Hi to Everyone!
I was wondering... when do dachshunds reach their physical maturity? Garth is now 6 mos. and weighs right at 10 lbs. He's 14" from the base of his neck to the base of his tail. His girth,which I measured behind his front legs(hope that's the right place!),is 16". If he continues to grow he won't be a mini any longer, is that right? I was thinking maybe small dogs reach their full size earlier than big dogs. My Shepard wasn't really mature and filled out till she was at least 2 yrs old. Any info would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Marlene
Hi Marlene!
I have offered this formula that my vet believes in to the list in the past, but it has been awhile, so here goes. He says that if you take the weight of your dog at 6 mos. of age, and add 1/3 of that again, you will have calculated a pretty close prediction of your dog's adult weight, which is normally considered to be at 12 months or older. So, if this is accurate, Garth could weigh in somewhere around 13+ lbs. as an full-grown adult. Minis are technically considered to be 11 lbs. and under. And some literature has described standards as over 16 lbs., although others have said here that anything over 11 lbs. is officially a standard. We have used the popular term "tweenie" here to describe our dogs that fall in that 11 - 16 lb. range, and if Garth ends up being a tweenie, he will have lots of good company on this list!