puppy size

Question
Hi
My puppy is only 21 weeks old with hight of 9.4 inches from the shoulder down, and wights aboute 6 pounds.
I am troubled that it might be a miniature rather than a toy poodle...that i have always wanted...
His parents are both champions with hight of 10 inches.

Can you give me an estimatiom of its final size?

thank's, Ido

Answer
Well most toy poodles are done growing at 6 months but may fill out a bit until 7 months so she really doesn't have much time left to grow.  At 20 weeks, according to the charts, she should be only 9 inches tall to be an insize toy.  Weight has absolutely NOTHING to do with poodles.  There is no weight limit on any of the varieties.  So it sounds like your toy may goes a bit oversized.   I can not give you an estimation as there are just too many unknowns.  If you want more info on the size of the lines I would talk to your breeder.  A good breeder should know their lines backwards and forwards and be able to tell you if there are a lot of oversized dogs that come from that line. As far as being oversized though, it really only matters if you are showing or  trying to breed for insize.  Height will have no barring on wether your dog is a great pet or not.  It is very typical for toys to go over sized.  This is due to several reasons.  #1 all toy and miniature poodles were created from the standard poodle. #2 many of our toy poodles today have European blood lines in the background.  Especially CH poodles.  European toys are around 11 inches and under where in the US they are to be 10 inches and under.  This makes for a lot of oversized genes.  Due to those reasons you can get a great variety of sizes in a toy litter.  This is why most breeders will absolutely not guarantee size.  When dealing with genetics there is NEVER a guarantee.  No matter what ANY breeder says.  A breeder of CH poodles will work hard to try and keep their puppies insize but even they can not have it that way 100% of the time.  If you look around at sites on the net you will see a lot of dogs sired by CHs that are being sold as pets due to them going oversized.