Lulu--Huge for a Shih Tzu?

Weeble · Member Joined: 01 Jun 2005 Posts: 36

My 4-1/2 month old shih tzu just returned from a trip to the vet where I learned she weighs in at a whopping 10-1/2 pounds! Isn't that kind of big for her age? She's not fat, just (proportionately) much bigger than we were expecting (12-14 pounds full grown). Can we expect a 20 pounder by the time she stops growing?

madeline · Member Joined: 08 Dec 2005 Posts: 22

She may slow down, my maltipoo was 9 lbs at 5 months and she is now nearly 9 months and is just over 11 lbs I figure she will stop around 12 lbs. The Vet though she would be 15 to 20 lbs because when she was 8 weeks she already weighed 5 lbs. But when she hit the 5 month mark she really slowed down

Aqueous · Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 2:04 pm Post subject:

She could also be oversized. My Yorkie's mom is 7 lbs and his dad is 8 lbs, but my Yorkie weighs in usually at 11-12 lbs. He's not fat either but he is very muscular and is also larger than the normal Yorkie.

There is a considerable size range with Shih Tzu's, their AKC breed standard has their weight at between 9-16 lbs, could be that she's just at the larger end of the spectrum.

jcarilyn · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:28 pm Post subject:

I have 2 Shih Tzu's, a male, Baxter who is 10 months old, and 24lbs. I also have a female,, Lilly, who is 5 months old, and 12lbs. My vet says they are not overweight, just big. You never know what they might have been bred with a few generations ago, so it's possible to have larger dogs. We joke about having the biggest Shih Tzu's in Connecticut!

Carrie