# 3 months Old



## Horker23 (Mar 2, 2006)

This is my 3 month old chocolate lab, how big do you think hes gonna be. Dad was 95 and mom was 65
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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

I don't know if many of you are old enough to have noticed this but labs keep getting bred larger and larger in my opinion its contributing to heath probelms.

I've been training them for 35 plus years and when I first started in the late sixties most of the males were in the 60-65 lb range in good condition.

My point is you rarely saw the joint problems you see nowadays. Labs were more athletic and heathier in general ( this is my persona opinion but its based on training well over 150 labs in my life and personal ownership of 13 of them.

IF you look at the life span and problems big dogs have comepared to smaller breeds I see no advantage in the trend toward 95 lb plus labs .

That weight is approaching the standard for Great Danes.

I personally would not want a lab over 65 lbs in good condition.

This is just my personal opinion based on my own experience.


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## ChukarBob (Sep 4, 2006)

My last 2 Labs were a 93 lb. male and an 85 lb. female. Both were very good upland dogs, in excellent shape, but I believe that size detracted from their stamina in the pheasant fields and chukar slopes. And both were, I am convinced, arthritic before their times.

I still have that female. She's 11 and still hunts well, although her hearing is failing. She's been joined by a new female, who is a year old and 60 lbs, lean and lithe. The 1-year old will probably put on a few pounds as she matures, but she'll never weigh more than 70 unless I let her get out of shape.

I believe my "pup" (when do they stop being a pup?) will be better in the field for being lighter. She'll have better stamina for being a lighter, leaner dog.

My brother, also a Lab owner, is equally convinced that large size is important, arguing that only a big, strong dog can muscle its way through heavy cover. Nonsense, I say. The heavy cover my young dog can't bully her way through she will leap over, wiggle or sneak around. If there's a pheasant in that cover, she'll find a way to it.

I think size matters if you're a sumo wrestler or a football player.


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## verg (Aug 21, 2006)

Everyone has a preference and i'm not sure which is right. To be honest, i've always like the bigger dogs. Not monsters though. I like the 80-85 lb lab. I don't really have a reason why. I have seen some labs that are well over a 100 that look like shetland ponies. I like to compare labs to football players. 100 or better are like lineman-big. strong, slow, wear out quicker. 80-90 linebacker. Pretty strong, fairly athletic. 60-75 like the running backs. Fast, athletic as hell and don't wear out. 
I'm actually kind of picky. I like tall labs. but not necessarily heavy. Which is kind of hard to have one without the other but..It seems tall ones see well, swim powerfully and can really move. 
Just my thoughts anyway.


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

I trained labs pretty much exclusively for the first 10 or so years I trained other folks dogs then I got into German shorthairs.

One thing I was suprised to see was that the shorthairs were much faster retrievers, I mean they could swim faster. If I threw a bumper out in the lake and let both my shorthairs and my labs go at the same time the smaller light shorthairs would always get the bumper.

This doesn't really mean anything just something I wouldn't of expected to see.

A bigger dog can handle cold and sitting in a blind better but thats the only advantage I can see. The negatives outweigh this small advantage in my mind.

Don't interpret this as a slam on labs I think they are the best all around dog there is and love them. I just question why they are being bred so large nowadays.


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## verg (Aug 21, 2006)

i think you are right bob. As i put on another thread. My 60lb female blows by my 90 lb male in the water. However, when the water is rough with a good chop or very frigid my male seems to overpower her.


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## Chuck Smith (Feb 22, 2005)

Your chocolate will be a monster once he fills out. Make sure he does not get fat and keep him lean.

I agree with what people are saying about big dogs. I have owned three goldens. My first one was about 90 lbs. Just a big solid dog. He worked great for upland and ducks. My second was a 90-100 lbs. He was also just a big dog. Not fat just big and lanky. My third is 60 lbs. He will not get any bigger. This is probbally the best dog so far. His know is not as good as the second one that I can tell so far, but the standards are set very high. He is only 3 years old. But he has the most drive, most stamina, and just has a motor that won't quit. I have had him hunting pheasants for 5 straight days. I have had him hunting ducks for a week straight water and land hunts. He seems to never get tired. He just goes and goes and goes.

But everyone has thier own opionion on what size of dogs. Just like truck and guns and decoys. They are all good.

Chuck


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## bmwcash10 (Oct 11, 2006)

Pups going to be big. I have a chocolate lab that is 11 weeks old and his paws look to be the same size as your pups. I think I'm going to have moose instead of a lab.


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## gonehuntin' (Jul 27, 2006)

Let him chew that crap and it'll stunt his growth.


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## stonebroke (Dec 16, 2004)

Most big dogs I've seen are overweight and out of shape (I'm talking about your really large dogs here). I've had people tell me that have a 100 pound Lab (or Golden, or Chessie....take your pick) and that he/she is solid as a rock, but when I actually see the dog it's fat. A dog can weigh 90 pounds and hunt all day if it is lean, trim and hard but you don't see many dogs like that. Most people overfeed and underexercise their dogs. On a good high quality dog food, they require a much smaller amount of food than most people realize. This stuff is packed with nutrition and calories.... Exercise is probably the most overlooked aspect of weight control. I was just at my vet's the other day and he was showing me an article that was in a vet magazine he gets. A survery they did showed that 17% of pet owners felt their dogs were overweight, but when evaluated by a vet 46% were overweight...


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