How big is your Cairn?

[Scrabble]

Hi everyone!

 

Out of curiosity I wanted to know how big your Cairns are!

 

I have had two Cairns. Our Scribble in Canada is only 12 lbs (around 6kg), while our Scrabble in Australia weighs in at 25 lbs (12kg)!! He isn't overweight, just a very big Cairn. I have read that the Aussie Cairns are bigger than their North American counterparts.

 

We have to plans to show our Scrabble and love him no matter how big or small he is, but I have never seen or heard of a Cairn this big.

 

Interested in your responses. :)

[hheldorfer]

Buffy will kill me for telling you this but she weighs around 23 lbs..  Like Scrabble, she doesn't seem overweight, she's just big.  There are a few Cairns on the forum who are on the larger side.  Look at it this way:  More to love!

[bradl]

Oh goody! This is a somewhat recurring thread and I hope this time everyone takes a moment to add their dogs to the size database. It's not scientific or anything, it's just for fun and to help with discussions like this

[sanford]

Ruffy has been added to the database.

 

He is large: 21 lbs., 13" Tall, 17" long. When I adopted him, 5 yrs. ago, he weighed 17 lbs. and was somewhat underweight. I wanted him to put on some pounds and he did, although I never overfed him. But now, of course, I need to keep him from gaining more. My vet said Ruffy's weight is ok for now, but he's starting to develop "love handles", so I need to monitor his weight!

 

Has anyone ever heard of "love handles" on a dog ? If so, where are they located   (I never got to ask my vet this question).

Edited July 19, 2015 by sanford

[Scrabble]

Oh goody! This is a somewhat recurring thread and I hope this time everyone takes a moment to add their dogs to the size database. It's not scientific or anything, it's just for fun and to help with discussions like this

Oh thank you! I will definitely add Scrabble.

[Idaho Cairns]

We've had Cairns from 30 lbs to 12 lbs.  Our Sammi is around 27 lbs and Bonnie is probably 14lbs now.  Some Cairns are big boned and rangy others much more petite.  Most of the Cairns we see exceed the breed standard rate significantly.

[pkcrossley]

buddy lives around here somewhere, he is big and beautiful --bigger than the bigs mentioned so far. my cairn redmon's weight ranged between about 17bs and 20, but little teddy stays between 10 and 12. you can literally have (as idaho has) cairns 200% the size of other cairns in the same house. 

Edited July 19, 2015 by pkcrossley

[Account Deleted]

Moggies is usually around 17 lbs...when we found her she was 12lbs, could feel every bone vet wanted her to put on a little weight......well she did .  She most likely is a mix but love here spirit!

Edited July 19, 2015 by moggie

[beccadiane374]

Tanner is 14 pounds & freakishly strong!  

[kjwarnold]

Packy usually weighs around 19 lbs. and Kirby is about 15 lbs. They're built differently. Packy is a bit shorter and more stocky. He can walk or swim for miles without tiring. Kirby is taller (longer legs) but slender, he's built for speed. He's fast but not a long distance guy. It's like we have a sprinter and a marathon runner! ;-)

And yes, they're freakishly strong for being little dogs!

[kjwarnold]

I just added Packy and Kirby to the database. What does the length to height ratio tell us? Is it s ratio that judges look for or a Csirn standard?

[bradl]

A big component of Cairn type (what makes a Cairn a Cairn and not something else)  is proportion. The ratio is not explicitly called out, but implied by the ideal dimensions and proportionality language in the standard (emphasis mine).

 

Height at the withers, bitches nine and a half inches; dogs, ten inches. Length of body from fourteen and a quarter to fifteen inches from the front of the chest to back of hindquarters. The dog must be of balanced proportions and appear neither leggy nor too low to ground; and neither too short nor too long in body. Weight and measurements are for mature dogs at two years of age. Older dogs may weigh slightly in excess and growing dogs may be under these weights and measurements.

[Lupinegirl]

Nikki is definitely not a proportionate Cairn. When we got him as a three month old puppy, he seemed proportionate. The only thing that seemed out of scale on him was his big ears! He had little feet, and a little head so we assumed he'd grow to maybe fifteen pounds. Heh. Nobody's told him what he was supposed to look like. By the time he reached a year old, he was a completely different dog.

He's built like a Corgi with a long back, round rump, short six inch legs, little feet and head, very short neck, and he's packed with muscle. Before he was sterilized at six years old, he was hard as a rock all over. His thighs, ribs, shoulders, back, and every where else that I massaged was thickly muscled and I couldn't make a dent in his skin when I rubbed him. Now his thighs are squishy, but he still races down the stairs, jogs on walks, chases squeaky balls, and rolls vigorously on his back and sides every day without fail. I just put him on the bathroom scale and I'm not sure if I believe it or not. It said 35.4 pounds. O_o My terrier is a tank. He's supposed to be a purebred, but we were not given papers nor did we see his parents. We were just given the names of his parents and told that he was the biggest and best looking pup in his litter. Whatever. He's pure cairn as far as attitude and thinking capacity go, and he's my devoted, opinionated, totally sweet and adorable pal.

[sanford]

He's pure cairn as far as attitude and thinking capacity go, and he's my devoted, opinionated, totally sweet and adorable pal.

This is what I love to read!

 

(In the avatar photo, Nikki sure looks 100% cairn to me  ...However, at 35.5 pounds, he must be the world's largest cairn)!   

[Manicdog]

Hi guys

 

Nikki looks like my Sandy who is 100% Cairn and I have the papers.  Sandy weighs 30lbs.

 

Sandy's proportions look more like that of the Long Haired Skye Terrier so perhaps some throwback from long ago?

 

People ask me if he's a Westie cross because they've never seen a Westie that colour and size *rolls eyes*

 

I've been lurking and reading since we brought Sandy home last June.  The forum has been a lifesaver, I thought I had an abnormal dog but it seems from reading here I have a Cairn Terrier lol x

[Idaho Cairns]

Here is a telling image of the variation you find in Cairns where there isn't a long line of genetics to insure uniform and breed standard size and weight.  On the left is our Sammi, nearly 30 lbs of Cairn personality, in the middle is Zoey, my daughters dog and from the same breeding pair as the dog on the right and one year younger.  Zoey is really compact but weighs in at about 25 lbs--she is chunky.  On the right is our Bonnie Belle, small in stature, compact, but at least ten lbs less than Zoey.
For casual buyers of Cairn pups size is, I think, a lottery--you buys you ticket and youse takes you ride!  Anything is possible--if you want a standard you wait patiently for a first run breeder to grant you the right to own a first class representative of the breed, otherwise you join the crapshoot with the rest of us.  Fortunately, personality seems to be more consistent than size and Cairn personality trumps, in my opinion, physicality every time!

[Autumn & Lola]

People ask me if he's a Westie cross because they've never seen a Westie that colour and size *rolls eyes*

 

 

 

Last week when I told someone I have a Westie, she got excited and asked if I had a white one. :D

[Autumn & Lola]

Did you super glue those dogs to the rug, Idaho Cairns?   I can't get ONE to sit still, let alone THREE - not to mention all pretty in a row, in size order!

[Idaho Cairns]

Well, the vile neighborhood squirrels created the interest but pure randomness the line up.  It was one of those photographic serendipity moments.  Keeping a camera beside the recliner helps a bunch--many of my pictures come from the angle shown.

[Dayvo]

My little guy Robby is 13lbs but if you ask him he would say somewhere about 240lbs...he always counts me in when sizing up other dogs ,joggers,bicylists,people on lawnmowers etc.

[kingsley2015]

My Kingsley is 29 pounds and his sister, who is from the same litter, is about 25 pounds. Neither of them are over weight, they're just large. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one with a large cairn, I was almost convinced that they were some type of mixed breed.

Edited February 24, 2020 by kingsley2015

[sanford]

Carrington was 15 lbs. When I adopted Ruffy at 3 yrs old he  was 17 lbs and underweight. He’s now 20 lbs. Over the years there have been cairns on this site at 10 - 12 lbs and others, like Kingsley at 29 lbs. I think the average is approx 15 lbs  or slightly less.

[Dianne]

Katie is 2 1/2 years old. Weight is 15 lbs. She is 14 inches long and 10 inches high.

Our vet says she's OK at that weight but not to add more.

The UK Kennel Club Cairn standard:  Size: Approximately 28-31 cms (11-12 ins) at withers, but in proportion to weight – ideally 6-7.5 kgs (14-16 lbs).

[bradl]

https://www.cairntalk.net/size/  

[Ruth Jenkins]

My Cairn, Karma, is going to turn 4 soon. In the last year people started commenting about her weight and when I checked the AKC and breeder websites I got concerned because her weight, 25 pounds, was so much more than the "standard weight". Karma doesn't overeat, I feed her 3/4 cup of dogfood twice a day, and she and I walk for up to an hour everyday and so I attributed her weight to muscle, but I was still concerned. What a relief to find this website! Thank you for all the contributions and the pictures. I've never had a Cairn and have to say I've been missing out all of these years. And Karma says thanks too! No diet for her! 

Edited March 15, 2021 by Ruth Jenkins
Misspelling and add picture