Growth Spurt...

N

Narmowen

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In 3 weeks, my 6 month old puppy went from 15 1/4" to 15 3/4" (at just over 7 months old....he was right on the line and now he's definitely over...hopefully he'll completely stop, but with the lines he has (bloodlines, I mean), the males grow longer than the females, so he'll probably end up over 16...maybe 16 1/4"...

Now I'm at a loss...I want to keep his lines going (his grand-sire was my first Sheltie)....he's beautiful except for being too tall. Beautiful head, movement, coat, color, temperment etc...just too darn big. Now I'm thinking about finding a size-cutting bitch to breed to him...
 
OH OH and he's probably not done growing yet !!

Oh well you love him anyway. Good luck on your decision to breed or not to breed !! That is the question. :lol:
 
I wouldn't get rid of him for the world! Neutered or intact, he's my baby! :yes: I love him way too much (and I think he knows!)

I've got several years to decide whether to breed him or not,so I'm in no rush on that!
 
does he come from a line that is known to settle down in size? my bi-blue skyler was measured at 6 months at 16 1/2 inches when we remeasured him at 1 year his size went down to 15 3/4 inches. also if he is good in every other way, but just oversized by a little I would probably breed him to a size controlling bitch. good luck with ever choice you make
 
His grandsire (whom he takes after in so many ways) measured at 15 3/4" when he was 2, but when we measured at 5, he had settled a 1/4" and ended up at 15 1/2", so I'm hoping that's what Luke does.

I've gotten so many compliments on him (and a couple of sale offers...), and I can see what they're seeing. (I'll have to post a picture of him when I get one taken.)

His dam is 15 1/2" and his sire is 14 1/2" so I was hoping that he would stay under 16, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen!

Do you know any size-cutting/limiting lines (looking for either a bi-black or a tri for him)?
 
I'm very interested in the matter of "settling" in size. Is settling common ??? Other experience with it ???

(Snap was measured 16" at 27 weeks. I kind of figured by eyeballing the charts that he could grow another inch).

Katherine
 
my male is from kismet/banchory lines so I dont know if thats where it (settling) comes from. my female Belle who came from the same lines measured at 14 1/2 in. at 12 monthes and now at 20 months she is 14 1/4 in. I dont know if she will settle lower than that, or if that will be her perment size.
as for size controling bitches I have no idea. from what I understand they can be hard to find, since to know for sure she would have to be bred to an oversized male to see the size of the pups. which most breeders are not going to do with a female, unless the male is really good since females cant reproduce as much as the male
 
My male was a size-cutter, and we have them in our lines, I think it's Marwal Steppin' Out (where it originated in our lines), but I'm not as up to date on them as I was.

If I get a 14-14 1/2" girl, it'd be a gamble, since out of 12 puppies total (through that match, 3 litters), Luke's been the only one that might go over (we've been keeping track...)

Settling is pretty common. What it is (from what I've seen), is as the dog matures, the chest widens (you go from the narrow puppy chest, to the wider mature chest), which lowers the dog's withers, basically shrinking it.
 
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