Healthy Weight?
I am new to the forum and am curious to know what a normal weight for a sheepdog puppy is at 12 weeks? Reason I ask is I have my new little guy (Gordon) and would like to know where he should be for a healthy weight at that point. Thanks! |
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| I know you are going to hate this answer, but it really depends on the puppy. Quincy was 24 lbs at 12 weeks and grew to be 115 lbs. (He was hypothyroid and a little chunky.) Oscar was 22 lbs at 12 weeks and is now 116 lbs. While I'd like Oscar a little slimmer, he is at a healthy weight. As you can see, they were big puppies, and grew to be big sheepdogs. There are two ways my vet uses to judge whether a dog is at a healthy weight. One, look at the dog from a top view. If you can see three moderately distinct sections, a front, a middle, and a hind end, that is a good sign. If you see one long tube, not so good.  The second way involves feeling the dogs ribs. If the bones can be easily felt, or even seen, then your dog is most likely underweight. If the ribs feel like the back of your hand over the knuckled area, ribs with a slight layer of fat, then that is a healthy weight. If your dogs ribs feel more like the padding of your palm, your dog is overweight. The second technique seems to work best with sheepdogs unless they are shaved down, as it is hard to tell their shape through all of the fur. Having said all of this, I found that this never applied to my dogs as puppies. They were both skinny pups until they hit 11 months to a year old. They were so active, and burned so many calories that I could feel their bony ribs, no matter how much food they were eating. Hope this info is helpful and welcome to the forum. Laurie and Oscar |
| Thank yous muchfor your response. Gordon seems to be quite large for his age so I was curious to gauge what is average. He is definitely healthy though so we will see what he weighs in when we visit the vet next week! Thank you again! Corey |
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