Maturity / Development

[Bitten]

How have your dogs matured / developed - are there differences? What are your experience with the breed in that direction?

Bitten

[Vadim]

My male was much faster developing then my female.
Could be because he was around to keep her in check?

Its fascinating to see some of the changes in her as she matures. She is starting to look more muscular and seems to understand what I want much quicker. Or maybe I am just communicating better....

[Jag]

great question. I would like to hear more responses!

[DeDe]

I've found that my females develop quicker than the males.
My Cutter, Jotunheim's Draupner, didn't fully mature till he was over 5 years. This was in body and mentality.
My females are normally done with their maturity by 3 or 4.

I have found that the more I work them, individually, the more I am aware of the little, subtle differences.

Then there are those few that NEVER seem to grow up! UGHH!

[LRadcliffe]

My females have always matured younger than my males, emotionally. they have been more serious younger and their personalities seem to stay fairly the same. My 3 year old female now became very beautiful at the age of 2 though. I have had 4 males and they all formed a intence bond from puppies and stay more focused during training. Their personalities changed more in adolescence. By 2 years all became very masculine and filled out. My 11 month old at the moment is very tall and athletic, he may take longer to fill out we will see. Both sexes stay very playful into old age!! which is one of the reasons I fell in love with the breed, they are so fun to live with!!!