# Growth spurt possible after 8 months?



## brindledog

I have a 1/2 GSD, 1/2 Dutch shepherd puppy. She will be 8 months this week.

Up until age 6 months she was gaining anywhere from 1.5- 3 lbs /week and growing in height. At 6 months she was about 22" at the withers and 46 lbs. I sent her to a trainer for 3 weeks. When she came back she had not grown more than 1/2" in height and had lost nearly 4 lbs. I was not happy.

It's now been about 4 weeks since I got her back and she is just over 50 lbs. but has not grown in height at all.

Both her parents were substantially larger than my dog. The GSD sire was at least 75#. The Dutch shepherd mother looked to be minimum 55# and definitely taller than my dog. Two male litter mates of my dog are much larger as is a brother from an earlier litter. The litter mates look exactly like my dog, except that they are what I'd consider to be normal size.

My dog still looks like a young puppy! People think she is 5-6 months old. Vet thinks she may have a growth spurt, but I'm not finding much about puppies growing significantly in height after 8 months. 

I love my dog, but she looks SO tiny to me! Has anyone had a dog like this that had a significant growth spurt in height after 8 months??


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## vomlittlehaus

Well you have a mix bred puppy, so anything is possible. You mention males being larger, they usually are. Mom is 55#, your puppy being female will probably also top out here. I am hoping she is still intact? It is normal for a dog to drop weight when it leaves its home for training.


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## lrodptl

I don't know about height but my last 2 GSDs were 77 and 85 pounds at 8 months old and were 95 and 96 pounds at 2 years old.


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## dogma13

Yes they do grow in fits and starts into the second year.Oftentimes they are pretty awkward looking until they reach their final height and get some muscle mass.


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## Moriah

dogma13 said:


> Yes they do grow in fits and starts into the second year.Oftentimes they are pretty awkward looking until they reach their final height and get some muscle mass.


My GSD went through a major growth spurt at 14 months. He looked like an odd dachshund for a while. His body grew in length for a while; then finally, his legs got longer. Lastly, his head widened. At the end of the growth spurt, he looked beautifully proportioned. You would never guess he had been the runt of the litter.


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## DutchKarin

i think they slow down a lot at about 8 months but they will still grow. She sounds like with the mix she has already entered the range of normal. Remember that the little ones can pack a punch as much as the big ones and they are agile and quick. I love my 65 lb male Dutch.


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## brindledog

Well she is definitely agile and quick. And she's beautiful and smart, too. It's just her tiny size that kind of bothers me. Particularly after learning that two of her male litter mates are 60 and 70 lbs. respectively, and much larger overall.
I'm less interested in weight gain than height gain. She is short! She also doesn't even look like she weighs 50 lbs, which I suppose is a testament to her fitness/musculature.
I have never seen either a GSD or DS this small. I know DS are supposed to be medium size and that technically she is in within the normal range for females, but considering the size of her parents and all the other family members I've seen at her age or older, I'm a bit frustrated and confused as to how she would end up so much smaller.
Her mother was probably closer to 60# and substantially larger than my dog.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see. Vet saw her last week and after feeling her legs, said she has more growing to do. I don't know if he means a cm or a some actual inches. Either way, she has literally not grown even a cm for 2 months!


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## brindledog

After multiple vet visits, a 6th round of dewormer (chronic tapeworm problem), and major dietary changes (had an ongoing GI issue), Grendel is now gaining weight again. She put on 2 lbs in a week and is now close to 53 lbs. However, still no height change.

She also just went into her first (and only!) heat last week.

I did not realize that when calculating a puppy's age in months that one goes by the birth date. I was counting weeks and dividing by 4, which would have put her around 8.5 months old now. However, if using standard calculation, she won't even hit 8 months until last week in July. So maybe there is some chance of more height. That said, I find it difficult to imagine that after 2.5 months she will suddenly get taller. But I'll keep my fingers crossed....


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## Dainerra

you also need to remember that she won't finish growing in height until closer to 18 months old, give or take. longer if you spay her before she is fully mature.
she likely won't be fully grown until between 3 -4 years old.


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## Julian G

She still has at least another 8 months of growing to do. It will slow down but she should still grow. I find that Royal Canin German Shepherd puppy food made my brothers dog grow the most. This could be a bad thing if they grow too fast, but you can give it a try I'm sure it wont hurt for a month or two.


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## ausdland

brindledog said:


> I have a 1/2 GSD, 1/2 Dutch shepherd puppy. She will be 8 months this week.
> 
> Up until age 6 months she was gaining anywhere from 1.5- 3 lbs /week and growing in height. At 6 months she was about 22" at the withers and 46 lbs. I sent her to a trainer for 3 weeks. When she came back she had not grown more than 1/2" in height and had lost nearly 4 lbs. I was not happy.
> 
> It's now been about 4 weeks since I got her back and she is just over 50 lbs. but has not grown in height at all.
> 
> Both her parents were substantially larger than my dog. The GSD sire was at least 75#. The Dutch shepherd mother looked to be minimum 55# and definitely taller than my dog. Two male litter mates of my dog are much larger as is a brother from an earlier litter. The litter mates look exactly like my dog, except that they are what I'd consider to be normal size.
> 
> My dog still looks like a young puppy! People think she is 5-6 months old. Vet thinks she may have a growth spurt, but I'm not finding much about puppies growing significantly in height after 8 months.
> 
> I love my dog, but she looks SO tiny to me! Has anyone had a dog like this that had a significant growth spurt in height after 8 months??


That happened to my pup too. She lost 2 lbs while boarded with her trainer in a week. I met an adult 48 lb gsd at a training; nice, agile dog. To answer your question: my pup is 11 months old and hasn't grown in height since 8 months old. I'm hoping she gains height atw but if not, that's ok. I'd rather have a smaller gsd than a larger one.


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## JG!

My girl is a Mali x GSD who is 8.5 months old this month. She has had relatively the same growth pattern as your pup. She hit 23 in. atw right before she turned 7 months old and as of today she's barely 23.5 in. at 56 lbs. Her parents appeared larger than she is for sure but I'm told that the girth and musculature they gain as adults makes them appear larger overall. Maybe your pup took after the Dutchie side a little more than her litter mates? Maybe she will hit a late spurt. Ive learned things aren't as predictable with crosses as they are with pure bred GSD's. Either way I'm sure she's awesome with that Dutchie blood in her and will run circles around most pure bred GSD's with her size. I know my MaliX girl does. 


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## ausdland

JG! said:


> My girl is a Mali x GSD who is 8.5 months old this month. She has had relatively the same growth pattern as your pup. She hit 23 in. atw right before she turned 7 months old and as of today she's barely 23.5 in. at 56 lbs. Her parents appeared larger than she is for sure but I'm told that the girth and musculature they gain as adults makes them appear larger overall. Maybe your pup took after the Dutchie side a little more than her litter mates? Maybe she will hit a late spurt. Ive learned things aren't as predictable with crosses as they are with pure bred GSD's. Either way I'm sure she's awesome with that Dutchie blood in her and will run circles around most pure bred GSD's with her size. I know my MaliX girl does.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I don't know. My gsd pup keeps up with my trainer's 2.5 yo Mal. :grin2:


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## JG!

ausdland said:


> I don't know. My gsd pup keeps up with my trainer's 2.5 yo Mal. :grin2:




Haha wow you must have yourself a little firecracker! I don't let Athena play with just any dog but she definitely wears them all out! Then again her playmates aren't from K9 lines like she is. 


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## ausdland

JG! said:


> Haha wow you must have yourself a little firecracker! I don't let Athena play with just any dog but she definitely wears them all out! Then again her playmates aren't from K9 lines like she is.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Yep she's a handful. No dog has out swam her yet to retrieve a stick out of the lake and they're mostly labs


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## JG!

ausdland said:


> I'm hoping she gains height atw but if not, that's ok. I'd rather have a smaller gsd than a larger one.






ausdland said:


> Yep she's a handful. No dog has out swam her yet to retrieve a stick out of the lake and they're mostly labs



That's awesome! She's a beast! 

You see OP, sometimes big things come in small packages. Actually our dogs are within standard, just smaller in comparison to most of the common GSD's out there. Which from my knowledge tend to be a bit oversized.


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## ausdland

JG! said:


> That's awesome! She's a beast!
> 
> You see OP, sometimes big things come in small packages. Actually our dogs are within standard, just smaller in comparison to most of the common GSD's out there. Which from my knowledge tend to be a bit oversized.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Yeah, the mondo mal ppl really like her. I had knee surgery because of her-jeez. Got to stop swelling up now..ty


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## JG!

ausdland said:


> Yeah, the mondo mal ppl really like her. I had knee surgery because of her-jeez. Got to stop swelling up now..ty




Ouch! The things we go through for our dogs, I swear haha. 


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## ausdland

Julian G said:


> She still has at least another 8 months of growing to do. It will slow down but she should still grow. I find that Royal Canin German Shepherd puppy food made my brothers dog grow the most. This could be a bad thing if they grow too fast, but you can give it a try I'm sure it wont hurt for a month or two.


Mine did grow too fast on RC Maxi puppy, not the GS specific, so I transitioned to an all life stages at 8 months.
OP, if you really think it's dietary that your pup hasn't grown, you could try that kibble until 12-14 months old. It does make them grow.


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## brindledog

My puppy turned 8 months yesterday. Apparently I was miscalculating her age as I was counting weeks and dividing by 4.

After being treated for worms (AGAIN!), getting treatment for stomach issues, and having a diet change, she gained 4 lbs in a week and has kept it on, so she's now just under 55 lbs. But still just barely 22.5" tall. No height increase. Not even a teeny, tiny bit.

She started her first heat 2.5 weeks ago and vets now say she's probably at or near her full height.

I have never heard of a Shepherd of any type (German, Dutch or Belgian) reaching full height by 6 months. Come to think of it, she wasn't even 6 months when she stopped growing in height. 

I know many people think it shouldn't matter, but for a variety of reasons I wanted a big dog. It really bugs me when people say "what a cute puppy!" and then look surprised when I state her age. One guy said he had a 5 month old GSD that was larger. 

I know there's nothing to be done about it, so just venting. But weird that I can't find one thread by anybody on the entire internet with a similar experience. *sigh*.


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## JG!

brindledog said:


> I know there's nothing to be done about it, so just venting. But weird that I can't find one thread by anybody on the entire internet with a similar experience. *sigh*.




Well don't count her out yet! 
As I stated earlier I have a similar experience with my Mali X GSD girl. She was stuck at 23-23.5 in. since she was 6-7 months. She'll be 9 months the first week of August. I saw your latest post and decided to measure her again. I just wanted to update you that my girl grew a bit! Last I posted in this thread she was consistently measuring 23.25-23.5 in. As of today she's measuring 23.75-24 in. at 56 lbs. Not much of a difference, but since she hasn't grown in months it came as a surprise and may be the start of another spurt. Just wanted to let you know that it is possible your pup may hit another spurt. 
I'm happy with my girl the way she is, she's perfect. I'm actually hoping she doesn't get any taller than she is now, or heavier than 65 lbs. I just prefer that size. 


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## brindledog

JG! said:


> I saw your latest post and decided to measure her again. I just wanted to update you that my girl grew a bit!


Congrats! I wish I could be hopeful, but I've been waiting and waiting and....everyone's telling me this is it and I don't want to keep hoping.

Has your girl had her first heat?


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## JG!

brindledog said:


> Has your girl had her first heat?




Thanks. I'll try to channel any more of her growth to your pup haha. She hasn't had her first heat yet. I've been ready for it for a while now but it hasn't came. 


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