Not at all - the amount on the bag is nearly always too much. My Tatze got chubby at the same age for the same reason. In case you haven't seen it here is a great graphic to help you
Exactly the same as my Pongo (and also the same as his sister)! Welcome to the Monster-Labradors branch of the forum....
Our Riley is now 23 weeks old and is 16.7kg.@ 8 weeks 5kg. @ 11 weeks 7kg. @ 18 weeks 13kg. now 23 weeks 16.7kg. But she feels a lot heavier when she sits on your knee.
Mrconnsmythe Juno weighed the same as Hawk but at 10 weeks. I wouldn't be too concerned if he appears "smaller" than other pups at the same age as they all grow at their own speed. Of more importance is that they grow steadily and that you weigh them regularly and monitor their shape.
His dad was a solid 75-80lbs big chested so is it safe to say if we follow proper feeding guidelines and such he should be close to the same size? Would there be any difference if his dad was a black lab and he is a yellow? I would assume not but thought I would throw it out there. Speaking of that, has there been any studies done on size of labs based on their colour? It would be interesting to see the chart that is in this thread also identify the lab colours!
He sure is! ☺ I thought Ella was going to be huge as she was 8.5kg at 8 weeks when we got her. However, looking back, she was a little on the chubby side (ok, more than a little - she had rolls hehe) when we got her. She's now more on the lean side and I can see that she won't be as big as we originally thought. At 8 months she's 22kgs. She's from show lines so definitely more solid than snowbunny 's pups (I think she's already heavier haha) but I no longer think she'll challenge Pongo ( Rosie ) for the forum title ☺
I do think that it is worth repeating for those people - like me - with a show line dog and have the expectation of a heavy adult dog...just watch the weight and make sure your pup stays slim. Don't slip into the trap of letting your dog get podgy because you expect him to be big. There is (in my experience) really not all that much difference between a genuinely fit and slim show line dog and a working line dog. You do seems to get more extremes in working line dogs so you see very small and light dogs, and really very, very tall dogs. Whereas a dog from a breeder aiming to show will tend to produce dogs that fall in the (quite narrow) height range of the breed standard. Charlie is a lot heavier than the smaller working line dogs (he is much taller), and he is a lot lighter than very tall working line dogs. But, when he is stood next to a working line dog of the same height as him, he clearly has more 'substance' - thicker bones, larger rib cage, more bulk around his shoulders and neck - but this accounts for no more than 1 - 2kgs of 'extra' weight.
Emily Ella is very much the same weight as Juno at the same age. She was 22kg at 8 months and now tops the scales at somewhere between 24.5 and 25kg (although somewhat more after all the turkey she's had yesterday and today ). She has a mix of show and field and is a slim girl, standing perhaps a little taller than the standard (about 0.5 inch) but I closely monitor her shape and weigh her monthly.
Yes, sorry, my comment was a little generalised there and not totally accurate. Ella is a lovely slim shape at the moment (the vet actually comments on how refreshing it is to see a lab that's not overweight) and she is 22kgs. I just know that looking at her size and shape at her 8 months, in comparison to say Willow and Shadow for example, that she won't be a similar size and shape to them when she's fully grown. Both her mum and dad are tall(ish) dogs with a broad head, chest, body etc. and it appears that Ella will be a similar body type. ☺ There are so many fat labs out there. I find it amazing (and I gloat a little hehe) when we meet people with fat labs out on walks and they comment on how slim Ella is and ask how we manage it!
W&S are quite short for Labs, as well as lightly built. Although, they're far taller than their parents, and two other girls from the litter that we've seen recently. I'm forever being told they're too skinny. I'll always agree that it wouldn't hurt Shadow to put on a tiny bit more bulk, which we're doing, very slowly, but Willow's ribs aren't visible at all. She's just petite. Both of them still look a bit like rangy adolescents, and I'm sure they'll gain more muscle mass which will make them broader as they get older. Their best friend, Alfie (also working lines), looked very greyhound-like until he got to about 2-3 years of age, despite having much more of a traditional broad Lab head.
No, not at all just you - I have definitely noticed on the forum that when someone has a heavier pup, and say the parents were huge, so they are expecting a big dog, and then I see a picture.....there is often a too podgy pup evident. I was certainly misled, and expected an adult dog of about 35kgs - a big part of this is that Charlie's family appear in show ring a good few kgs heavier than Charlie. It also doesn't help that some brands of food are based on expected final adult weight, a thing that can definitely encourage overfeeding if you expect a heavier adult dog.
Yes! Tatze is my first Lab. When we went to puppy classes I told the trainer she was always hungry and asked if I should give her more food. The trainer said no! I was giving her far too much and Tatze was already looking too podgy, I should give her less to put less strain on her developing bones. Lesson learned - I have kept her nice and slim ever since. (I wish it was as easy to keep myself nice and slim!!)
I see what you mean. Here is Ella on the day the that we brought her home. Can you imagine how huge she'd be now if we'd kept her the same shape as she grew?
OH is worried about Ripple as he is still around 22 kg, but I think we are on the right track. He is from show stock and his father was quite big, but I want a healthy lab and I'm not worried about getting him to look like his father. I think we let our last boy get too big and it showed in his joints.
Eric is show breed and is a big boy but also a lovely shape. His weight has slowed down and he doesn't get fed the full amount of food as indicated on the packet.
Maggie was 14lbs at 8 weeks, 21.5lbs at 10 weeks and has now weighed in 23.8 at almost a full 12 weeks
