Personally I feel the weight guide is just there for reference. Each dog's body is different, just like human beings. Another factor also their diet. If a puppy weighs 2 lbs when he/she is 12 weeks but if you overfeed the puppy, he/she will grow big too.
When we got our puppy at 8 weeks, he weighs about 1.6 lbs. At 12th week, we took him to the vet, he weighs 3 lbs. The vet was shocked and asked what we have been feeding him. We told him 1/2 cups of Science Diet each day. The vet said you're overfeeding the dog. He's eating too much and he has double his weight. We just simply followed the instructions on the Science Diet on the amount of food to feed him. The vet said no, don't follow the guide on the food bag, look at the dog. If he is putting on weight too fast, that's a signal that you're overfeeding him. He said "don't forget, the food company wants you to feed your dog more so they can sell more bags of food."
At 12th week, we also change his diet to Innova and now he gets 4 tablespoons each day (1/4 cup). We notice he is not growing as fast as before. According to the vet, his body build should be around 4-5 lbs. |