Can you predict adult height?

[Dizzy]

Or does it just vary too much between breeds and lines?

I think Fred might top out above standard. He's 6 months this week, and only has 2" to go before he's too big. Well for standard, I don't care how big he is... I never bought him to show anyway!


Unless he does well at the show... Then I might be a bit gutted.


So.... Do crap at the show and keep growing Fred, or do really well and STOP it.


Seeing his breeder next weekend and some of his litter mates, so sure she will be able to tell, but I am curious.

[Beanie]

It's going to depend on the breed and yes, it can depend on lines and of course the individual dog. Some dogs/lines grow fast early and then slow down, some dogs/lines grow steady, some grow a little early then have a late growth spurt. The breeder will probably have a good idea if he will stay in or go out, yep, but sometimes dogs can surprise us all.
Payton was initially going to be his breeder's pick but she measured and looked at charts and thought he was going to go out, so she decided to keep his brother instead. Auggie's breeder (Pay's mom's breeder) and I looked at charts and we decided to take the gamble on him. I wanted him anyway for sports, but we wrote up a different contract to keep him intact because of the gamble. He is just over right now, but frequently in his lines (and other lines too) the shoulders drop after they mature some more and the dog comes back in standard. For some people they measured the dog at a year, dog is out, so they neuter - and then a year later after the dog is two the dog has matured and his shoulder's have dropped and they could have shown.
So sometimes it's worth it to wait a dog out if you are looking at neutering him if he isn't showable!

[Dizzy]

I haven't thought about what to do with his danglies yet....

[Toller_08]

My Doberman breeder is pretty good at predicting height by watching the growth knuckle on the front of the leg (that definite bump that puppies have on the front legs). She can usually tell, by a certain age, roughly how many more inches are left to go. But other than that, I don't think there really is a definite way to predict.

[CharlieDog]

No, I don't know of one. I do know of a puppy growth calculator but it only calculates like adult weight, BUT if you have records of his measurements as he's grown you can probably use some sort of math/percentages to figure out where he's likely to end up, but like Beanie said, sometimes they end up shorter than they measure out at a year to two.

I don't know how good you are with charts and maths though lol.

[Dizzy]

I haven't kept a record of his growth... So that blows that one out the water.

I think it will be really interesting to see him around the other dogs on Sunday. I know his sister is already 21 inches... Hes still very puppy looking, all soft and squishy. I think hell be slow to mature....

[CharlieDog]

Haha, yeah, it's probably not the norm lol, but until my brother moved in my old room, I had marked my dogs height at the time when I was growing up. He painted over everything though but there were puppy heights at specific intervals and then again at a year or two years. I wish I could go back and look, but he's a butt.

I'm marking Jones' height in my office. Already he's grown like an inch and a half. Soon he'll have doubled his weight when I brought him home.