How long considered puppy

It sounds scary but poses no danger for your precious pup. Your puppy is long their puppy coat. This coat falls out and is replaced with a longer, coarser adult coat between six and 12 months of age.

Adult dog food: The switch to adult dog food should happen at physical maturity. Once your pup has physically grown into an adult dog, their dietary needs change and you should adjust accordingly. Going forward, healthy dogs should see the vet once a year. While many small breeds get enough exercise just from walking around the house, larger dogs require at least 30 minutes of daily exercise.

As you can see, raising a dog is much like raising a child. Keeping all aspects of their growth in mind is essential to developing a healthy relationship that continues to blossom with time. Want to know more? You can take a look at our guide on how long do puppies sleep , which plays a major role in their development. Sexual maturity By 6 months old, most dogs are able to reproduce. Medium breeds up to 80 pounds reach maturity between 12 and 16 months.

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When Does a Puppy Become a Dog? Here's what to look for as your puppy matures: Sexual Maturity: Most dogs become sexually mature by 6 months when they're still in the puppy stage of development — both physically and emotionally.

At this point, your pup's sex organs are fully developed, making him capable of reproducing. This is generally the best time to have your dog spayed or neutered in order to avoid unwanted pregnancies and adverse behaviors, such as roaming or marking. Physical Maturity: Physically speaking, dogs are fully grown by the time they're 1 year old, although large breeds may keep growing until they're 2 years old.

When your pup reaches physical maturity, he may still engage in puppy-like behaviors but his physical needs, including the number of calories he needs to consume and how much exercise he requires to stay healthy, become that of an adult dog. Emotional Maturity: You'll know your dog has reached emotional maturity when he stops acting like a puppy or an adolescent and fully settles into the role of an adult dog. Typically, emotionally mature adults are less distractible, better at listening and obeying and have a calmer and more settled demeanor.

The precise timing of this milestone differs but most dogs reach emotional maturity by their second birthday. How to Handle Puppy Adolescence In puppy development, the time between reaching sexual maturity and emotional maturity is akin to human adolescence.

Here's how you should expect to meet your growing dog's changing needs: Adult Dog Food: Growing puppies burn through a lot of energy in a day and need specialized food that's high in protein, fat and calories in order to keep up.

Once they're fully grown, though, they should switch to adult dog food that will meet their nutritional needs and prevent them from becoming overweight. In order to avoid tummy troubles, it's best to transition slowly over the space of a week, gradually reducing the amount of puppy food while adding in their new adult food. Veterinary Care: Barring illness or injury, healthy adult dogs in their prime typically only need to visit a veterinarian once a year for an annual wellness check and, depending on the laws in your state, an annual rabies vaccine.

For puppies, however, veterinarians will administer a series of vaccinations starting at six to eight weeks of age, ending with a final dose at 16 weeks, says the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ASPCA. But what exactly do they need, and when are they officially an "adult dog"? The age at which your puppy becomes an adult dog will depend on its breed and size.

All breeds are categorized into five sizes of dog: Extra-small, mini, medium, maxi and giant. Your puppy will become an adult dog at the following ages:. The different classifications of when your puppy is an "adult dog" are due to the length of the growth phase for different-sized breeds.

Large and giant dogs take a lot longer to fully mature than smaller dogs, although all of them have an intense growth spurt. Puppies require greater calcium in their diet than adult dogs to support the proper development of their skeleton. They also need more protein, as they are rapidly building muscle and other body tissues.