How do puppies, dogs grow? At what rate? I am trying to get a sense of how big my dog will be. Is there a way to know?

Her eventual size depends on that of her parents. Dogs grow pretty fast, IIRC.

@Nullo
Fast is right, but I guess I am wondering, with her growth spurt, her fast growing so far, if she will simply continue go grow gradually over the next year or so or whether she will have another growth spurt or is it too soon to tell at 7 months. Her parentage is a little iffy. She is a husky, chow, German Shepherd, Mastiff mix but, while you can see the mastiff in her littermate, in her brother’s face and build, you really can’t see it in her at all, so I’m wondering if she just didn’t get the “I’m a big ass Mastiff dog” genes and might end up being smaller.

What breed is she?

@Leanne1986

”...She is a husky, chow, German Shepherd, Mastiff mix but, while you can see the mastiff in her littermate, in her brother’s face and build, you really can’t see it in her at all, so I’m wondering if she just didn’t get the “I’m a big ass Mastiff dog” genes and might end up being smaller…”

It sounds like, with all the breeds in her genetics, she will be a fairly big girl. The chances are, she is not as big as her brother because she is female but, even if she doesn’t have much of the Mastiff bone structure, Shepherds and Husky’s are still big dogs and Chow’s, whilst shorter, aren’t exactly petite! Most dogs are fully grown by two years of age so she still has a bit of flling out to do by the sounds of it.

I’d love to see a picture, she sounds beautiful.

A good indicator in a pup is the amount of or circumference of the bone in the front legs. Small dogs have less bone. Guess though unless you know what big boned and small boned feels like, it isn’t much help.

Well then look at the hocks in comparison to the rest of the back leg. If the hock is long relatively speaking, that is another indicator of a lot of growing yet to come!

That’s an interesting mix! Have you posted pics of her? She sounds cute! is she fluffy like a husky chow or flatter coated like a shepherd mastiff? And what is her coloring like? Dogs usually grow in height until they are around a year old then they fill out but don’t get much taller.

It does really depend on the dog. Some dogs seem almost full grown between 6 to 12 months. They may grow a tiny bit more after 12 months but that has more to do with bone density and muscle gain and some fat.
I had a neighbor who had a great dane. In less than a year he was huge and looked full grown. But by 2 he looked like a different dog. He no longer looked like an overgrown awkward teen. He looked bigger to the eye but it was the added weight and muscles.

She wil be faily large. I would think she would top out at about 70 lbs. unless she got a lot of Mastiff genes then she will be bigger.

She’s going to be big, but with a mixed breed you shouldn’t get the health problems some purebreds get.

I think @marinelife is correct. My shepherd lab X is 75lbs he is 6. He is tall and lean with the body type of a shepherd and the face of a lab. My pure chocolate lab is shorter and stalkier in stature but has been 95lbs at her highest weight. Her normal weight is 78lbs. It really depends on the breed so say if your dog were to have the massif type body your dog could be either on the smaller or larger size depending on the genes. There is a rotweiller I see all the time he is 150lbs. There is another rotweiller across the road I also see that is 60lbs both are males. It totally depends.

I think it mostly depends on her breed. Some breeds grow almost exponentially during their puppy years, while others grow extremely slow. It’s like comparing a Yorkie to Labrador (I have a Labrador, and he’s grown almost 8 times his original size since I’ve gotten him). With a mixed breed, it depends on which genes she inherited, but you could probably research both breeds and get a feel for it.

@lillycoyote: Probably big enough to boss you around and to eat enough to put a dent in your budget.

My border collie, weight 56 pounds, just died. He was 12 years old and missed miserably by both of us.

Hope this will give you some indication.

You might be looking at a 90 – 100 pounder in a year or so, more or less. It’s going to be fun.