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How Accurate Is the 4 Month Weight Rule?


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I'm curious whether people have truly found the rule that you can approximate the adult weight of a border collie by doubling their weight at 4 months. (Is it 4 months?)

 

I'm looking for a young dog to train as my next therapy dog. One rescue just got in a 4 1/2 month old pup who sounds promising, but he's already 30 lbs.

 

I'm really kinda hoping I could find a smaller dog this time. My back's not the greatest and at 42 lbs. it's sometimes challenging to lift Bodhi on and off beds in nursing homes.

 

So I'm interested in hearing others' experiences with this.

 

Thanks.

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With medium sized dogs, it's close: Molly was 18lbs at 4 months, she's 35 at 16 months.

With small dogs, it's more like 2/3 their weight: Kylie was 9lbs at 4 months, 11-12ish as an adult.

With larger dogs they tend to grow longer, so it ends up being less.

 

There is no way I would expect that pup to be less than 50lbs as an adult. 30lbs at 4 months is a lot. If the age were off some, it wouldn't bother me so much since Molly didn't grow much after about 7 months, but 4? That's big.

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I just checked back in the weight thread we had going here - Kolt was 24.5# at 16 w/o and 29# at 19 w/o (so about that 4.5 m/o age)

 

He's 18 m/o now and 44-45#

 

When he was younger I saw something about Border Collies often being closer to 60% grown by that age. Which was about the case here. He may put on a few more pounds but he'd be overweight at 50#

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When we reached that point, Bandit came out to a projection of 42 pounds. He has leveled out at about 37 pounds. Close. And maybe he will fill out to be closer to 42 eventually . . .

 

Still, he seems to have come out just a bit smaller than his projection.

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So is the four months measured in weeks or four months from the date of birth?

 

Natasha was 17lbs at 16 weeks and 20lbs at 17 1/2 weeks (four months from her birth date). She is 18 months old now and weighs 29-31lbs.

Ummm - Am I missing something? How is 17 1/2 weeks, 4 months from her birth date? Maybe my brain is tired tonight, but I can't make sense of your statement. :wacko:

 

4 months = 16 weeks - at least the way I understand it

So 17 1/2 weeks = 4 months + 1 1/2 weeks

 

And for some people, 4 months could mean the month between 16 weeks and ~ 20 weeks.

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Ummm - Am I missing something? How is 17 1/2 weeks, 4 months from her birth date? Maybe my brain is tired tonight, but I can't make sense of your statement. :wacko:

 

4 months = 16 weeks - at least the way I understand it

So 17 1/2 weeks = 4 months + 1 1/2 weeks

 

And for some people, 4 months could mean the month between 16 weeks and ~ 20 weeks.

 

It doesn't always come out exactly even, because months have 30-31 days more often than not, and only 1 month in a year sometimes has 28 (and sometimes has 29). So Molly was born on May 22, but she was OVER 16 weeks by the time September 22nd came around. Those extra days added up to a week and some change, even by then.

 

I mean she was still 4 months old at 17.5 weeks, but she hadn't quite turned 4 'months' at 16 weeks.

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Huh, I thought you were talking about my foster for a minute. He's 18 weeks and was 30 lbs when I picked him up last Thursday, but I am feeding him more appropriately and he has lost about 5 lbs of puppy chub. But he's gonna be a big 'un - huge head, giant feet :)

 

20903790904_d7299b3a00.jpg

 

RDM

 

 

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Don't people usually use calendar months rather than lunar months when calculating time in months? If not we'd have 13 months in a year.

 

Risk was born on 4th July and was 4 months old on 4th November. When he was 16 weeks old he was just 16 weeks old.

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It is accurate to within about 5 pounds of their final adult weight as long as the pup was not underweight or overweight at 16 weeks old and did not have its growth stunted by poor nutrition or illness.

 

The measurement needs to be done as close to the day the pup turns 16 weeks old as possible.

 

The final adult weight may not be reached until 3+ years old and is of a fit, well muscled dog.

 

So, Tweed was about 30 lbs (maybe 29?) at 16 weeks old. He is currently a very skinny 50 lbs at 1.5 years old. I am anticipating he will put on another 5 lbs or so in the next few years as his chest fills out and he develops more muscling.

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