Hi All, hope someone will be able to answer my query...

Is it possible to improve bone on an 8 mth old puppy? If so how?

If a puppy had good bone at 8 weeks, is it something that comes back later or is it lost forever?

I remember 20+ years ago when I fed tripe adding 'stress' and SA37 to the puppy food, but now feeding complete.

Will be pleased to hear about your experiences and opinions.

Bone like most things canine is mostly inherent ability and the rest is upbringing. You can't get good bone on a pup that is inherently unable to lay down good bone but you can take a pup with the birthright to have good bone diminished because it is not fed correctly or is kept in a small cage.

By the age of 8 months I would think that the pups bone (take it you are talking leg bone) will be at a stage where feeding and husbandry would be unable to change the finished dog. Feeding for good bone needs to start with the bitch before mating and continue through till the pup is around 18 months but I do not believe there is a 'catch up' ability within the dogs system once the bone growth has stopped there is nothing that can be done and the long bones are more or less done by 12 months.

Most pups would appear to have good bone at 8 weeks but at that time growth has only just begun to be visible so it is not really a blueprint for the future unless you know the breeding lines very well when you may be able to judge if a particular pup will make good bone or not.

Thanks for your reply. I do really agree with you but wondered if anyone had any amazing 'secrets' tucked away.

The pup in question comes from lines with good bone, was/is fed on good food (as was/is mum prior to and while in whelp and afterwards), and has not been kept in a cage LOL!

Pup is a medium size breed, I chose his breed lines partly for their bone and substance that they produce so am surprised he doesn't have as much bone as I would like. In every other way he is perfect :)

I think when many people say 'bone' they mean the visable thickness of the long bones.

When you think, in humans, bone is only noticable when there is too little flesh to surround it - but legs will look thicker when muscle and fat are wrapped around it.

So....... even quite weedy looking bone can end up acceptable when the dog is finished, ie muscled and fully furred up.

Yes.... good 'bone' is in the genes but time, maturity and good rearing can reduce the 'weedy' look.

I got a dog from the Dogs Trust aged about 8/9 months and with decent food she actually grew 4", not sure what she'd have made if properly fed but as she was probably a Rhodesian Ridgeback x I'm sure significantly bigger.   I met a likely sibling and he was a bit, but not much bigger, but had probably been fed the same rubbish my dog had for first months - he'd been rehomed via Dogs Trust too.  They'd clearly fed her on chips and beans, probably left over from kids supper - she loved kids, playing footie and chasing cars :-) Gorgeous girl she was.

Growing upwards isn't the problem LOL!

He went up on his legs quite quickly (more so than his siblings - which often happens in this breed).

Toolz, I hope you are right, he is definitely at the 'gangly' stage, and hope he will look more substantial when he has matured.

No, but showing what can happen!

Think there is a period when the long bones have finished growing but the others have not, a dog will look very gangly, like juvenile human males, once all bone growth is finished the body will lay down muscle and the dog will begin to look more finished. Providing the dog has the correct sort of bone (oval round etc.) I would not worry too much, once mature I am sure he will be fine from what you have said about his background. Of course siblings will differ but it is unlikely is he comes from a line carrying 'good bone' and he has had I am sure the best of care he will when finished be what you hoped for.