by James Wu — pet ownerUpdated May 8, 2026

Dog ideal weight by breed (small, medium, large & giant)

Healthy weight ranges for 20 popular breeds, sorted by size. Each row also notes which way that breed tends to drift — Beagles run heavy, Greyhounds run lean — so you can spot whether your dog is breed-typical or actually off target.

The honest version of a breed weight chart: the AKC range is a band, not a target. A perfectly healthy individual dog can sit 15 to 20 percent above or below the breed average and still be at an ideal body shape. The chart below gives the AKC numbers, but the column that matters most is the drift note — the pattern vets see in that specific breed. A Lab at the top of its range is a different story than a Border Collie at the top of its range.

Breed weights with body-shape notes

Pick a size tier to filter. Numbers are AKC standards; the drift column is the pattern vets see most often in that breed.

Breed	Male	Female	Common drift
French Bulldog	under 28 lb	under 28 lb	Brachycephalic plus low exercise tolerance — body shape 6–8 is common; extra fat compounds airway and heat issues.
Yorkshire Terrier	up to 7 lb	up to 7 lb	"Teacup" marketing pulls the breed past the 7-lb cap; pet Yorkies often run 8–12 lb. Coat hides drift.
Dachshund (standard)	16–32 lb	16–32 lb	IVDD (back-disc) risk scales with abdominal load — vets aggressively flag body shape 6 or higher in Dachshunds.
Pug	14–18 lb	14–18 lb	Top-three obesity-prone breed in clinical surveys — food-motivated, brachycephalic, sedentary by build.
Pomeranian	3–7 lb	3–7 lb	Show ring 4–6 lb; pet Poms drift to 8–12 lb. Dense coat hides body shape — palpate, don't eyeball.
Beagle	20–30 lb (15")	20–30 lb (15")	Used as the obesity research model — opportunistic over-eaters, regularly top obesity-prevalence rankings.
Australian Shepherd	50–65 lb	40–55 lb	Suburban Aussies under-exercised vs working-line genetics — gain abdominal fat fast.
Pembroke Welsh Corgi	up to 30 lb	up to 28 lb	Chondrodysplastic long back — every excess pound directly loads the spine.
Border Collie	30–55 lb	30–55 lb	Usually under-ideal, not over — outworks the bowl. Pattern reverses for retired or older BCs.
Boxer	65–80 lb	≈50–65 lb	Lean working build is breed-correct; cardiac-disease prevalence narrows the over-ideal margin.
Labrador Retriever	65–80 lb	55–70 lb	About 25% of Labs carry a POMC gene deletion that encodes constant hunger — adult Labs at body shape 7–9 is the clinical norm.
Golden Retriever	65–75 lb	55–65 lb	Treat-heavy training tradition; body shape drift typically shows up after age four when activity drops.
German Shepherd Dog	65–90 lb	50–70 lb	American show lines run heavier; over-ideal compounds existing hip and elbow dysplasia load.
Doberman Pinscher	75–100 lb	60–90 lb	Lean visible-musculature build is breed-correct — owners often misread it as "underweight" and over-feed.
Siberian Husky	45–60 lb	35–50 lb	Bred to run 100+ miles a day on minimal food — most pet huskies need far less kibble than generic calculators predict.
Standard Poodle	60–70 lb	40–50 lb	Coat hides body shape; over-ideal stresses the breed's orthopedic predispositions.
Rottweiler	95–135 lb	80–100 lb	Hip dysplasia and cruciate rupture risks are both weight-sensitive — vets target body shape 4–5 hard in this breed.
Bernese Mountain Dog	80–115 lb	70–95 lb	Median lifespan is short (7–8 years) — every excess pound shortens an already-short window.
Great Dane	140–175 lb	110–140 lb	Puppy growth-rate management matters more than adult weight; the calorie load required to over-feed an adult is enormous.
Mastiff (English)	160–230 lb	120–170 lb	Line between "breed-correct heavy" and "over-ideal" requires palpation, not eyeball — coat and bone hide a lot.

Weights from AKC breed standards. Drift notes from clinical-prevalence surveys (APOP, Banfield) and breed-specific veterinary literature — see Sources below.

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Hi, I'm the PawsCalculator assistant. I answer questions about pet calorie, weight, age, and feeding math — and how the calculators on this site work. I'm not a veterinarian and I can't give personal veterinary advice. For weight-loss programs, prescription diets, or age-related illness, talk to a licensed veterinarian.

Read the chart and the body shape together

The breed chart and the body-shape check answer two different questions. The chart says "a healthy adult of this breed typically weighs X to Y pounds." The body shape check says "your specific dog, today, is at this point on the lean-to-heavy spectrum." Used together they give you a target. Used alone, either one misleads.

A Lab at 80 pounds is at the top of the AKC range. If body shape says 5 — ribs easy to feel, clear waist, gentle tuck — that's breed-correct heavy bone, not overweight. If body shape says 7 — ribs hard to feel, no waist — the dog is 10 to 25 percent over its actual ideal, which is closer to 65 pounds. Same number on the scale, completely different feeding plan.

One opinion worth holding: most owners reach for the chart first because the scale is easy and the rib check feels awkward at first. It's the other way around. The body-shape check is the more reliable read; the chart is the sanity check you do once you have a body-shape number in hand.

What the size tiers actually mean

Toy & small (under ~30 lb)

Small breeds need fewer total calories but more calories per pound — a 7-pound Yorkie eats roughly 250 calories a day, which works out to four times the per-pound rate of a 70-pound Lab. The rule of thumb that "small dog = small bowl" misses how concentrated the small bowl actually is. Two biscuits is a meal's worth of calories for a Pomeranian. Brachycephalic small breeds (Frenchies, Pugs, Boston Terriers) top obesity-prevalence rankings because the bag chart often overestimates the calorie ceiling.

Medium (~30–55 lb)

The widest spread per breed in this tier. Beagles drift heavy because they're opportunistic eaters; Border Collies drift light because they outwork the bowl. Same size tier, opposite typical pattern. Activity level reads differently here than at the small end — a sedentary Aussie is a different feeding problem than a sedentary Lab, even at similar weights, because the working-line genetics are wired for more output than companion dogs in this tier ever burn off.

Large (~55–90 lb)

The most over-fed tier in pet population data. Labs and Goldens dominate every obesity-prevalence chart — about one in four Labs carries a gene variant that encodes constant hunger, which means the bag chart is a particularly poor target for the breed. Treat-heavy training tradition in retrievers compounds it. The honest playbook for this tier: scale food by daily activity, weigh meals on a kitchen scale, and lean on the body-shape check every two to four weeks instead of the scale.

Giant (~90+ lb)

Two distinct sub-stories here. Adult feeding is forgiving — the calorie load required to over-feed an adult Great Dane is enormous; most giant-breed obesity is sub-clinical drift you only catch on the body-shape check. Puppy feeding is not forgiving — fast growth in giant-breed puppies is directly linked to orthopedic problems. The clinical convention for giant-breed puppies is a deliberately slow growth curve, which means the puppy bowl is smaller than owners expect.

Worked example: a 78-pound Labrador

Take a four-year-old male Lab on the scale at 78 pounds. The AKC range is 65–80 pounds. The chart alone says "upper end of normal." The body-shape check says:

If body shape 5(ribs easy to feel, clear waist) — 78 pounds is the right target for this dog. Big-frame Lab. Maintenance feeding, keep doing what you're doing.
If body shape 6 (ribs need pressure, soft waist) — the dog is about 5 pounds heavier than ideal. Knock the bowl down 10 to 15 percent and re-check at four weeks.
If body shape 7 (ribs hard to feel, no waist) — the dog is 10 to 15 pounds over a healthy target, which sits closer to 63–68 pounds. Use the ideal weight calculator for a target weight, then the deficit calculator for a safe daily plan.

Same dog, same chart, same scale number. Three different feeding plans depending on body shape. That's why the chart is a starting reference, not the answer.

What about mixed-breed dogs

Mixed-breed dogs don't have an AKC chart row, and DNA-test breed percentages don't cleanly map to weight ranges either — a 50% Lab / 50% Husky doesn't average the two ranges. The shortcut: pick the dominant breed if you know it, use that range as a starting band, then trust the body-shape check to tell you where your specific dog should sit inside (or outside) that band.

For unknown-mix dogs, body shape becomes the only reliable read. The breed chart is reference; the dog in front of you is the data.

Questions worth asking

Why is the AKC range so wide for some breeds?

Two reasons. First, sex difference — males of most breeds are 10 to 25 percent heavier than females, and AKC publishes a single range covering both. Second, build variation within a breed. American show-line German Shepherds run heavier than working-line German Shepherds; show-bred Labs are stockier than field-bred Labs. The range covers the breed-correct spread, not the spread of one specific dog. The middle of the range is rarely the right target for any individual dog.

My mixed-breed dog isn't on the chart. What now?

Pick the dominant breed if you know it, then assume the other half of the mix shifts the number 10 to 20 percent. A Lab-Shepherd cross probably falls between Lab (65–80 lb male) and German Shepherd (65–90 lb male), so 65–85 lb is a reasonable opening guess. The honest version: for mixes, body shape is more reliable than the breed chart. The breed chart gives you a starting band; body shape tells you whether your individual dog is on the lean end, ideal middle, or heavier end of that band.

What if my dog is well outside the breed range?

Step one is the body-shape check, not the chart. A Lab at 90 pounds at body shape 5 (ideally lean) is a perfectly healthy big-frame Lab — the chart says 80 max but the dog is fine. A Lab at 90 pounds at body shape 8 is 25 pounds over a healthy weight, regardless of the AKC ceiling. The number outside the range only matters once body shape says it does. Score body shape first, then ask whether your dog is breed-correct heavy or actually overweight.

Should I aim for the low end or the high end of the range?

Lean is healthier. Long-running Purina dog studies showed dogs kept on the lean end of their breed range lived roughly two years longer than dogs allowed to drift to the heavy end of the same range. "Lean" doesn't mean underweight — body shape 4 or 5, ribs easily felt, clear waist. The high end of the AKC range is appropriate for breed-correct heavy-bone individuals; it's not a target everyone should be aiming for.

Why isn't my breed listed?

We picked 20 of the most popular breeds across the size tiers as a starting point — Labs, Goldens, French Bulldogs, German Shepherds, plus a few in each of the smaller and giant tiers. If your breed isn't here, the AKC's full breed page (akc.org/dog-breeds) has weight ranges for all 200+ breeds. Use those numbers and apply the same body-shape overlay this guide describes — the chart is the reference; body shape is the calibration.

Sources

Full verified-source working set with verbatim quotes lives at /methodology. Specific to this guide:

American Kennel Club. Breed-page weight standards. The 20 breeds in the chart above each have a dedicated AKC breed page; weights pulled from the published breed standard. akc.org/dog-breeds
Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. Annual prevalence survey — top obesity-prone breeds, breed-specific drift patterns referenced in the table's drift column. petobesityprevention.org
Raffan E, et al. Cell Metabolism, 2016. Identified the POMC gene deletion in Labrador Retrievers that encodes hyperphagia (constant hunger). Underlies the drift note for Labs. cell.com Cell Metabolism POMC paper
Kealy RD, et al. JAVMA, 2002. The Purina long-term lifespan study showing lean-fed dogs lived roughly two years longer than free-fed littermates. Underlies the "aim for the lean end" FAQ answer. avma.org Kealy 2002 lifespan study
World Small Animal Veterinary Association. Body Condition Score chart, 9-point system for dogs. The body-shape language used throughout the drift notes. wsava.org global-nutrition-guidelines

Pairs with this guide: the dog body condition score guide (how to actually do the body-shape check), the dog ideal weight calculator (individual target weight from current weight + body shape), and the dog calorie calculator (daily target once you have an ideal weight).