What can I expect from a 5 months old puppy

[Mo-re]

Hi all,

As we are new to standard poodles, trying to catching up. Wondering if any of you can shed the light over the size of our four months and a half puppy? He is 22 lb, 19" height at shoulder. does this weight and height sound normal to you guys? He had his grooming today and his groomer was asking how big we thought he would be and of course we have absolutely no idea. But for some reason seems to us that the groomer was trying to tell us that he is rather a small boy. So we are curious to learn a litlle bit more about the breed size....

[zefi]

I thought he looked small in the first baby photos, but really to me he sounds right on track. Bonnard is big, and at 5 months he was still smaller than his sister who's just a smidge over 23in. Now he's 27in and he's 8 months. Mo-re has big feet so he has quite a bit of growing up to do!

You are measuring to the top of the shoulders right? I must re-measure Bonnard....

I would say a couple of things. Firstly he will probably end up being around the 24in mark which is a nice size. If you get him fixed earlier he will probably get taller as apparently dogs neutered early end up taller than their intact counterparts.

The other thing is that his breeder will have a much idea of how big he will get. Groomers (like vets) have no idea what they're talking about! I took Bonnard in to the vet for his vaccination at 8 weeks and he was huge. More like a 3 month old than a 2 month old and the vet thought there was something wrong with him! He'd never seen such a big pup. The fact that he was an only pup didnt seem to count for him.

[Angie]

A rule of thumb I've always used:  The adult weight will be approximately twice the 4 month weight.  This has always been within a few pounds for my guys.   I'm not sure about height.  BTW, very cute puppy.  He looks like my Albert.

[Mo-re]

Hi all,

Thank you Zefi and Angie for the kind answers. We are planing to have him fixed when he is 6-7 months old. Not sure if this is early enough Zefi? 24 in sounds great already

[zefi]

With boys I say around 8 months. With girls 10 months. Thats just me.

[Michael]

Not much to add to the good points and advice already made here, but figured I'd mentioned that I bet the groomer was probably comparing him "now" to other full grown SPs. At this point, he would be considered "small" in relation to others that are full grown, and that's probably how he seemed to the groomer. I think the feet thing Zefi mentioned is a good point....he definitely will probably grow into them yet...so he's done growing yet!