Hey everyone,

My husky, Odin, is about 11 months now and I'm a little concerned about the size of his body/head compared to other huskies that I've seen around my neighbourhood and the dog parks. He stands about 22" tall, and weighs about 52 pounds, numbers that I know fall within the breed standard but again, he seems much smaller than other huskies I've seen. He's been mainly on Blue Wilderness Chicken kibble, although he is a VERY picky eater. Some days he won't eat at all or he'll only have 1-2 cups. I've tried numerous things to get him to eat more, like blending in wet food with his kibble but it doesn't always work. 

I'm also mainly concerned about the size of his head, which seems disproportionate to the rest of his body, and hasn't seem to grow much in the past few months. People have been telling me he will continue to fill out but I haven't seen much of that. His parents, both of whom I met before adopting him, are bigger than he is. Any thoughts/opinions?

Thanks in advance!

Right now he is a gangly out of proportion teenager... you remember that phase? When nothing seemed to fit with one another? He won't be done growing until about 2 yrs and the filling out comes at the end of that... or even a little after.

I echo what Amy says. Some huskies mature fully at 10-12 months, some longer. It might hit another growth spurt after a year. 52 lbs is a good weight though.

Amy and Sarah gave good advice about growing. On the food end, most huskies are self regulators, meaning they will eat what they need and nothing more. Miya will go a day or two without eating. Also if your dog is not very active on certain days he may not need to eat. Lastly at a year old, most huskies only require 1-2 cups of quality kibble max per day. Miya at 3, and is considered slim, eats about a cup, cup and a half daily, and on super high exercise days 2 cups. Your dog looks fine in the pics. What you are seeing is more than likely out of breed standard huskies. Although their name has husky in it, huskies are not meant to be all that large. Your guy is pushing max weight for breed standard, as well as height. Once he starts to fill out, you will see he is completely normal.

Simon is two years old and is with in the standard and is 38-42lbs Some are just bigger and some are smaller.

As long as the body condition is good I don't worry about when he is a little picky or skips a meal.

Thanks for the responses everyone, that makes me feel a lot better! I was just a little confused when seeing all these other huge huskies at the dog park, even though I know huskies aren't a large breed dog.

Another thing, he is due to be neutered next month...I've been hearing different things from different people about the best time to neuter a dog. Some say it stunts growth if you do it too early, others say the opposite. In your experience, is there a "best time" for neutering?

I have one of those huge huskies... he was neutered at approx 1 yr. Nothing stunted about him