pick of the litter???!!!! - Page 1

i have a new litter of pups? 2 females and 1 male. i notced that 1 pup is smaller than the other 2 . does it mean that this pup will never grow as big as the other two? will he ever have the chance to grow as big or bigger than his littermates when they bcome adults? im plannig to keep this pup coz his the only 1 male in the litter but im having doubts coz he might not grow big. or his littermates would look more masculine than him.

There is no expert to tell you exactly. The smallest could be the biggest and vice versa. If you have only one male and you want male from that litter, you have not got chance to choose or to filter. He will be always the best male in that litter. But if we talk about picking the best male or female from litter in all, we must be objective and say that is only real after their growing phase. And that is the reason why we have only SG (very good) marks up to 24 months instead V (excellent). And every dog have its own way of growing - some of them are slower another grow rapidly, some of them have phase with lot uncorrections but at the end they grow in beautiful dogs. I think that you must observe minimum for 9 months period and then you can make some decisions. And in that case we must be real that is lottery.

Size when young is not always a predictor of size later as the dog begins to develop. As well, do not forget that dogs who are big do not necessarily mean they are the most masculine. And now, finally, there is some attention being given to bringing the dogs, especially the males, back to correct height.

My friend who breeds GSD's says they all seem to equal out in size, some of the smaller ones end up being the biggest. Size at birth or 8 wks is no real indication of adult size. I would also like everyone's opinions on this: She also thinks that a large litter with big differences in size may have something to do with gestation (spelling??). Sometimes a male will breed a female over a period of 5-7 days or so. She feels that some of the bigger pups may have been concieved at the first breeding and the smaller pups concieved during the last breedings. In theory the pups in one litter could be almost a week apart in development. This could explain why most pups even out in size at a later age. Opinions please!! Thanks, Melanie

Also, IMO, size would be my last consideration for "pick of the litter", drive, personality, temperament, attentiveness, confidence etc. would be on top of "my" list. Take care, Melanie

thank you guys. melanie, thank you very much for the knowledge you share. your right, other stuff should be taken into consideration in picking a good pup like temperament, drive etc which for me s more important than the size or overall physical appearance of the pup. atleast now i have an idea that he might grow into a good size , and hopefully with a nice temperament and drive dog. by the way the sire and dam of this pup are of right sizes, hopefully by genetic hell acquire the correct sizes of his parents. thank you to all....