Author Topic: I'm sick of hearing about my "small" Newf !!!  (Read 20198 times)

Offline Newly Newfed

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I'm sick of hearing about my "small" Newf !!!
« on: November 05, 2007, 05:45:19 am »
Some of you may remember a few months back, I was worried because Sierra's puppy kindergarten instructors said she was going to be tiny for a Newfoundland.  At that time they said I'd be lucky if she grew another inch in height.  ou all said they were crazy and well, you were right because she has grown six more inches since then and all was good.

Well, it's starting again.  Lately I have been bumping into people who just keep commenting on how small she is.  The manager at Petco said she thought it was a Newf when I walked in the store, but wasn't sure because she was so small.  I went to an event for the Newfoundland Club in my rregion and I had about 5 people ask me what she was mixed with because she was so small.  One person wouldn't leave me alone about and even asked if I saw her parents to make sure she was purebred.

One of the things that attracts me to Newfs is their size.  I love big dogs - the bigger the better.  Sierra has become everything to me.  As I type this, she is sitting next to me with her head on my lap.  I've never had a dog that was this important to me, so of course no matter what her size, I will always love her to death.  But I'm starting to obsess!  I am constantly meausuring her height, which is 25 inches.  The breed standard states 26 in is average for females!  And at the Newfoundland Club event, she was only slightly shorter than most of the other females there.  And at 9 months she is almost 80 lbs.  I feel she right on track but I'm getting annoyed at hearing how I have a small dog.  I try to explain that she looks lean and possibly smaller because she has her skin issues and scratched off all of her fluff, and she's still young and not filled out yet.

And honestly I don't know why I let it get to me.  Maybe because I was so happy to be getting a big dog, I am let down thinking she won't be big.  Or could it be I am just getting annoyed because other people don't think my dog is as perfect as I think she is?
Dogs are not our whole lives, but they make our lives whole - Roger Caras

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Offline Ali

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Re: I'm sick of hearing about my "small" Newf !!!
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2007, 06:26:41 am »
People never cease to amaze me with how rude and annoying they can be! I don't know anything in particular about Newfs, but a dog that is 80 lbs at 9 months sounds huge to me. Also, she's one inch away in height from the breed standard for a female? At 9 months, she's nowhere near finished growing, right? Well, that is beside the point - she's your lap monster regardless, and you love her. You'll laugh that you wrote this when, in 6 months, she's like a zillion pounds. Think of some kind of witty response for the nosey know-it-alls. Or, just go for blunt honesty that makes them feel like jerks, like "Yes, she is purebred, and she is perfect just the way she is!". Or, "Thanks for being so concerned for Sierra, but it isn't necessary, I assure you." Or, "I'm happy that you're intrested in Sierra, but your questions are becoming nosey and offensive so I"ll be going now". Or, "Oh yes, she IS mixed with Chupacabra, and she will eat your face off if you don't get out of mine. Buh bye now."
Ali
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Offline People Whisperer

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Re: I'm sick of hearing about my "small" Newf !!!
« Reply #2 on: November 05, 2007, 06:43:29 am »
Don't let people get to you!!! There are plenty of lunatics out there  ::)
Newf are not supposed to be tall. They should be heavy boned but not tall. And if she is not heavy boned then less orthopedic worries for you  :-* :-* :-*
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Offline ptkennel

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Re: I'm sick of hearing about my "small" Newf !!!
« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2007, 06:47:01 am »
Our Newfie, Joy was the same as yours, in the size department. Her last show was in the middle of October... she was 19 months old and she was a little high in the rear, which means she is still growing too! The last day she took winners female, beating dogs that were older and taller then her. I would much rather have a slow growing Newf then a young monster...Way less joint / hip problems when they are full grown.
Joy only weighed about 100 lbs at 1 year. Some blood lines just grow slower. Her mother came from England...not sure if that made a difference but our breeder says she took after her relatives from over there in the growing department.
Joy also went through the allergy thing. Once we figured out what was causing the problem (any egg product in her food) her coat came back great. We had a judge this summer from Denmark remark on her "massive" coat.
So, I would not worry at all. By the sounds of it she is a little bigger then Joy was at that age and things are working out great for us.

Brad
« Last Edit: November 05, 2007, 06:49:11 am by ptkennel »
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Offline navarre1316

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Re: I'm sick of hearing about my "small" Newf !!!
« Reply #4 on: November 05, 2007, 06:59:42 am »
So she's a late bloomer!!!  I agree with everyone else, a slow grower will probably mean less problems in the future.  I took Issy to a pet thing this past weekend and just about everyone asked me if she was a Belgian Mal, even a GSD breeder!!!  Issy is a dark(ish) sable so she's not your typical black and tan.  But I also got the "she's pretty small for a GSD".  One person I told "well, she's 9mths old and unfortunately they don't immediately go from the cute and cuddly 3mth old, like that one over there (there was about 3 pups there), to the massive 110 pounder.  So she's kind of in the awkward middle right now."  Maybe you should try that one too!!!
God placed me on this earth to accomplish certain tasks...I'm so far behind I'll never die!!

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Offline CrazyLoveRosie

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Re: I'm sick of hearing about my "small" Newf !!!
« Reply #5 on: November 05, 2007, 07:02:25 am »
I think that's so incredibly rude of people. Sierra's a perfect girl, just the way she is. It's not a matter of conformation. These big paws are our babies, no matter what!
Rosie - Newfoundland

Offline Apreston

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Re: I'm sick of hearing about my "small" Newf !!!
« Reply #6 on: November 05, 2007, 08:01:21 am »
I am sooooo with you on this one!!! We hear poeple ALL the time tell us what to feed Titan, where to take him for obidence classes, how to handle him when he is bigger, what to do now, how long to leave him in the cage, what kind of food is best (RAW diet; get this a lot)....the list goes on and on. And frankly I am quite sick of it as well!! I have decided that no matter what happends...the y are part of our family...we love him... he love us..bottom line. If they are happy and healthy who cares what people say let them talk...I just know how much we love our little guy and that he has the best life he possibly ever could have! But I have to agree with you it makes you second guess your self sometimes.. I do it all the time one of my vices I am working on! :) You have a beautiful girl...size and all!!

Offline Pyr Heaven

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Re: I'm sick of hearing about my "small" Newf !!!
« Reply #7 on: November 05, 2007, 09:16:26 am »
I hear ya! People that actually know what breed Miles is think he is small for his age. Like yesterday, I was taking him for a walk...and the lady said "Oh he's so cute! Is he about one month old?" I was like...are you NUTS!? He's 50 pounds! He's not friggin' ONE MONTH OLD. Ugh. It angers me. hahaha He may be a tiny bit underweight for his age but he CERTAINLY doesnt look one month old. Usually people guess about two months. I'm like...ok...se riously..you know nothing about big dogs. They don't just come out of the womb HUGE! hahaha

I think Sierra is perfect in size! She looks like she just about fits the standard. That's really good....especi ally for her age. She's still a pup! She will continue to grow and fill out alot I'm sure. Don't worry. She sounds just about perfect to me!!! :-* :-* :-*
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Offline 2Criminals

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Re: I'm sick of hearing about my "small" Newf !!!
« Reply #8 on: November 05, 2007, 09:26:13 am »
Ahhh, yes, I feel your pain. I have the world's smallest Bullmastiff who couldn't possibly be a purebred ::) We hear it all the time, especially as there are two full grown males in our dog park who dwarf him..."oh but the other one is sooo big". At 17mos Phelan is just reaching 100lbs, either he is going to have a growth spurt soon or he will remain on the smaller side of life. He will always be the happy go lucky, i love everyone, pup at the park. He certainly doesn't care if he's the biggest so why should anyone else? If ignorance trully is bliss their are a lot of happy people out there ;)

Offline Nina

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Re: I'm sick of hearing about my "small" Newf !!!
« Reply #9 on: November 05, 2007, 10:12:59 am »
People don't seem to 'get'that large and giant breeds take on average 3 years to fully grow. And no matter how many time you try and tell them they still think they are right.  ::) Oh well what can you do? She is beautiful and that is all that matters.

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Offline Newly Newfed

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Re: I'm sick of hearing about my "small" Newf !!!
« Reply #10 on: November 05, 2007, 12:16:38 pm »
And no matter how many time you try and tell them they still think they are right.  ::)

Nina


Yes, very true.  Ignorant people don't know they are ignorant.  I like Ali's idea of having a comeback - I'm sort of partial to "Yes, she is small, but offspring tend to take after their parents.  Are YOUR children large boned, like yourself?"  All said with a sweet smile on my face, of course.  Yes I know it's rude, but I'm at the point I don't care.  If they can dish it out, they can take it also.  I've always been overly polite to people, especially strangers, because I think people in general are much too rude.  I work in customer service for my electric company and I really can't get over what some people think is ok to say to another person.  And most of the time rude people don't expect a comeback and when they get one, they are dumbfounded.  So I'm going to go against my nature and try something new.  :) 

I agree with all of you and I guess I'm just venting about it.  After reading all of your posts, I realized that I'm not really worried about her size and the comments about her size, I am just more annoyed at the people making the comments.

Oh and I forgot to add this - you guys will love this - when I was talking to the Petco manager, I asked if she ever had Newfs and she said  "Oh no, I've had Jack Russells my whole life"  Is she for real?
Dogs are not our whole lives, but they make our lives whole - Roger Caras

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Offline jabear

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Re: I'm sick of hearing about my "small" Newf !!!
« Reply #11 on: November 05, 2007, 01:33:34 pm »
Sierra is awesome and those people are stupid. My Bear gets wierd comments all the time too. He is 150 lbs. which is somewhat small but he's big boned,and he is sooooo long so next to me people think he is a giant. Even if he were smaller I'd love him just the same. 
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Jaime
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Offline Newly Newfed

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Re: I'm sick of hearing about my "small" Newf !!!
« Reply #12 on: November 05, 2007, 02:29:49 pm »
Sierra is perfect and still so young.  I can't see why people continue to harass you when they full well know she is still a pup!  Argh, people get so in your face when they think they know more about your dog.

I think you have hit the nail on the head about what is bugging me.  if you think she's small ok.  but once I explain she's still a puppy, SHUT UP!

And people insisting they are right when I know dang well they are NOT, is one of my hot buttons.  It's one of those things where I have to make a huge effort not to argue to prove to them that they wrong.  iIm not happy to sit and smile and know they are an idiot.  If they are being obnoxious, I feel an irresistable urge to prove it to them.  LOL!
Dogs are not our whole lives, but they make our lives whole - Roger Caras

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Offline GoldenPyrs

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Re: I'm sick of hearing about my "small" Newf !!!
« Reply #13 on: November 05, 2007, 03:10:16 pm »


It's rude. :) It'd be like me coming up to you and saying dang girl, what do you eat? or do you eat enough? LOL



LOL, isn't that the truth and don't you just wish sometimes that you could say that?!  ::)  ;D  Sometimes people are just amazingly blunt and rude.  People have said that my Golden/mix is too big & tall (ok...but for what?  she's a mix for pete's sake!  ???  ::)).  A Pyr expert at a Pyr Club meet once said that Cara had dwarfism though she weighed 95# and was as tall as the males!  Ummm, not even close since Pyrs that really do have dwarfism are more like 1/2 that size, sigh.  You get the picture.  I just *try* to "consider the source" as my mom always told me.  It does get old though, so I sympatize.  What ticks me off the most though is that I've had many, many people comment in front of my kids that our oldest & middle sons are the same size and look like twins.  Even when I politely tell them "no, actually they're 2 yrs apart" people go on & on about it.  The two boys are in their teens now, and our oldest is a little sensitive about that, so you'd think that people would be more considerate, but you just can't teach adults manners if they aren't inclined.   :-\  It sounds like Sierra is already well on her way to being a big girl (when she's all grown up), so to heck with anyone who doesn't know that.  In the meantime, enjoy her (big) puppy days.  She sounds like a big, sweet, cuddle bug.   :-*
« Last Edit: November 05, 2007, 03:13:04 pm by GoldenPyrs »
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Offline ZooCrew

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Re: I'm sick of hearing about my "small" Newf !!!
« Reply #14 on: November 05, 2007, 07:21:32 pm »
It doesn't sound like she is small to me.  She sounds about just right for her age........... not that I know about newfs......lol .  Even if she were to stay the same size, she is close enough to average to be completely normal  :)

I've gotten comments on Gunther quite often.  Most people think he's huge.  I'm not sure why b/c he's barely average for a dane and much smaller when compared to most you see in shows where 38 inches is small (gunther is barely 36).  But I have had "dane" people who've been quite rude and tell me "gosh he's small for a dane".  Well, so what?  What's it to you?  Luckily these people are few and far between.  I much prefer the people who don't see danes on a regular basis and are amazed by his good looks and charm and shocked that danes come in other colors besides fawn and harl.  ::)