When Do German Shepherds Stop Growing?

Discover the truth behind German Shepherd growth stages. What I have learned from my own experience.

Let’s look at how the growing stages work.

12 months is full-height in both males and females.
24 months is full-with both male and female German Shepherds.

The German Shepherd is a large breed dog, and they will continue to mature up until they reach 36 months. However, they can start to mature at the age of 18-24 months and continue up to three years before they are fully mature. This is for both females and males. 

If you are wondering how big your puppy will be when it is full-grown, pay attention to its weight at six months; double that number and you have a good estimate of your puppy’s adult weight. It’s not unusual for a German shepherd to weigh between 75 and 90 pounds once it has reached its full-sized, healthy weight. Fully mature. 3 years -old.

Your puppy will spend its first year growing up and its second year growing out. Your puppy will be as tall as it is going to be by the time it is about 12 months old. Once your dog has reached its maximum height, it will still have some growing to do.

How much should German Shepherd puppies weigh?

With my experience of breathing multiple litters of German Shepherds over the years. I like to take this question a little bit further, so you can have a better understanding about puppy weight. The bigger question should be… It depends on how the Breeder feeds the puppies. Most good breeders feed puppies 3 times a day with dry food and wet food mixed together and I’m not talking about cheap dog food. We’re talking about high-quality dog food. They will always keep a good eye on how the pups are developing so they keep them healthy.

Here are a few pictures of puppies. These pictures are from my good friend John’s last litter. This was a great litter of puppies. Everyone puppy he sold the people were so happy with their puppy. All the pups had a super loving temperament and training comes easy when you breed good blood-line puppies.

Roughly weight would be,

9-week old puppies weigh. 15- 20 pounds.

4 month old puppy weight. 25- 32 pounds.

6 month old puppy weight. 48- 56 pounds. I have had male puppies that weight up to 50 lbs.

How long do German shepherds live?

9 to 13 years.

My personal experience with my own dogs.  They have lived up to 15 years of age.  It’s all about how healthy they say.  Just like in humans. Now, I will share with you what will play a big part in keeping your German Shepherd healthy, is how you feed them and exercise them. Always use good food and plenty of vet checkups when needed. You should always get your dog check once a year.

How long does it take for a German shepherd’s ears to stand up?

With my own experience after breeding multiple German Shepherd litters. The bloodlines have a great part and playing with their ears standing up. In my last litter, all 8 of our puppies’ ears were standing up at 12 weeks old.

I have seen German Shepherds with floppy ears, known form as a lazy ear, which terms English grammar terms that you probably heard people saying. But most of the time their ears should be standing up at between 10 to 12 weeks and sometimes up to six months, you’ll see this happen through the teething stage. This can varies from dog to dog) but generally between 16 weeks and 20 weeks of age.

I tell my customers. Take a look at the pictures above these puppies are 5 weeks old. I like you to remember this too. German Shepherd puppies are born with floppy ears.  Anywhere from 10 weeks to 14 weeks of age, the ears start to stand on their own. But sometimes things can happen like-Occasionally, pets are born with deformed ears that normally should stand erect but do not.

Do you have to cut a German shepherd’s ears?

The answer is no. I would never cut a GSD dog ear and less there was a danger to their life.  I had never heard of any German Shepherd ears being cute before.  This is something you should discuss with a licensed veterinarian.

When Do German Shepherds Calm Down?

Now, this a popular question for new German Shepherd owners. First, you need to understand.  Do you have a high-energy dog or low energy dog? This is the same for a puppy or older dog. If you have a high-energy- GSD-dog you will need physical and mental stimulation on a daily basis. My friend Tonny just got a new German Shepherd and call me to ask, when will she calm down? She always brings me her ball to play. I told him to put her on a leash and teach her to lay down.

This can be done when your eating dinner, and watching TV. Training needs to be consistent every day-throughout your dog’s life.  This is done with training when you can supervise her. Never leave any collar and Leash on a dog when you’re not there to supervise them. That’s when we use a dog crate to keep them safe.

Mistake To Avoid With Your Dog:

Why You Should Never Play Ball In The House With Your Puppy.

Meet- Nora. 7 month-old GSD Dog. My friend Tonny, made the mistake of playing ball in the house with his new GSD puppy when she was 10-weeks-old. And now she is 6 months old. Playtime is for outside the house. This why his dog brings him the toy all the time to play inside the house.

This is what he taught her. Now the house became a big backyard for his puppy, and this is why she will not calm down inside the house. There are a lot of German Shepherd owners that do this with their puppies. If you always playing with your puppy- inside the house how will they ever learn to calm down? This behavior is not hard to break. He just needs to be consistent with his training.

 German Shepherd Growth Stages.

True is, all puppies go through growth stages. Most of the time you’ll see that it will take up full maturity before your dog will start to calm down, which is 36 months. But if your GSD dog is super high-energy don’t be surprised if you only see her/ him calm down just a little because they have that high energy in their bloodline, which is strong prey drive in them. My German shepherd princess is (nine years old) and she is still a super high-level energy dog.  That comes from her breeding and blood-lines. This what working dogs do, is work.  You may have heard some say, your dog needs a job.

Now remember every German Shepherd has a different temperament, and temperament in dogs is energy level. That’s why it’s best to have the breeder pick the puppy or older GSD dog for you, to match the right dog for your lifestyle. I was out training my German Shepherd princess last week, and this man was watching me why I was working with her, and stop to talk with me and said he had a dog just like mine and it was a good thing that he owned 15 teen acres land at the time because he could not imagine living the city with a high-energy dog.

Anyway, short post today but I just wanted to put the information out there. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks, Dennis.