Hunter's impressive growth rate

by Craig
(Darwin, Australia)

Hi, I purchased Hunter, (AKA) Axe Von Den Aero, Short Hair, Straight Back Working Bloodline GSD from a breeder in Sydney Dec 2011.

He was about 11 weeks old and weighing about 13.7 kg. His Mother is about 60 cm and 39 kg and the father is 65 cm and 43 kg, so at best I expected Hunter to be about 65 cm and about 40-45 kg as a fully grown adult dog. I think I am going to be wrong.

Allthough I didn't record his height regularly I did record his weight.

At 14 weeks he weighed 20 kg or 44 pounds,
at 16 weeks he weighed 21.5 kg or 47.3 pounds,
at 18 weeks he weighed 27 kg or 59.5 pounds,
at 22 weeks he weighed 30.3 kg or 66.8 pounds,
at six months he weighed 36 kg or 79.3 pounds,
at seven months he weighed 41.5 kg or 91.5 pounds,
at seven and a half months he weighed 43 kg or 94.8 pounds, and at eight months he weighs 45 kg or 99.2 pounds and is 65 CM at the shoulders.

There is still plenty of skin to grow into around his face and his paws are still disproportional to the size of his body, still has that giant paw look about him.

For the first three months I had him, I fed him on a combination of Blue Buffalo (wild) and boiled brown rice with a generous portion of boiled mixed vegetables.

I later modified this to Buffalo with a top quality dried dog food, meat protein based. He loves it.

The vet is very happy with his body size and does not consider him over weight. He has fantastic muscularity and is extremely strong and energetic.

I am estimating that he will reach about 50 kg or 110 pounds by his first birthday in late September this year but I do not expect him to gain any more height, maybe a CM or two at the most.

I find the growth chart on this website to be very conservative and at 36 kg for an adult GSD very under the normal weight range.

Cheers,

Davo