Chris (one of our guests for Independence Day) and Missy weigh 256 pounds. Chris weighs 179 pounds.
Alix (another guest) kept the official record and she & Mr. Big Food did the math.
Before Chris fetched the bathroom scale, we all wrote down our guesses for what each dog weighed (we didn't guess on Chris' weight). The "winner" in out little Guess the Dogs' Weight contest-- which was after supper but before Apple Pie and Vanilla Ice Cream-- was the person whose guesses summed, was closest to the dogs' combined weight.
Guesses for Rocky's weight ranged from 47-57 pounds. With a guess of 50 pounds, Daughter C most closely guessed Rocky's actual weight of 49 pounds. Only two people, Mr. Big Food (48) and I (47), underestimated Rocky's weight-- so those who live with Rocky were not fooled by his awesome density.
UPDATE: Well duh. +1/-1. It was a TIE. 49-48=1; 50-49=1. I am an imbecile.
UPDATE: Well duh. +1/-1. It was a TIE. 49-48=1; 50-49=1. I am an imbecile.
Guesses for Missy's weight ranged from 68-75 pounds. With a guess of 75, Daughter C, Tony, and I most closely guessed Missy's actual weight of 77 pounds. Everyone underestimated Missy's weight.
Rocky and Missy's combined weight was 126 pounds. Daughter C won the contest with her guesses summing to 125.
Repeat: Missy weighs 77 pounds.
Reminder: Missy is 10 months old, so boy was I wrong!
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| A little over two weeks ago |
Here's what I said on February 13th:
In my defense, I was relying on graph of a Gompertz Curve from some"experts" in doggy growth. Silly me.At 165 days (give or take), and 20kg, Missy appears to be tracking right there between female German Shepherd dog and female Lab-- the smaller two of the four curves. (I know, it's hard to see the curve for male Labs-- the largest of the four sex*breed curves.) I'll keep weighing on a weekly basis, but at first glance it looks like Missy might reach adult size between 55-60 pounds when she's about a year old.
I wonder if maybe she was younger than you thought when you got her. Either because someone flat lied to you(which assumes that they knew her actual birth date) or maybe their best guess was off - which assumes that they _didn't_ know her actual birth date. Especially when they're in the first 3-4 months, they grow _very_ fast!
ReplyDeleteThe other possibility is whether you know which breed was the mother. In most animals that are the result of a cross breeding, if the mother is the larger of the two breeds, the resulting offspring will be larger and vice versa. You can inseminate a pony with the semen of a draft horse, and the pony will be able to produce a live foal, but the foal won't ever reach the size of the foal that the reverse breeding would produce.
Or maybe you just misunderguestimated!
I voted for 85-90 - but that's for fully grown, but not totally mature. When you say "totally mature" ... is there really any limit? I'd say 85-90 by the time she's 2 years old. After that, it really depends on how much she eats and exercises. It assumes that she's 90% of her mature size now. They get to a certain size and then they start to fill out. Have you by chance measured her at her shoulder for height?
ReplyDeleteSupposedly, with horses you can measure them from ground to elbow when they reach one year, then double it to get final size (measured at the withers). In a well conformed adult horse, the measurement from the point of the pastern to the elbow is the same as the measurement from the elbow to the top of the withers.
So they say. I haven't done it so I can't verify it. You'd also need to do it on a bunch of horses!
You raise a number if interesting points which lead me to conclude that Missy was undernourished when I got her.
Delete"Catch-up Growth" You'd have thought I'd have seen it sooner.
DeleteNow see...I didn't even include that option!! And of course, it's probably the most obvious!
ReplyDeleteActually, this is quite embarrassing for me as I spent several years of my life thinking about catchup growth-- which is a quite remarkable phenomenon. I should have thought of it sooner. I think I'll think some more about it-- that is, see if I can remember what I once knew!
ReplyDeleteThe point measuring the horses as you described is, I think, to approximate bone growth, which is a much more reliable indicator of "adult" (and there's actually a definition for that) size than weight.
You must have gotten her at a critical growth point. If the food shortage lasts long enough, they don't make it up.
ReplyDeleteOne of the Mexican's at the barn is Fernando. His son is
"Fernandito"...meaning "little Fernando". Well...over the last two years, Fernandito has gone from being just a tad shorter than his father to being about a foot taller. With a _very_ substantial build. Not overweight, just substantial. In other words, he's beginning to look like a football player. I told his dad that he isn't very "dito" any more. His mom is smaller than his father. So naturally, I wonder. They've been in the US for a pretty long time, though I don't know how long. Childhood nutrition?? _No_ idea - but looking at the son, I'm just guessing that there was a lack of protein in his (the father's) early years. Son has the genetics for size, and living in the US, has gotten the nutrition to match. He's going to be _big_! Pretty soon, we'll be calling Dad "Fernandito" at the rate the son's growing!