Growth and dogs

I’m writing this in the hope it helps to explain in full about growth of dogs and sizes.
When you breed pedigree dogs their is no way any breeder can predict growth, but with line breeding you get an indication of size, colour, head shape etc as similar ancestors were in the pedigree. When you out cross two pedigree dogs (Although they will all go back to the same dogs initially), you can get huge variances in size, colour, height, head shapes.

So why cant a breeder predict sizes and heights? Lets look at it from an easy way. If you have a human child, it will have genetic material from both parents. But we can never predict the actual height of our kids. Some boys tower over their mother and father by a lot, and others can be smaller. I know myself that with in our family we have smaller and taller. Weights at birth is also no prediction on size later on. Some puppies get bullied out from eating as their is another thats far more greedy and dominates the milk bar or food bowl and its not until they get away from the siblings that you can actually see it growing well and catching up. Ill always remember a small Weimaraner we had, and I was wondering if he was growing right, but by 8 weeks he was doing well, but always smaller. I saw this dog at a year and fell over! He had become the largest, heaviest dog in the whole litter. So why if we cant predict humans should we be expected to predict dogs. We can not, and sometimes a puppy will look more like its grandmother.
Ill always remember Joshua’s izzy who didnt look like either of her parents, and I went around my friends for a meal, and on her wall was a photograph and I said OMG THATS Joshua’s dog. It was in fact the great great grandmother of his dog. We looked at the pedigree and marvelled.

Breeders do their very best to produce a dog thats to the breed standard, but once dogs have left everything can change. Diet is one of them. If you change your dog to dried food, we can see instantly their is a difference in coat and growth. Over exercise can cause problems in growth also.


Over the years many people like to meet up with siblings. This doesnt always end well as a lot of people start to compare their dogs with each other. Instead of accepting your dog for what it is, slightly smaller or larger, or wider or thinner, or different shades. Some start to worry about the dog they have. I see it in all breeds of dogs. Do not worry as dogs all meet their adult size between 18 months to 3 and some mature slowly and others mature quickly. Ive got at the moment in one litter, one worrying their dogs too big too quick, another dog is growing steady and smaller. Both of your dogs are perfect. Love them for the wonderful characters they are.


When we sell puppies we only know so much about someone. We can not delve into their private lives too much, we hope we have chosen the right homes. But if you do decide to meet up with siblings, remember ladies just because someone’s brought a dog off us doesnt mean we know what this person is like one hundred percent. Advice is always tell someone else that you are meeting someone. The location, the name and number of the person you are meeting up. Ideally couples meet up rather than single. Meet in an area which is not remote for a start until you get to know someone. Think safety.! Do not start sending photos of your dogs with children. Think carefully what you send. I have had online stalkers, and all sorts wanting dogs. We have to learn how to be safe, and just because someone owns a dog doesn't mean the breeder knows all their is to know about someone.