Clifford the Very, Very Big Dog

[Lori Forrester]

I took Clifford, our 10 week old black lab "pup" to the vet last week. When
the vet came in, he was dumfounded. Clifford weighed 25 pounds and,
according to the vet, was the size of a four month old lab, not 10 week old.
Clifford weighed 16 pounds just 4 weeks earlier.

For the first vet visit at 6 weeks, I put him in a large cat carrier. For
the last visit, he would not even fit in the bottom half of the carrier,
with the top off. He had to sit in the floor of the car. If I get a large
carrier, it will not fit in my car. Hell, at the rate he is going, I will
have to get a horse trailer for his 1 yr visit!!

I will admit that the weight was partly my fault because I was always adding
food to his pan when it was empty. Its the mothering side of my that wanted
to make sure he was never hungry and always had a snack. Well, now I know
that we must restrict his meals to certain times and just a few snacks in
between.

But, the size really has me worried. I verified through the vet the breeder
had used that, yes, Clifford was born on May 2nd. Is this normal for a dog
to grow at this rate or am I just the owner of a really huge puppy? His
parents were large but not unusually so.

I am beginning to wonder if we will have to build another addition to our
home for Clifford before the winter sets in!!!

[Black Dog]

Sounds just like Clifford, the big red dog. Maybe he's trying to live up to
his name :-)

Linda and Stella, medium black dog

Lori Forrester <sr...@visuallink.com> wrote in message
news:tlqrdsm...@corp.supernews.com...

[KrisHur]

WOW he's HUGE! If it's fat, it's MTL the snacks. He's not hungry but will
act like it if he knows you are a soft touch. Labs are notorious
over-eaters; who (for the most part--I know that exceptions exist) cannot be
free-fed. Take it from an owner of a formerly fat lab, my girl gets one cup
of kibble in the morn, one cup at night, a rib bone every other day and DH
feeds her table scraps every time he puts something in his mouth; when I was
able to get him to give her less, she slimmed down nicely but she's still a
plump girl.

Other ways to save calories: on training days only feed half the meal and
use the other half for training treats--or use small low calorie treats like
cheerios. Labs can and will eat veggies, so give them to him instead of the
steak or chicken scraps.

Good luck w/ his weight, our vet told us that it was important to get it
under control b/c too much weight on developing hips can cause/exacerbate
HD.

"Lori Forrester" <sr...@visuallink.com> wrote in message
news:tlqrdsm...@corp.supernews.com...

[robh]

In article <tlqrdsm...@corp.supernews.com>, "Lori Forrester"
<sr...@visuallink.com> wrote:

> I took Clifford, our 10 week old black lab "pup" to the vet last week. When
> the vet came in, he was dumfounded. Clifford weighed 25 pounds and,
> according to the vet, was the size of a four month old lab, not 10 week old.
> Clifford weighed 16 pounds just 4 weeks earlier.

When my Max was about 11-12 weeks old he weighed 27lbs. (12.2kg)
He's now 3 years old and 92lbs, and as you can see here,
http://www.imdb.demon.co.uk/Max/wounded_soldier_4.jpg, he's not
at all fat.

This is him at about 7-9 weeks. I didn't make a record of when the
photo was taken so can only guess the age :-(
http://www.imdb.demon.co.uk/Max/pup_1.jpg
The white stuff are cobwebs.

I never gave him snacks as a pup, just a recommended helping of
food each strict feeding time.
When he was 12 weeks old and out for a walk we found another
black lab puppy who was older by 2 weeks, but smaller than Max
in both height and bulk. Today, that dog is about 3/4 the size of
Max.

> But, the size really has me worried. I verified through the vet the breeder
> had used that, yes, Clifford was born on May 2nd. Is this normal for a dog
> to grow at this rate or am I just the owner of a really huge puppy? His
> parents were large but not unusually so.

I'd cut out the snacks for him and stick to an approved
feeding regime. It may be that he's just big like Max, but
the snacks are at least exaggerating things.

In a month or two he'll start to look more like an adult dog and
you'll be able to see if the weight is pure fat or not.

> I am beginning to wonder if we will have to build another addition to our
> home for Clifford before the winter sets in!!!

:-)

got any photos ?

[Larry Green]

Lori Forrester wrote in message ...

>I took Clifford, our 10 week old black lab "pup" to the vet last week.
When
>the vet came in, he was dumfounded. Clifford weighed 25 pounds and,
>according to the vet, was the size of a four month old lab, not 10 week
old.
>Clifford weighed 16 pounds just 4 weeks earlier.
>

Just for info..........when our yellow girl was a pup our vet told us to
expect a weight gain of around 10 lbs. per month up to 6 months of age. Then
it would start to slow down. He was bang on the money........2 months = 20
lbs..........4 months = 40 lbs..........6 months = 55 lbs.. She is now
almost 15 months old and is a very lean 65 lbs..

She did have a little bit of 'winter fat' that she was slow to lose in the
spring so we cut her food back from 1.5 cups per meal to 1.25 cups, fed
three times at 7 am, noon and 5:30 to 6 in the evening. She looks a lot
better for it..........no more bulging midriffs.....lol.

Larry & Karen Green

[Sue and Angel Jadee]

Will let you know what Atty's weight is tomorrow. She turns 11 weeks on
Friday.

Sue and Atty

Larry Green <lgr...@nospam.mnsi.net> wrote in message
news:9jn9a...@enews2.newsguy.com...