how common is it for dogs to go way over there breed standard?

my friend has an 8 month old boxer and althoguh he does look puppyish and is all leg, he is already the same height/or taller. than all the other full grown adult boxers we have seen.
many peopel cant belive he is only 8 months. but we know he definatly is.

.....Very common indeed for many reasons.Well breed to try and meet the breed standard as WE see it defined. That can vary and each bitch and dog combination will produce what 'him upstairs' sees fit to produce. Sometimes they are towering giants even from two moderate and correct parents. Sometimes 'mini me's' appear from well through through breedings.

So if you put that in the mix with the fact your friends breeder may be very responsible and so on but not even be thinking of the standard when she breeds, dogs of all sizes can easily occur within reason.

Di

he might not grow up anymore, he might just start filling out now :)

And, depending how the breed standard is worded, he may still do well at shows.

Both my Cavaliers were nearly their adult height by 8 or 10 months, and just filled out. In my bitch's case she was adult height by 6 months and as she's a little big for a bitch she looked ridiculous in the minor puppy class!!

My Lexi kept growing for a year and is just a fraction over ideal ehight, her brother who is on the taller side was that height by 8 months.

My Anton is above the breed standard height but his head, body and mainly his temperament are to die for :d  He did quite well at shows as a youngster but I don't show him as such.  There are others being shown that are taller than him and also doing well and he was just over an inch taller than the accepted height.  I suppose in my breed where they are quite rare judges see height as just being one minor fault so look at everything else.

Anton actually was normal height at 6 months, had a bit of a spurt at 9 months and then another at 12 months, aggghh, I was horified but I still love him.

Just seen this and a question :)

If us two legged animals are getting taller with better nutrient etc, are we seeing this in dogs as well ? :)

My breed are actually going smaller, much smaller than the ones that I first fell in love with.  I like the ones that are mid range in the breed standard at about 18", but that's my preference.  But I have to agree with yo LJS I've also thought that the size is changing due to what we now feed our dogs.

Diane

It has got to be as the better the diet the stronger you get

my GSD is far too tall, he made that height by nine months, was neutered at 7 months which might have had some bearing on it(thinking along lines of castrato?)

Hi There,
            My youngest australian shepherd LOOKS quite tall........

I was at a show last week, when someone stated to the breed judge (before judging), that my dog was an inch too tall.......:rolleyes:
The breed standard allows for a 4 inch variation in height for both dogs and bitches... At present, he is quite leggy, 15 month old and just losing his puppy coat.
When he is in the ring with other aussies, he does look a lot taller, but when we measured him when we got home, he is actually within the recommended height for the breed.....
We got him because we preferred a larger dog........ he won't appeal to everyone, but who cares....... we love him just as he is....... :)

Gabrielle

My beagle is 18 1/2 inches at the shoulder when he should be between 13-16 inches. On a medium breed he looks a heffer, bless him.

The little Elkhound bitch I am fostering is only 17 1/2 inches tall. 

The foundation stock behind her indiscriminate breeding would have been within the normal range of an inch either side of ideal height (19 1/2 inches for bitches) then it just shows if breeders do not practice selection for desired traits you can loose typical traits in a couple of generations. 

Size seems to be one that can vary drastically if postiive selection is not maintained, and even then you get the odd ones too big or too small in the best of matings.

You only need look at some of the very popular breeds to see how varied they can be from the standard.

My german spitz is unfortunately too tall - by exactly 1/8th of an inch - which as they are a measured breed means that there is no point in showing him and that he won't be used for breeding as he is outside the standard.  In an unmeasured breed I am sure that such a small amount oversize wouldn't make much odds but there you go, the joys of a measured breed!

surely a dog/bitch will only grow to the height of either parents say the dam of my boy is 25.5" and the sire 28". i would think my boy would only get to no bigger than 28" ??

Surely you know children who are taller than both their parents? I'm 5'6", my husband is 5'11" and our son is 6'2".

not really, depends on other relatives too, evironment, feeding and pure luck.   Look at humans, my mum is 5ft, my dad is 5ft 8in and my brother is about 6ft 2in

posted at the same time JG ;)

Great minds! :D

ok thanks, as you can see I don't know enough about genetics :rolleyes: just assumed thats how it would be!

Exactly why it's important to know as many ancestors as possboible behind the sire and dam.  Many traits, good and bad, miss a generation or two (or three or more!) before surfacing again.  Sometimes the sire and dam appear to have little influence on the pups, which is why you can't rely on just knowing the immediate relatives when thinking about breeding.

Yep My Kizi's Dad was a good size dog and my bitch was a 20 inch girl, and yet my Kizi is smaller at only 19", but the dogs grandfather had tended to produce some more diminutive bitches.

My Jozi is a very sturdy girl almost dog size at 20 1/4 tall and weights in at lest 21kg (her mother is 18 and have liked to keep my average girls at under 20kg).  Her Dad is a big lad, but his siter is aveerage and his parents were spot on too.

Same in my family, my Mum is 5' 1" and Dad is 5' 9" and I am 5' 4" and all my brothers are taller than Dad ranging from 5' 10" to 6' 2".

One of my GSDs was 31"+ at the shoulder(The breed measure I have only goes up to 31")

His father was 25" & his mother was 23"  & none of the others was anywhere near as big as him !

yes mine is 30 inches,

LOL his parents were both German & bred from middle sized dogs & bitches for generations just goes to show that mother natural does throw up the odd freak ;)

My bitch is now 37.15 kilos and 26 inches tall and only 9 months. I think she might make another inch in height and then it will all slow down. She does still have a deep step in her knee, but I can't see her getting much bigger to be honest, although she is still steadily gaining, as I have a weight chart I keep for her and I weigh her twice a month...!

We had two Pomeranian's years ago, it was really funny because the same people bought each one after a couple of years gap and you should of seen the size that they grew up to be!  They were massive and I mean massive, I've never seen any so big except some from Mayfield Kennels (DogsRUs as it now)but at least we knew that ours were what they were supposed to be.  Their parents, great grandparents etc. were all really small, so you will always end up getting something cropping up at some point.

All my boston's are bigger and weigh more then 25lbs (boston's have 3 weights and no more then 25lbs). Just had Dozer weighed at 29lbs but there is no fat on him, my vet says that all my dogs are ideal weight and I free feed them. Funny cause I thought they could use a lil more lol ... I was asked at a boston reunion if T-Bone was a cross and told them nope and since I had mom and dad I showed them... T-Bone is pretty big for a boston terrier but all of mine are PB's. 

Just wondering if you were to show them and since mine do weigh more and are a lil taller is that a disqualification? I definately would not cut them back on their food cause then they would look sick and they have a great body form.

my boy is bigger than both parents, his litter brother is the biggest and the others are smaller. The is a dog about 5 generationd back in his pedigree who was uk ch and apparently he was tall so it must come from there. We dont notice unless we meet another one. I know he is heavy though as he deads my legs when he is sat on my lap People always ask me what he is crossed with and when i tell them he is pure bred they ask if i am sure and did i get him as a pup and did i see both parents, cheeky devils.

I've been curious about this. I've got a 6 month  old golden, and when we took her to the vets to get her first check up he said 'ooo she's going to be a tall leggy blonde' and also advised that by 6 months she's likely to be about half her adult weight. At 5 months she was 19 kilos, so I imagine that shes bit more now. Is she going to be 36-40 kilos? Isn't this a lot for a golden retriever?

I had this same question about my GR dog because everyone said he was huge when he was a small pup. He put a steady kilo a week on between 10 weeks and 7 months. Then he just slowed right down when he hit 30 Kg at 7 months. He's a year old now and I think he'll end up 35-37 Kg total and he was a bit heavier than your girl at 5 months. He's well within breed standard and has ended up shorter than some GR boys out there. It will be interesting to see what one of our GR breeders has to say but I know one has her hands full with a new litter.