How much should a cav weigh?

Harvey is 5 months old and on our recent visit to the vet he was 8kg. I have read many times that their full grown adult weight is 10-12 kg. If so does that indicate that our little darling is overweight for his age as surely at only 5 months he has a lot of growing still to do? He has got a bit of a pot belly but we didn't think he was that big and so we are just wondering if he should already be this heavy or should reduce his food quanties?

Hi Emma

This is an excerpt from the American Kennel Club standard

Size, Proportion, Substance
Size - Height 12 to 13 inches at the withers; weight proportionate to height, between 13 and 18 pounds. A small, well balanced dog within these weights is desirable, but these are ideal heights and weights and slight variations are permissible. Proportion - The body approaches squareness, yet if measured from point of shoulder to point of buttock, is slightly longer than the height at the withers. The height from the withers to the elbow is approximately equal to the height from the elbow to the ground. Substance - Bone moderate in proportion to size. Weedy and coarse specimens are to be equally penalized.

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I think in reality there is a fair amount of variation in the size of Cavaliers. My 2 1/2 year old Sonny is 8.5 kilos and very lean. Beau who is 6 months old is already 7.5 kilos and lean, so I figure he is going to go above the standard.

If you think your puppy is getting a bit overly plump now is probably a good time to cut back on the volume of his meals a bit as the consensus is that a lean puppy has a greater chance of a healthy life than a fat one.

Hi!

To be perfectly honest I wouldn't worry overly about this, there are some bloodlines out there that make all their growing early on, I.E they have reached their adult height by the time they are 5-6 months old and merely need to "drop into themselves", body up and mature physically. As a rule of thumb if you can feel your dogs ribs under his skin but NOT see them and be able to move his skin over them easily then he is not overweight.

I would tend not to cut back on his feed just yet, he is still growing and needs those very important nutrients, vitamins and minerals to grow into the adult he will become, try to remember that what you give your dog to eat for the first year of his life will shape him for the rest of his life so now is not the time to be scimping!!

Finally, not all Cavaliers fall into the breed standard guide line weights, I have seen many very fine examples of the breed in the ring including Champions, who have been what we call "up to size"! Yes size is reasonably important, but breeding for health and temperament is of far more importance, also once you start to breed for size you can end up losing all that lovely density of bone and end up with small weedy dogs with sticks for legs :yikes:

Last of all, and I feel most important of all, did your vet feel there was a need for concern for Harveys weight?

Hope this is of help??

Thank you

He just said my he's a fine growing young man (in Dutch) and just said he seemed very healthy - it is only when we came home that we thought about whether this could actually be a problem as we don't want a fat dog as we heard about them having more health problems.

The vet lost his blood sample for his rabies test and so we have to take him back to go through it again this week so will double check with the vet about him then.

Thank you again both of you for that very quick and reassuring advice, love this forum!!

My little muppet is on the small size, I guess, at 11 lbs - she'll be one year old in less than three weeks. She was pretty much this size by 8 months.

But I have seen a really range of size in the breed. When I was in Idaho in May, I ran into a pair of Cavaliers that were 28 lbs each! They were huge. It was hard to believe they were the same breed.