I took Rocky to the vets this morning to get a full medical done on him as he is now 9 months old and to also get some idea of his growth rate, and the results are as follows.

Well according to the vet he is in very good health with no unforeseen problems, so that pleased me no end.

He weigh in at 45.30 Kg's (7.13 Stone), and he stands at 26½ inches tall at the shoulders.
So it's no wonder my legs pass out when he sits on my lap.

Here's some photos of him that I took last week and today.

I take it back colin, hes not overweight, hes still very over at the knee caps so has a bit of height to gain yet,... he is also very bum high at the moment, that would tie in with him still having some growth to go in the front legs....

I would say, not to cut back his feeding, hes not chubby at all................ the other photos of him made him look a heavy but hes not

That's good news about him not being over weigh, so I better give him some more tea as I only gave him 2 Kg's of meat tonight.

Can you please elaborate on what you mean about him still being very over at the kneecaps, as I’ve never heard of that phase before?

If you look at the front leg you have the foot,.. then the pastern, when you come up from that there is a slight lump which is the knee, if you look at it, its kinda over at the front, a dog that has finished growing and whos growth plates have fused is straighter looing...

like this..




I will try to crop some photos later to give the comparison xx

if you look at rockys top line hes very bum high so I would hope he has more growth to come in the front. though bum high can be a breed fault in rotties,

I think rocky may stay a little bit high in the back end as he has little angulation of the stifle, but I would think he still has a bit of height to gain in the front............

Young dogs grow at different stages, the back end comes up then the front end comes up, they're all over the place at that age Colin so don't worry about it mate.

Rotties are still growing at 3 years old Colin, they get bigger and more mature the older they get.

I've just had a look at the breed standard and it says that male rotties should be no more than 27 inches tall at the shoulder, so as Rocky is now 26½ inches tall at the shoulder and I have got to assume that he will exceed that, does that mean that he will technically carry a fault, even though it also states the seriousness with which the fault should be regarded should be in exact proportion to its degree. Not that I'm really bothered or not whether they think he has a fault, it just that I'm trying to learn everything I can about the breed.

Well you must be pleased he's passed the vets tests OK, he looks like a super dog to me, only thing I know from having just re-read Emma Brunos book is that at that age they need a lot of feeding because their bomes are growing so fast. She was writing about Newfies but I'm sure the same principle applies to Rotties.

Believe me, given the chance he would eat us out of house and home.

Normally he gets fed between 3 & 3½ Kilo's of meat a day.