huge feet (note that chihuahuas have teeny, tiny feet).

It is said as well that if you weigh your puppy at approximately 14 weeks of age, then you can determine the puppy’s future weight by doubling that weight. This is one possible option in determining your puppy’s future weight.

An even further method of trying to figure out your puppy’s future weight is through checking your puppy’s “loose skin.” I  know this sounds odd but puppy’s have to grow into their skin and their skin often grows faster than their body. This will not work for certain breeds of puppy which naturally have very loose skin!

A very interesting and scientific way of figuring out your puppy’s future weight is by predicting the eventual size of the puppy through projection. Since puppies reach their full eight at about 8-11 months of age and their adult body weight a few months later, its a pretty fair estimate to say that a puppy is approximately 3/4th of its eventual height by the time it has reached 6 months.