Lab growth

So I havent had a big dog before..So im clueless..

Bailey is 8 months old and hasnt gotten any bigger in the past 2 months... She is pretty small for a lab... I can easily lift her and cuddle with her on the couch..

Just wondering if you think she is really small for a lab andif she will get much bigger.. Her paws are pretty small but in porportion to her body.
She is from a BYB but without a doubt Purebred. Her mom was a smaller lab but not so teeny as bailey.

BTW- it is REDICULOUSLY hard to get this wiggly little dog to stand up straight.

If she's only 8 months she's got some growing and filling out to do, IMHO. There are so many labs out there that there is incredible variation within the breed. On the lab board I go on there are dogs that grow to be anything from 50 up to 90+ pounds, and bitches will tend to be smaller.

I wouldn't be too worried about it, and would definitely expect some further growth--labs are slow to mature, both physically and mentally.

I would say it's her breeding .... she'll alway be your lap dog , so enjoy !!

Jack's still my lap dog--and he's 65 lbs--lol....

Enzo is fifty now that she's full grown and with muscle on. She's lost some muscle because I have NOT been willing to go outside for long in the cold, so she's down to about 47 or so pounds. She's also purebred. It just really depends on the lines. She was probably about Baileys size when I brought her home at 8 months, she grew a few inches and put on some poundage, but not much.

Here's a picture. She's standing kind of funny, but you can see she's pretty lithe for a lab, and not huge like a lot of labs you see.

She will most likely fill out some more over the next year or so. Something else to keep in mind- there are so many over sized Labs out there these days that one whose size is within the Stadard seems small (I hear that all the time about Caleb, and he's right smack in the height wise for a male, and at the minmum weight wise). According to the Standard, a female Lab should be between 21 1/2 to 23 1/2 inches tall and between 55-70 pounds when full grown. The picture could be deceiving, but I think your pup will fall in that range.


Hey- which Lab board? I'm on a few- a couple more breeder/show related, and a couple a combo of pet/show/breeder.

It's a tough call with Labs.

Elly was that size when we got her at two years old, but she was much, much skinnier. She had huge milk jugs, too. They bred her when she was in such terrible condition. You could see all of her ribs, and her spine clearly. I suppose her being so malnourished for the first year of her life had a part in how she grew up. This was the shape she was in at her old home:



Oliver finished filling out by the time he was a year old. I thought he was done at seven or eight months, but when I went and lived in Illinois for awhile and came back, he was much bulkier and had a ton of muscle.

Samwise was a Border Collie x Lab, so he wasn't purebred, but he wasn't finished growing until he was two years old. He kept getting taller and taller, and then finally filled out.

Molly finished growing when she was under a year old. She grew up fast.

Labs vary a lot in size but most are done growing up (height) but she may grow wider. I assume she is spayed so that will limit her filling out to much as far as stockiness. I would bet she is with in 10-15% of he final healthy weight.

Nothing wrong with that as she will most likely live longer and have less joint problems.

She is a cutie, enjoy!

Wow, I've been gone too long, I guess... when'd you get a lab?

I can't really say a lot, since I've only got a border collie lab cross, but I do agree with what an above poster said about labs being bigger then they originally were, so that's what we're used to... I wouldn't guess she'll ever be a huge chunky monkey, but one of those more agile and lean labs - pretty! (Like Enzo - she's real pretty, if you ask me!)

She's really cute.