Your dog’s height depends primarily on his breed, but also age, sex, and health. Small dogs reach their target height at about six months of age. In the case of large breeds, this process is much longer, and may even last until the four-legged friend is one year old.
What will you learn out of this article
- The dog height can vary greatly depending on the breed of the quadruped
- Small dogs grow up to about six months of age
- Large breeds of dogs grow almost twice as long as small dogs
How long does the dog grow
Taking care of your pooch, have you ever wondered how big he will grow? For me, my dog’s height was very important when choosing his breed. I wanted my pet to belong to the group of rather small dogs.
The height of a dog depends mainly on his breed, but not only. Dogs and humans only grow up to a certain age. After this stage, their growth remains unchanged. When you are with your puppy daily, you may often not notice him getting bigger and bigger.
Check out old photos of your pet and see how he has changed so far. My pooch is not large even in adulthood. However, when I recently came across a photo on which he was 4 months old, I realized how much he had grown up.
What determines the dog’s height
How tall your dog is at any given time in his life depends on several different factors. As it turns out, in many cases it is very difficult to compare dogs’ appearance features with each other. Therefore, the issue of a dog’s height should be considered from several different perspectives.
Dog’s age
Your dog’s height is very much dependent on the age of your four-legged friend. Puppies are definitely smaller than adult dogs. In most cases, this difference is really visible.
However, with some dog breeds, the pooch’s height only increases slightly as he grows up. It is not such a huge difference in the case of people, where the height of a child and an adult person is very different from each other.
The age of the dog also determines the moment when the pooch’s body stops growing. This usually happens until around the age of one year. If you want to know more about your four-legged friend’s stages in life, please refer to my other article you can find on this blog.
The breed of the dog and his height
The one thing that may have the greatest influence on your dog’s height is what breed he is. This is of great importance if we are talking about how long a dog grows. It is the breed of the pooch that is the main determinant of the fact that a given pet will be a small, medium or really large dog.
Among the small breeds of dogs, we can mention such as chihuahua, Maltese or York. These dogs are really small. Such breeds need special attention because due to their size, they are exposed to various dangers that do not affect larger pets in any way, e.g. they can fall off your bed and hurt themselves.
On the other hand, we can indicate breeds of really large dogs. Among them there will certainly be Great Dane, Tibetan Mastiff and St. Bernard. These dogs can grow really big.
The difference in height between dogs classified as small and large breeds can be even several times greater. Interestingly, the growth of mongrels is the most difficult to predict.
Due to the fact that we cannot define one predetermined standard for this breed, the height of mongrels can be really different. We can meet both puppies the size of a Maltese, and as large as a German Shepherd.
If you want to learn more about the breed, which is the mongrel, I refer you to my post, which you can find HERE.
The health of the pet
The dog’s height can also be affected by the health of the dog. As a result of the disease, the pooch’s body may not grow as fast as in the case of other representatives of his breed. These types of abnormalities are not always noticeable when the pooch is still in the puppy stage.
As a result, the pooch may stop growing much earlier than is the case with healthy dogs. It is also possible that the pooch’s growth phase is not as intense as in the case of other quadrupeds of the same breed.
Gender of the dog
A very significant factor affecting a dog’s height is sex. As a rule, females will be shorter than males. We can actually observe this with all dog breeds.
Male dogs grow taller. It is also accompanied by greater weight in the quadruped. Therefore, when analyzing the pattern of a given breed, we can see that the information on the expected height and weight in males is given separately and that in females separately. One average value for both sexes is not indicated.
How long does the dog grow
You already know what factors have a direct impact on what your dog’s height will be. However, do you know how long is the period in which your four-legged friend’s body grows?
Dogs and humans only grow up to a certain stage in their lives. Once they reach it, their height stays the same. More information about that topic you will find on other entry of this blog.
How long do little dogs grow
The length of the dog grows depends on whether he belongs to the group of small or large dogs. The difference is quite significant, so I find it a very interesting topic.
The body of dogs belonging to small breeds grows more or less until the sixth month of the life of the pooch. After this time, your pet remains the same height. However, this does not mean that your pooch will stop feeling like a puppy anymore. The fact that his body has stopped growing does not directly affect his mental development.
The puppy period lasts for dogs until they are around one year old. Therefore, if you think that your little pooch will gain mental maturity faster than the big dogs and get rid of youthful behaviour, then unfortunately you are wrong.
How long do large dogs grow
Large dogs grow up to around one year old. This is definitely longer than in the case of small breeds. You are probably wondering what makes this difference? It cannot be denied that the growing period of large dogs is almost twice as long as that of small tetrapods.
The answer to this question is obvious, if you think about it longer. A large dog’s body takes longer to grow from a tiny puppy to an adult. The growing up process must not proceed too fast or abruptly as this would put too much stress on the dog’s body.
Therefore, for this reason, the growing process for large dogs takes up to twelve months.
Does the dog’s height matter?
However, I understand why some people prefer small and others large dogs. It is a personal choice of each dog guardian.
Small dogs are a good choice when your living space is not so big. On the other hand, when you have a house with a garden, you may want the presence of the dog to be visible, so then you decide on one of the large breeds.
One thing is almost sure, no matter what your pet’s height is, you will become the best of friends. If you want to learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of large dogs compared to the small ones, I refer you to my other post.
When you took care of your pooch, did you take into account his height, or was it a secondary matter for you?
If you have any questions for me, want me to bring up a topic in the next post or have other matter you are curious about, please share it with me in the comments section.