Meet Luna, my new pal ... rescue dog.

[smsdba01]

She's 4 months old in these pics, five months now. We adopted her from a nearby shelter who had her down as 'shepherd/boxer' mix. After my vet's tech told me she looked like a Belgian Malinois, my research landed me on Dutch Shepherd.

She looks and acts like a DS in just about every way. I thought she might get to 50 lbs until I put her current age/weight into an online estimator tool, which indicated she would only hit ~40 lbs and that she was 33% of weight for a 4 m/o DS. [She was 27 lbs @ 4 months].

Anyway, she's a joy and a hand full. She's like 10,000 volts in a can and she's got me wrapped around her paw in the month we've owned her! Endless energy and wants to play 24x7 ... until she drops.

GreatLunaShot1.jpg (431.76 KiB) Viewed 7981 times

GreatLunaShot2.jpg (335.48 KiB) Viewed 7981 times

[Lauren]

What a beautiful girl! You two are so lucky to have found each other!!! I know what you mean about energy... I sure wish that we could find a playmate!

Where did you find this online weight tool? I would love to plug some numbers in on mine.

[Dutchringgirl]

what a beautiful girl!!

[Christie M]

Very cute girl.

I have found that a good general rule of thumb is that if you double their weight at 4 months you get pretty close to their adult weight. So 50 pounds is a good estimate.

I would venture a guess that any online estimator would have no DS weights in it to compare to. I wouldn't take its word for anything.

[smsdba01]

Thank you. She's gotten me up off my lazy butt and we do a lot of playing together. Also doing some basic training on a lead: heel, sit, stay, down. She has the sit and stay parts down real well.

She heels pretty well but likes to pull ahead quite a bit. Solving this with a Canny Collar. She generally hates it, but giving her tons of treats while introducing it helped a lot. And I've found I need to be a lot more gentle with this collar versus a standard choker or martingale. She's quite the angel with the Canny collar on!

We also do a daily trot with my bicycle ... 1-2 miles, very easy pace [no galloping] ... she's too young for any distance or speed. I use a bike attachment called the EZDog Walker. Love to watch her trot and it burns off some of her extra energy!

Puppy weight calculator: http://www.puppyweights.com/. Christie, you're probably right about it not having good stats for the DS breed.

I'm interested in the adult weights of everyone's DS ... esp. the females.

Tim

[Sugars Mom]

Super cute pup! Enjoy the puppyhood while it lasts and take lots of pics

[Marjolein]

awww, how cute!

[Christie M]

I'm interested in the adult weights of everyone's DS ... esp. the females.

Mine range from 43# (I call her my mini Dutch) up to about #70, with most being in the 55-65# range.

[WorkingK9]

For fun I put in what K weighed at 15 weeks when I got him.. since I know what he is full grown (26 months)
it said he would weigh 46 lbs full grown LOL he is 65 lbs and more working weight then pet

[vneerland]

Cute pup! A bit too much chest white to have just DS in the woodpile, but I think she will grow into a good looking girl, that will look a lot like what you would encounter on this list.

[Schlussdibusti]

Very cute!

[Dutchringgirl]

Thalie is about 65 lbs. She is short and stocky. I havent weighed Sadie in a while, im not sure, I dont think I could even guess.

[Dutchringgirl]

I was just looking at the second picture, and pit bull jumped out at me. She is stocky and the white.

The endless play.......even Thalie gets sick of Sadie playing into the night.

[smsdba01]

Thank you everyone for your replies. It's helpful to have experienced DS owners/trainers available to ask questions of.

Thanks for the weight figures, that helps. She sees the vet tonight so I'll have a new weight for her @ ~20 weeks. [Guess work on DOB ... shelter put her @ 16 weeks and 5 days later vet agreed based on exam of her teeth]. So, I put her down for a DOB of 4/30.

Dutchringgirl, yes ... she'll play until she [or I] drops. I've had other people say she looks like she could have pit bull parentage.

My vet told me about a place [http://www.wisdompanel.com/] that does canine DNA testing for parentage. They have a mixed breed test and one for pure bred [to certify breed]. Mixed breed test is $70. Their 'breed library' doesn't even cover DS ... the closest you could get would be Belgian Malinois, so not sure about that investment.

They also have a cool little [What’s My Dog? Breed Game] where you walk through silhouette of your dog's ears, tail & muzzle and output a few best guesses. I did it for Luna and she got: Ibizan Hound or Miniature Pinscher ... LOL!

What's up with the poor Dutch Shepherd not being recognized much anyway?

Tim

[Lauren]

My folks have a little mix breed dog that they adore. HE is probably 18 lbs full grown. He looks like a cairn terrier mix with wavy black hair..... So my sister had the genetic test done for them for Christmas and he turned out to be 98%.....Bull Mastiff!

The vet gave them a credit.

I know that somewhere there is somebody out there looking at their 150 lb dog and the results say "85% silkie terrier"

[Dutchringgirl]

What's up with the poor Dutch Shepherd not being recognized much anyway?

Tim

Did you ever hear about the best little restaurants being way in the back of an alley? The places no one knows about but have the best food? The places everyone wants kept quiet so it dosnt get flooded with people and stays nice and quiet? Thats the DS. Its a great breed and like a best kept secret, its better kept a secret, then everyone and their sister wants to breed them to make money and the breed gets ruined.

[smsdba01]

Luna went to the vet last evening. Up to 40 lbs [12 lb gain in 3.5 weeks]. Vet felt she'd get to about 55 lbs or so. She got her last DHPP & first Rabies shots. She goes back for spaying next month.

I told the vet I strongly suspect she's a DS and we discussed differences between DS & Belgians. The Belgians she's seen have mostly been used for police work and in her experience she found the DS to be a better family pet vs. the Belgians. I didn't realize there was much difference in temperament, but have no experience with either breed. She felt the Belgians seemed more aggressive.

Has anyone had the opportunities to compare these two breeds much?

[Christie M]

She's 4 months old in these pics, five months now. We adopted her from a nearby shelter who had her down as 'shepherd/boxer' mix. After my vet's tech told me she looked like a Belgian Malinois, my research landed me on Dutch Shepherd.

I apologize that you may be reading this for the millionth time. But there are many situations where the initial rules have been overlooked and this is being posted on every post were either one of these issues have been forgone. Yes, this is a form message cause there are too any places to post this for me to personalize it.

Please visit the User Control Panel and create a signature with your name so that people can identify you with something other than you login. This is a forum rule.

Please also introduce yourself in the Intro section if you have not already done so.

We have very little rules, but if you have not conformed to BOTH of these, please do so before posting on the forum again.

[smsdba01]

Apologies.

My intro: http://www.dutchshepherdforum.com/viewt ... f=11&t=789, posted shortly after I joined the forum.

Updated sig below.

Tim

[Christie M]

Apologies.

My intro: http://www.dutchshepherdforum.com/viewt ... f=11&t=789, posted shortly after I joined the forum.

Updated sig below.

Tim

Thanks Tim.
No apologies needed. I just created a blanket statement and posted it a bunch of places so I didn't have to personally ask everyone. I appreciate you creating the signature!