What Should I Weigh?

[Shaykeija]

Hi just wondering about Sophie the pampered Shih Tzhu. She weighs in at 14 pounds. She is at the top of the chart for breed standard size. A big girl.
Any way I feed her a 1/2 cup wet and dry performatrin split into 2 meals a day. Plus wht she steals from Missie the poo and Pepper the cat. Little can eat a hundered miles an hour. The vet said she was a big shih tzhu and really healthy but the breeder said that she was fat.
Just wondering. Oh yes Sophia's cousin won best of breed for males at Westminster.

[Prin]

Look at the under belly, and the silhouette from above. There should be a curve before the hips (waist) and the belly should curve up from the ribs toward the hips. like this... (cruddy pic, but the best one I have to show the belly curve)

[goldenblaze]

Shih Tzu's are between 9-16lbs even females, my male Jordie is 14.8 last he was at the Vet and he is 4.5 years old. He is not fat or large he looks small, I agree some are larger than others. I once had a shih tzu that was from the U.S and he was much larger than Jordie. You little girl seems normal to me, I would not worry too much about it she happy healthy that is all the matters and your Vet said she is ok so I'd be happy with that.

here is Jordie

[nymph]

Found this while I was researching the ideal weight for my dog:

http://www.iams.com/en_US/jhtmls/nut...=PN&qi=374#dog

[Prin]

Here are some from purina:
http://www.purina.ca/dogs/nutrition.asp?article=286
And a chart in color:
http://www.purina.ca/dogs/nutrition.asp?article=292

[kandy]

Looking at the links - the pictures of the overweight dogs - looks like Boon! She was quite heavy and her back looked pretty much flat - sometimes she looked like her legs were getting shorter!

[Shaykeija]

I was glad to see your Shih tzhu picture. It looked a lot like Sophie only a little smaller. Thanks everyone. Now if I could cure her sound barrier breaking snoring LOL