The one where I talk about Pike's size at the age of three months and what that could mean.
The very first time we saw the litter of Weizlsas that Pike came from was when they were six weeks old. They'd just been seen by a vet where they were weighed and then checked for any health defects. All nine (!) pups in the litter were, thankfully, healthy and all weighed in at around nine pounds. I remember being shocked by how big they all were. I mean, it makes sense, since they're large breed dogs, but I'm used to small dogs. This was new territory for me.
I took him to the vet the week we brought him home so that we could get him started on heartworm and flea medication, both of which are dosed based on weight. I remember being gobsmacked when the vet came out and told me he was a whopping 13 pounds. That meant he'd gained four pounds in two weeks and was already almost the same size as our full grown Frenchie!
When she and I were talking about his size, the vet said she thought he could be big. I kind of chuckled and made to dismiss her concerns. I told her that the breeder used the larger Weimaraner as the mom and the smaller Vizsla as the dad in order to keep them small, but she said that none of that really mattered. What mattered was whether or not the mother had any giants in her lineage, and since we didn't have access to her AKC tree, there was no way to know what lurked in Pike's history. That was not anything to chuckle about. A better indicator of what we were potentially looking at, she said, would come via his weight at his first official checkup, which should be sometimes this week. She said that if he gained around one to two pounds per week in that time, he'd probably wind up being on the smaller size. Meaning we'd be looking at a full grown dog who weighed in at somewhere between 55–65 pounds. If he gained more than two pounds per week, well, then, we might need to build an addition onto the house.
Somehow, we managed to skip a week of weighing him because we're lazy and also because I didn't think anything dramatic was happening. Again, I'm used to dealing with small breed dogs whose weekly growth occurs in ounces. But I was wrong. We weighed him today, and you could have knocked me over with a feather. He's gained six pounds and was now tipping the scales at 19 pounds. That meant that he'd gained an average of three pounds a week—far more than the one or two the vet had mentioned.
To make matters worse, I'd been underfeeding him. I was giving him food based on a weight of 13 pounds, which explained why he looked so bony. So, really, he should probably weigh even more than 19 pounds now! But don't worry, his diet has been adjusted, and we're going to make sure he gets weighed every week now.
What does all of this mean? Well, maybe a lot, or maybe nothing. We won't know anything for sure until he's actually full grown, but based on the chart I found online, I think we may have brought home our very own tiny horse. To make sense of the chart, you scroll down the left column to the age in weeks (for us, we'll be at 12 weeks this Tuesday), and then scroll right to the dog's current weight. Then, in that column, you scroll down to the projected weight at one year. For us, it's 84.5 pounds. I can't even begin to wrap my head around that.
Obviously, this isn't a guarantee. It's a guide. A giant dog wasn't anything I'd ever imagined having in my house, but now I'm kind of intrigued by the idea. Amused, even. I mean, it's certainly going to keep things interesting, right? I'm still processing all of this. Part of me thinks it's funny. Part of me is terrified. But all of me is strapping in and getting ready to see what happens. As long as he's happy and healthy, that's all that matters.
Do they make clothes for giant dogs? We'll find out! How much does it cost to feed a giant dog? We'll find out! Do giant dogs scare delivery people? We'll find out! In the meantime, I've taken to calling him L'il Sebastian. As always, take care and peace out until next time.
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