hi all was just wondering when would you consider a pup to be fully grown??????? i have heard that at 4 months the size is roughly half of what the fully grown size would be but i dont know how much truth is in that, any ideas, all welcome

Depends on breed and size eg toy, small, medium, large, giant.

Then you need to consider what your interpretation of "fully grown" is ie reached maximum height, is physically mature specimen of breed etc.

Depends on so much, the breed, the line, the feeding, the parents. Also a big difference in a dog being it's finished hight and being fully adult the hight is one of the first things to be completed and a dog may have reached it's full hight but not it's finished length. Few dogs are mature until they are 2 years old but a few will be sooner and some later.

As others, depends. For my medium sized breed, they tend to be adult height by 12 months, however, fill out more 18 months-2 yrs, and more by 3 years :)

I have a new breed and have been asking the same questions.  Reason being my large breed is allready at breed standard at 7 months.  My other breed is full height by 6 months but continues to mature for another year.  My new breed apparently doesn't fully mature till 3 years old(my vet won't neuter till after 2 years!) so we've still got a bit of growing to do:)
Ask his breeder.  You can judge by the size of mum and dad.

Doesn't always follow though.  Size can skip a generation, I had a dog 5" oversize & a male I kept from one of his litters was 3" under breed standard but he sired some decent sized males. One dog I like has a sire smaller than most of my bitches so its useful to know the dogs in the pedigree. Some large breeds can be maturing up to 4-5 years old.

> You can judge by the size of mum and dad
> Doesn't always follow though. Size can skip a generation

Yes, do check with the breeder what else is behind your dog.  I have a big-un, and I was talking to someone recently (another breed) about how her terrier is HUGE compared to her parents!!

following on from the op question at what age do you think Flat coats  reach full height ? Brooke is quite tall allready and people keep commenting on how grown up she looks and she is only 5 months she weighs 20kg atm

As the long bones grow first is is possible for a dog to reach full hight by six months although I would expect the dog to continue to grow in length. Some dogs mature quickly and other more slowly even in the same breed it is down to both the background and the husbandry.

That may be the case itis mainly her height that is remarked on so she could be headingto full height by 6 months ish. I know there isnt much I can do but dont want her to grow to fast. Very conscious of not over doing exercise etc particularly as she seems to have extra long legs now
Very inexperience so taking all the advice thats offered.
Mum and Dad arn't oversized but havn't looked into size of the line generally Mum and Dad are both shown and are doing very well

I went to see a friend at the weekend and brought some of my dogs with me. I have two pups from the same litter and she has another two, so we had 4 littermates together. The pups are 9 months old and they were four very different sizes! Obviously the one male dog is biggest, but all the three bitches are completely different in size. Even the two I have that have been fed and exercised exactly the same all along are different in size.

Yes, but there has been a issue with this in my original breed.  There was a popular stud who was quite undersize.  Some people used him for who owned him but it was the people who used him on larger bitches hoping it would level out the size in the litter.  Small dad + large mum = average pup.  Didn't work out this way and some people have ruined their lines for a few generations with undersized dogs still appearing in litters now.

Think that size is one of those things where you need to see what a stud is producing in the progeny, it certainly is not right to mate large with small you need one of the pair to be the correct size and if possible a stud or dam that pass on the correct size, but it does not end there you have to take care that the incorrect size does not reoccur in latter litters.