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Puppy weight chart by age: what's normal, and what the charts get wrong

Updated October 31, 2026 · 3 min read · by the PupCurve editorial team

Most puppy weight charts give a list of breeds and a column of pounds. That looks tidy, and it quietly fails you, because two healthy puppies of one breed can finish 20 pounds apart. A more useful chart shows how far along the growth curve a puppy is, not how many pounds it should weigh.

Why charts of pounds by breed mislead

Take Labradors. The breed standard is roughly 55 to 80 lb, a spread of 25 lb. A chart that says '16 weeks: 30 lb' is right for a puppy that will be 70 and wrong for one that will be 55. If you compare your puppy to the chart and it's two pounds under, you've learned very little. If you compare it to its own forecast, you learn something.

So the better question is not 'what should a 16-week-old weigh' but 'what share of adult weight has a puppy like mine reached by 16 weeks'. That answer travels from one dog to the next. It's what the puppy weight chart on this site shows, and it's measured, not estimated.

Where the numbers come from

In 2017, researchers at Waltham and Banfield Pet Hospitals published growth charts built from the weights of healthy dogs at US veterinary clinics, and shared the anonymised records under a CC BY 4.0 licence. We re-analysed that dataset: about 1.07 million dogs and 5.4 million weigh-ins, grouped into six size classes by typical adult weight. For each week of age we measured the share of final adult weight that dogs had reached.

A few numbers from that analysis, for the median puppy. A medium dog (adult weight 33 to 66 lb) is at about 28% of its adult weight at 12 weeks, 41% at 16 weeks, 69% at 6 months and 93% at a year. A toy dog is further ahead: about 39% at 12 weeks, 75% at 6 months, and 98% at a year. A giant dog lags: 22% at 12 weeks, 62% at 6 months, 91% at a year, and it isn't finished then.

How to read your puppy against the chart

  1. Estimate the adult weight: a breed standard, the parents, or the puppy weight calculator.
  2. Look up your puppy's age on the chart page in the right size class.
  3. Multiply adult weight by the percentage to get the typical weight for that age.
  4. Compare with your puppy's real weight. Within about 10 to 15% of typical is unremarkable.

If your estimate of adult weight is shaky, the chart can't help much. That's the reason to weigh again a few weeks later. A puppy that is steadily tracking a curve, whatever curve, is behaving normally.

What counts as 'off'

Being a bit heavy or light for the chart isn't a problem by itself. What deserves attention is a change of direction: a puppy that stops gaining for a couple of weeks, loses weight, or leaps ahead of its usual pattern. Weight loss in a growing puppy is worth a call to the vet, especially with diarrhoea, vomiting or low energy.

Look at body shape alongside the number. You should feel the ribs without pressing, and see a waist from above. A puppy can be right on the chart and still be too round, because the chart describes dogs that stayed in ideal condition and your puppy hasn't been checked against that.

Giant breeds are a special case

The 2017 paper didn't produce growth charts for dogs above 40 kg (88 lb) because breeds like the Great Dane, the Mastiff and the Rottweiler followed such different curves that no single one fitted. We include a giant class in the calculator and the chart so you have something to work with, but it's looser, and a breed-specific growth chart from your vet or the breed club will beat it.

Questions people ask

How much should a 12-week-old puppy weigh?

It depends on the adult size. A median medium-size puppy has reached about 28% of adult weight at 12 weeks, so a dog that will be 50 lb would be around 14 lb. A toy puppy at 12 weeks has reached about 39% of adult weight.

Is my puppy underweight?

A chart alone can't say. Check body condition: ribs easy to feel but not see, with a visible waist. If the ribs are visible, or the puppy has stopped gaining weight, call your vet.

Do male and female puppies grow differently?

Males tend to end up heavier in most breeds, but within a size class the shape of the curve is similar. That's why charts are best read against expected adult weight.

When do puppies stop growing?

Toy and small breeds finish by around 9 to 12 months. Medium dogs get most of their weight by a year. Large and giant breeds keep filling out until 18 to 24 months.

Sources

  1. Salt C, et al. Growth standard charts for monitoring bodyweight in dogs of different sizes. PLOS ONE 12(9): e0182064 (2017)
  2. Dataset: Salt et al. 2017 supporting data, University of Liverpool DataCat (CC BY 4.0)

This guide is general information, not veterinary advice. If you're worried about a puppy, call your vet. In an emergency, go to the nearest emergency clinic.