Breed and Sex Differences in growth curves for two breeds of dog guides

It is considered important for dog guides to have sufficient weight so that they are
able to guide their owners safely. 18 to 32 kg is considered to be an ideal dog guide for
an adult. It is important to know dog growth in order to develop a protocol, which would
help improve the probability of dogs with the desirable weight range. Also, selecting a
proper dog saves money, which would result in fewer dogs that would need training.
Previous studies have focused on only specific breeds and did not conduct the study for
the entire growth period. This paper is discussing the weight of Dog guides and
methods to summarize growth of a female and male German shepherd dogs and
Labrador retrievers using a growth curve. The authors hypothesized to find similarities
and the differences within and between the breeds as well as the sexes.
The information was collected over a period of 6 years in which over 18,000
weight observations were recorded on approximately 1550 Labrador retrievers and
German shepherd. Information was collected over a 6 year period in which over 18,000
weight observations were recorded on over 1550 Labrador retrievers and German
Shepard dogs by the Seeing Eye, Inc. For the first week of life, weights were recorded
daily, followed by weekly until the dogs were 5 to 8 weeks of age. This continued until
12 to 14 months, whenever the caretakers brought the dogs. The Gompertz Function
was selected due to the fit of data and the suitable point of infection for modeling dog
growth.
Breed and sex were found to affect the duration of the growth term (Helmink et
al., 2000). The result of the study showed that Labrador retrievers were approximately 5
lbs. heavier on average than German Shepards, and males were around 10 lbs.

heavier than females. The correlation of breed and sex interaction did not make for any
significance in mature weight. It was found that the male dogs took between 3 to 13
days more to reach an average mature age.
There were certain limitations with the study, for example as the study
progressed the number of dogs within each group started decreasing. This resulted in
fewer mature dogs that contributed at the end of the study. Also, not many observations
were recorded between 61 and 332 days of age with caretakers (Helmink et al., 2000).
The findings of this study implicated that the development of the selection protocol can
help increase the probability that the weight of mature dogs will range between 18 to 32
kilograms.

References:
Helmink, S.K, R.D. Shanks, and E. A. Leighton (2000). Breed and sex differences in
growth curves for two breed of dog guides Journal of Animal Science 478:27-32