This is very interesting, one of those growth plates does not close until 17 months. Much longer then I thought.
This is from diagram is from:
http://www.e-trainingfordogs.com/2011/03/all-fit-dog/
There are dozens of super courses available at this site. Check it out!
Excellent information on all three posts. I think that sometimes our pups are pushed too quickly for the sake of that “training timeline.”
Thank you, Julie.
Thanks for posting this. I showed it to my students today and had a discussion about the pros and cons of early spaying/neutering. I’ve been able to find more and more cons to discuss with them and it gets them thinking for when they get out into practice.
It appears horses and dogs have the same issue-they look mature, but they are not. I always hated when they pushed the horses for the 2 yr old futurities-wrecked their legs!
Yep, Lisa—you are right about that!
This is why I shudder when I see GSDs(or any big dogs) running agility before 2 years of age. And why when someone says oh so and so got their MACH and their dog is only 2 (or worse not even) I always just politely say oh that is alot of trials for such a young dog…
[…] health issues when they are adults. Here's a chart that shows when the growth plates close. Growth Plate Closure | Long-Dangerous Tails The Doberman was built to be a medium sized naturally muscular dog. They are not built to be a […]