Most dogs become fully grown after about 1 1/2 years to two, and you can tell how big they are going to be by the disproportion in the size of the dog to their paws due to the fact that they grow into them.
How Long Does It Take For A German Sheperd To Be Fully Grown?
About 2 years. Most of their 'up' is in the first year or so, they do still grow after that though just not as quickly and most of their 'out' gaining their adult weight and muscle is the second year and sometimes continue into the third year. Something like an OFA x-ray isn't graded until a minimum of two years because they need to have more of their mature skeletal structure and not as likely to be in the stages of growth. Here is a link to your breed parent club.
The size of a pups paws really has to do with how they were bred and what they were bred to do. A dog that needs to support it's body weight like a dachshund or a Basset will seem to have larger paws, a dog meant for swimming will have larger paws, a dog meant for running will have smaller, narrow and slim paws. One time I was in a pet shop and there were a lot of people in there. Someone brought up the paws and how big the dog would be and everyone kind of starts discussing it. I decided to demonstrate. I chose a few pups, a Bassett, and Lab, a Golden, and an Irish wolfhound. I invited everyone to guess which dog would be biggest. Every dog was guessed but the right one (and everyone was so amused we ran the game several times as new people came in and the people that had participated earlier instigated a bit because they had such fun seeing peoples reaction) because it had the slimmest, most narrow paws.
Bassett needs wider paws to support it's body structure and is a scent hound. Lab and Goldens are retrievers and have bigger wider paws for swimming and working. Irish wolfhound is a sighthound and built more for for running so has more slim and narrow paws that were smaller than the others. I chose a good contender (and one of my dream dogs, lol) and not one single person guessed it that day when they were deciding who would be the biggest based on paw size and there was going to be a massive difference between the adult size of the pups. Not only would an Irish Wolfhound be much larger than any of the other dogs involved, they are one of the largest breeds there is and are the tallest breed of dog there is. Basically "what's the biggest breed of dog" has the answer Irish Wolfhound if you go by how tall or Mastiff if you go by mass only. Nobody chose the biggest breed (literally) because they were trying to tell by the paw size.
www.gsdca.org
The size of a pups paws really has to do with how they were bred and what they were bred to do. A dog that needs to support it's body weight like a dachshund or a Basset will seem to have larger paws, a dog meant for swimming will have larger paws, a dog meant for running will have smaller, narrow and slim paws. One time I was in a pet shop and there were a lot of people in there. Someone brought up the paws and how big the dog would be and everyone kind of starts discussing it. I decided to demonstrate. I chose a few pups, a Bassett, and Lab, a Golden, and an Irish wolfhound. I invited everyone to guess which dog would be biggest. Every dog was guessed but the right one (and everyone was so amused we ran the game several times as new people came in and the people that had participated earlier instigated a bit because they had such fun seeing peoples reaction) because it had the slimmest, most narrow paws.
Bassett needs wider paws to support it's body structure and is a scent hound. Lab and Goldens are retrievers and have bigger wider paws for swimming and working. Irish wolfhound is a sighthound and built more for for running so has more slim and narrow paws that were smaller than the others. I chose a good contender (and one of my dream dogs, lol) and not one single person guessed it that day when they were deciding who would be the biggest based on paw size and there was going to be a massive difference between the adult size of the pups. Not only would an Irish Wolfhound be much larger than any of the other dogs involved, they are one of the largest breeds there is and are the tallest breed of dog there is. Basically "what's the biggest breed of dog" has the answer Irish Wolfhound if you go by how tall or Mastiff if you go by mass only. Nobody chose the biggest breed (literally) because they were trying to tell by the paw size.
www.gsdca.org