A puppy growth chart only means something once you know roughly how big the dog will end up. A toy breed is already a third of its adult weight at eight weeks; a Great Dane is not yet a fifth of the way there. The chart below gives weight ranges by age for all five size classes at once, so you can find the column that fits your puppy rather than reading a chart built for a different animal.
Puppy growth chart by age and size
| Age | Toy4–11 lb adult | Small11–24 lb adult | Medium24–51 lb adult | Large51–90 lb adult | Giant90–176 lb adult |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 months | 1.6–3.9 lb | 3.6–7.6 lb | 6.9–14 lb | 12–21 lb | 18–33 lb |
| 3 months | 2.2–5.4 lb | 5.2–11 lb | 11–22 lb | 20–34 lb | 31–56 lb |
| 4 months | 2.7–6.7 lb | 6.6–14 lb | 14–28 lb | 27–46 lb | 42–79 lb |
| 5 months | 3.1–7.7 lb | 7.7–17 lb | 16–34 lb | 33–58 lb | 53–101 lb |
| 6 months | 3.3–8.4 lb | 8.5–19 lb | 18–39 lb | 38–67 lb | 62–119 lb |
| 8 months | 3.7–9.4 lb | 9.5–21 lb | 21–44 lb | 44–79 lb | 74–146 lb |
| 10 months | 3.9–9.9 lb | 10–22 lb | 22–47 lb | 47–84 lb | 81–158 lb |
| 12 months | 4.1–10 lb | 10–23 lb | 22–47 lb | 48–85 lb | 83–163 lb |
| 18 months | 4.2–11 lb | 11–24 lb | 24–50 lb | 49–89 lb | 88–172 lb |
| 24 months | 4.4–11 lb | 11–24 lb | 24–51 lb | 51–90 lb | 90–176 lb |
Each column links through to that class: toy, small, medium, large and giant, where the same curve is broken out month by month for that class alone. Read down the column that matches the adult size your puppy is heading for, not the one that matches how big it is today. A four-month-old at 20 lb could be a small breed that is nearly finished or a large breed barely halfway; the current weight alone does not tell you which.
What the ranges mean
Each cell covers the whole class, from the lightest females at the bottom of the class to the heaviest males at the top. That makes the range deliberately wide. A range is not a target: roughly a quarter of perfectly healthy puppies sit below the figures for their age and a quarter above. What matters is whether your puppy holds a steady line across several weighings, not whether any single reading lands inside the band. Weight alone also says less than condition does — a body condition score tells you whether the weight a puppy is carrying is the right weight for that individual.
If you know the breed, a breed weight chart narrows this considerably, because it scales the same curve to that breed’s adult weight range from the American Kennel Club standard and separates males from females. That usually halves the range.
How fast puppies grow, by size
The pattern that runs through the whole table is that bigger dogs mature more slowly. At two months a toy breed is already at 36% of its adult weight while a giant breed is at 19%. By twelve months every class has converged to roughly 92%, but they arrive there on very different paths. This is why a Great Dane that looks lanky and unfinished at ten months is usually on schedule, and why a Yorkshire Terrier that is still gaining at fourteen months usually is not.
It is also why growth rate matters more in a large breed. Veterinary nutrition guidance identifies a faster-than-typical growth rate in large-breed puppies as a risk factor for developmental orthopedic disease. In a toy breed the same concern does not apply in the same way, because the whole growth period is compressed into under a year.
Weighing a puppy accurately
Use the same scale at the same time of day, ideally before a meal. For anything under about 10 lb a bathroom scale is not precise enough — a kitchen scale, or weighing yourself holding the puppy and subtracting, will be. Weekly is enough under four months, fortnightly to six months, monthly after that. More frequent weighing mostly measures the last meal.
Where these figures come from
The curves come from Salt et al. (2017), a study of around 15 million bodyweight records collected at US primary-care veterinary hospitals and published open access. Its central finding was that adult size, not breed, determines the shape of the growth curve, which is what makes a single set of five curves usable across every breed. The records were collected between 1994 and 2013 and describe dogs attending veterinary clinics rather than an idealised population. The derived table and the full method are published separately, including a CSV of every figure behind this chart.
Two limits worth stating. The source records contain no breeds averaging between 14 and 23 kg, so the medium-class curve is interpolated from the classes either side and is the least certain of the five. And the original study could not model dogs above 40 kg, so the giant-class figures are percentiles we calculated from the same raw records rather than results the study itself certified.
Frequently asked questions
What is a puppy growth chart?
A table of expected weight ranges by age. Because growth rate depends on adult size, a useful chart is either split by size class, as the one above is, or built for one breed. A chart that gives a single figure for all dogs is not telling you anything.
How do I know which size class my puppy is?
By the adult weight it is heading for, not its weight now. If you know the breed, its page here states the class. If you do not, the calculator estimates adult weight from a current age and weight and works out the class from that.
How much should my puppy weigh at 3 months?
Between about 1.8 lb for a toy breed at the light end and 39 lb for a giant breed at the heavy end — the spread is the point. Read the 3-month row across the table above and use the column that matches the adult size.
Is my puppy underweight if it is below the chart?
Not on one reading. The ranges show the middle of the healthy spread, so plenty of healthy puppies sit below. A puppy consistently below and not gaining, or one that has dropped from a higher line to a lower one, is worth a vet visit. A single low reading is not.
How often should I weigh a puppy?
Weekly to about four months, fortnightly to six, then monthly. The trend is what carries information; weighing daily mostly records what the puppy last ate.
Do male and female puppies grow differently?
Yes, and in most breeds the gap is wide enough to matter by six months. The table above spans both sexes, which is part of why its ranges are wide. Breed pages split them.
What is the WALTHAM puppy growth chart?
A clinical tool published by the WALTHAM Petcare Science Institute, built from the same research programme as the curves used here. Those charts are copyrighted and are not reproduced on this site; the figures above are calculated independently from the open-access dataset that accompanies the published study.