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Learn : Overweight Pet

What's A Healthy Weight For My Dog?

Determining a dog's healthy weight is not as easy as looking at a chart of average age and breed weights (though that can give you a place to start). As a rule of thumb, a dog at a healthy weight should have a visible waist when you look at them from the side and from above, though we encourage you to talk to your veterinarian when determining an exact number.  To give you some quick direction, here are some common weights by breeds:

Average Adult Weights for Common Large Breed Dogs

Breed Male Female
Labrador Retriever 75 lbs 65 lbs
Golden Retriever 70 lbs 60 lbs
Doberman Pinscher 85 lbs 75 lbs
Rottweiler 115 lbs 90 lbs
Poodle (Standard) 65 lbs 45 lbs
German Shepherd 75 lbs 60 lbs
Collie 70 lbs 60 lbs
Great Dane 160 lbs 130 lbs
Mastiff 200 lbs            150 lbs
German Shorthaired Pointer           65 lbs 55 lbs

Average Adult Weights for Common Small Breed Dogs

Breed Weight
Chihuahua 5 lbs
Shih Tzu 12 lbs
Miniature Poodle 12 lbs
Pug 16 lbs
Dachshund / Mini Dachshund         10 lbs / 10 lbs
Pomeranian 5 lbs
Boston Terrier 18 lbs
Maltese 6 lbs
Yorkshire Terrier 7 lbs
French Bulldog 22 lbs


Feeding a diet is only one part of the equation; getting the calories right and maintaining that weight is another critical component that we ask you to invest in. A healthy dog should have a visible waist when you look at them from the side, meaning their abdomen (their belly) should sort of tuck up, and when we look at them from above, we should see that there is a clearly defined waist visible. We encourage you to talk to your veterinarian because there is a way to more precisely define (typically on a nine-point scale) where your dog should fall. 

The recommended, healthy weights for most breeds are four and five. For some sight hounds like greyhounds, they may have a healthy weight at a 3 out of 9, but your veterinarian may already have this information, the medical record, that you can find, so talk to them. If you have any difficulty getting any of that information, or you have questions when you start the individualized diets, certainly you can contact one of the Nom Nom staff, and additional resources will be available to help guide examples of where your dog should fall in terms of an ideal weight.


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