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North American male Doberman normal weight

3K views 11 replies 7 participants last post by  Rosemary 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello all !

My 29 months old male Doberman (castrated at 17 months old) is only 75 pounds. Is it a normal weight for Ozzy ? He is so slim beside my 9 years old Europeen Boxer. Beside my Boxer, he looks like a female.

His father is 93 pounds, so I guess that his genetics comes more from his mother... This is his father http://dobequest.org/profile.php?DOGID=44797

So, what do you think about his weight ?

Thanks.
 

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#4 ·
75 pounds is on the lower side, but not too terribly out of range. Dobermans are not supposed to be extra bulky—they are a medium sized dog with muscles in proportion to their height. If he is on the small size, his weight will be lower too. But it is better for their health to keep them slim rather than overweight. When they are at a good weight, you want to be able to see the last couple of ribs, and to feel the rest without an extra layer of fat. They also need a good tuck-up of their belly, and a "waist" in front of their hips. But you don't want to see their hip bones or spine sticking out—that means they are too skinny.

Does he get a fair amount of exercise? Sometimes a thin appearance can come from lack of muscle tone, but basically, he is what he is. You can't bulk him up by feeding him more—he'll just get fat.

Your pup looks at a decent weight to me, but it would be easier to tell if you can post a side picture of him standing.
 
#8 ·
There's a huge weight range, and I think people get WAY too caught up in the "number" on the scale, rather than how their dog looks in front of them. I don't think your male looks to be at an inappropriate weight.

What I look at is - is the dog carrying the right weight for his frame? Can you feel their ribs if you run a hand over them lightly? Do they have good muscle? There are so many reasons not to want overweight dogs, but particularly in Dobermans, extra weight is hard on their hearts, and we don't need anything that adds to heart stress in this breed.

Richter's sire was about 90 pounds, and Richter is at a good weight at about 75 pounds. Each dog is different. (Also, strangers routinely think he weighs 100 pounds, which makes me laugh)

DSC_0026 by Shanoa Delta, on Flickr
 
#9 ·
Over many years of Dobermans (1959 to now--2020) my males have varied in size and weight a lot.

I've had three dogs who were 28.5" as adults. All AKC champions who weighed in show condition (which means well muscled active dogs) 90 pounds, 85 pounds and 80 pounds. If you took a picture of any of these dogs without anything in the background with which to gage weight to size you'd never have guessed that another champion male who was barely 27" and in show condition was 75 pounds and when we were running him in agility was 72 pounds.

My smallest dog was, like MeadowCat's Richter was often guessed to be 100 pounds.

I would worry less about measured weight than how the dog looks (see the posts above to see what the signs of good muscular weight vs fat are).

And I would never try to compare a Doberman's weight to a Boxer's weight. The body structure is sooooo different between the two breeds.

And I don't even try to guess at what an offspring of a dog who weighs "x" might weigh or should weigh.

So often I find that people who claim that the dam weighs 80 pounds and the sire was 100 pounds can neither accurately guess a dogs weight nor understand that heavyweight Dobermans aren't really desireable.

Your dog's weight looks appropriate for his size. The fact that he looks like a bitch next to your Euro Boxer is a big so what! Two different breeds, two different types, two different ages--a lot like comparing apples to oranges.

dobebug
 
#12 ·
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