Bernedoodle Size: Standard, Medium, Mini and Micro Mini

Are you thinking about getting a Bernedoodle, but you are not sure which size you should get?

Or, maybe you already have a Bernedoodle puppy and you want to know how big your puppy will be when they are full grown? Wondering when your Bernedoodle will stop growing?

Join us as we look to answer all of these questions and more.

In this post we will go over:

• Bernedoodle sizes – did you know they now come in four sizes?
• What affects the growth of your dog
• Bernedoodle Sizes: What breeders say vs what Bernedoodle owners experience?
• When you can expect your Bernedoodle to stop growing
• Ways to estimate how big your Bernedoodle will be when fully grown
• Which is bigger; a Bernedoodle or a Goldendoodle?
• What to expect once your Bernedoodle is Full Grown

Bernedoodle Sizes

What size do Bernedoodles come in?

If you are new to the Bernedoodle world, you may not know that Bernadoodles come in a variety of sizes. The most common size categories are Standard, Medium, Mini and Micro Mini (aka tiny or toy).

It’s important to note that the Bernedoodle does not have a breed standard. Breed standards are documents that layout what a dog should look like, including an acceptable size range. Good breeders stride to meet the breed standard when developing their breeding program.

But, since the Bernadoodle does not have a breed standard, there is no one size range that all breeders agree on or follow. This means the size of a mini or micro-mini Bernadoodle can vary from one breeder to the next.

Our Bernedoodle size chart listed below is a compilation of both multiple breeder and owner recorded sizes and what they believe are the range categories they fit into. As you can see the ranges, with the exception of the micro-mini, is fairly wide.

These size ranges are only a rough estimate of what you can expect your Bernadoodle to grow to, based on the category you are told they fall into. There are many factors that go into the actual adult size of your dog. Some factors can be controlled by you but most are determined by genetics.

Let’s take a look at what affects a dog’s growth and ultimately their adult size.

5 Factors that can affect an adult Bernedoodle’s size

1. Breed

When two dogs from the same breed are mated, you pretty much know what you can expect when it comes to their looks and size. There may be small differences, but most will fall within the predicted size range and look similar.

But as we all know, part of the charm of getting a cross-breed is that they are a wonderful blend of two very different breeds. We don’t know which genes will be passed down to the offspring.

However, there are still some hints about their future size that we can take from the dog’s breed.

We know that the Standard Poodle falls in the large dog category and the Bernese Mountain Dog straddles between the large and giant dogs’ categories.

This means a standard Bernedoodle will be a large dog. Though, they may be smaller than a Bernese since the standard poodle is on the lower end of the height and weight chart for large dogs.

We also know that if you mate a Bernese with a mini poodle, the size will be smaller than a Bernese but much larger than a mini poodle. Which brings us to the next factor we need to look at.

2. Size of the Bernedoodle parents

A dog’s breed gives us hints about what size range we can expect, but the actual size of the Bernadoodle when they are fully grown is directly influenced by the size of their parents.

How the F1 Bernedoodle Sizes are bred:

• Standard Bernedoodle: A Bernese Mountain Dog is bred to a standard Poodle
• Medium Bernedoodle: A smaller Bernese Mountain Dog is bred to Moyen (medium) sized Poodle. A Moyen Poodle is the size between a Standard and mini poodle.
• Mini Bernedoodle: A smaller Bernese Mountain Dog is bred with a mini poodle.
• Micro Mini: A smaller Bernese Mountain Dog is bred with a toy poodle.

But, just looking at the parents is not enough to guess the size of your future pup. It’s important to go back at least two more generations to get an accurate prediction of size. This means knowing the size of the grandparents and great grandparents.

If the parents, grandparents and great grandparents are all medium sized dogs there is a very good chance that the puppies will grow to be medium sized dogs as well.

But, if there are large variations in sizes, it’s much harder to predict the size of the offspring.

As an example, let’s look at the F1b mini Bernedoodle.

In our example, the parents are a F1 Bernadoodle and a mini Poodle. This means that one grandparent is a full-sized Bernese Mountain Dog and the other three are mini Poodles. Although the F1 Bernedoodle will most likely be smaller than a Bernese, they still carry and can pass on the “tall” genes from the grandparent that was a full-sized Bernese Mountain dog.

This means at least some of the mini puppies will be larger than expected.

3. Gender

Gender also affects the adult size of a Bernadoodle. On average, males are about 10% bigger in overall size than females.

4. Bernedoodle Generation

Another big factor in the Bernedoodle’s size is their doodle generation. A doodles generation indicates how they were bred.

A first generation or F1 Berndoodle is created by mating a Bernese Mountain Dog with a Poodle. A second generation Bernidoodle, can be a F1B or F2.

An F1B Berniedoodle is the off-spring from a Bernidoodle that was mated with either a poodle or Bernese. An F2 Bernidoodle is two F1 Berndoodles mated together.

While these second-generation pairings will not have much effect on the size of a standard Berniedoodle, it will have an impact on the smaller sized Bernedoodles, like the mini and micro-mini Bernedoodles.

Why you may ask? Let’s take the mini Bernedoodle as an example.

If you cross a Bernese with a mini poodle, you will get a large variety of sizes in the litter. This is caused by some of the puppies inheriting the larger size from the Bernese and some taking after the mini poodle.

If you now take one of the smaller F1 mini Bernedoodles from this litter and mate them with a mini poodle, the puppies will again inherit traits from both dogs. However, the genetic make-up of the offspring is now approximately, 25% Bernese and 75% mini poodle, giving them a much greater chance of inheriting the genes to be smaller.

5. Nutrition

Nutrition is another important factor in how large a dog will grow. A puppy that recieves proper nutrition in terms of calories, vitamins and minerals will grow larger than a puppy that lacks proper nutrition.

But it’s important not to let your puppy eat too much and become overweight. Extra weight adds stress to growing bones and can lead to problems later in life.

How does real life compare to the Breeder’s Bernedoodle Size Categories?

According to the Bernedoodle breeders we looked at, the Bernedoodle’s adult size should fall between 70 to 100 pounds.

But, after hearing from some Bernedoodle owners that their dogs did not match the size range they were told, we decided to see if these were just one-off cases or if it was something that was common with the Bernedoodle.

To find out we took a look at the actual weights of Bernedoodle puppies reported by Bernedoodle owners.

As you can see by the chart below there is a wide size range in each age group that was reported, even when they Bernedoodles were fully grown

Standard Bernedoodle’s Weight Chart

This chart shows the weight range for Bernedoodle puppies at a specific age shown in weeks. The chart was created using real data that was self-reported by real Bernedoodle owners.

Mini Bernedoodle’s Weight Chart

According to mini Bernedoodle breeders, the Mini Bernedoodle’s adult weight should be between 25 and 45 pounds.

Again, we put it to the test against the weights of real Mini Bernedoodles. As you can see by the chart below there is again a wide range in each age group that was reported. Some “mini” Bernedoodles turned out to be large dogs and some fell in the micro-mini size range.

Mini Bernedoodle – Weight Range Chart

This chart shows the weights of Mini Bernedoodle puppies at a specific age shown in weeks. The chart was created using real data that was self-reported by Mini Bernedoodle owners.

When Does a Bernedoodle Stop Growing?

As you can see by the chart below the adult size of your dog will have a lot to do with when they stop growing. Large breeds like the Bernese and Standard Poodle take longer to grow than smaller ones. Regardless of their size all dogs will reach their full height long before they reach their adult weight.

When does a Standard Bernedoodle stop growing?

A standard sized Bernedoodle will stop growing in height at around 18 months old. They will reach their adult weight sometime between 2 and 3 years.

When does a Mini Bernedoodle stop growing?

Again, looking at the chart above we can see that it takes a mini poodle half the time to fully grow than it does for a Standard poodle. This makes figuring out how long it will take a mini Bernedoodle to grow a bit harder.

To find the answer we turned to people who own mini Bernedoodles. Based on their self-reported data we found that on average mini Bernedoodles stopped growing by 12 months of age. Most started to slow down around 10 months. But remember since the mini Bernedoodle is a mix, each dog may have a different time frame to stop growing.

How to Determine the Adult Size of a Bernedoodle?

1. Bernedoodle Size Category

The most obvious place to go to determine how big your full-grown Bernedoodle puppy will be, is the size category the breeder was aiming for. While not always perfect, a knowledgeable, experienced breeder will know how to properly breed dogs to get the desired size range.

However, this method falls apart when the breeder is not knowledgeable and is only trying to sell you a dog. This is when you end up with a dog that is outside of the range you were looking for.

Remember to educate yourself so you can ask the right questions when interviewing a potential breeder and only buy directly from a Breeder.

2. Divide by 2

I have heard some breeders say to add up the weight of the parents and divide it by two to estimate the size of the puppies when full grown.

Genetics do not work this way. Not only do puppies inherit physical traits from their parents, they can also inherit traits from their grandparents, great grandparents and so on.

This means that even if the parents are close in size, if they have larger or smaller ancestors, you will get a lot of variation of sizes in the same litter.

3. Ask about previous litters from the same pairing

A good breeder will keep in touch with the previous puppy’s families to know how big the earlier litters have grown. This should allow them to predict the size of future litters with some accuracy.

Though, this is not 100 percent foolproof. Puppies can inherit unseen traits that are not visible in recent past generations.

4. Use a simple calculation

Another common way is to use this simple calculation:

• For larger dogs like the standard Bernadoodle you double their weight at 16 weeks and add 5 pounds.
• For smaller dogs like the micro mine you just double their weight at 16 weeks, but don’t add the extra weight.

We used this simple calculation with a group of full grown cavapoos and found that the calculation was fairly accurate for the toy Cavapoos and only slightly off for Mini Cavapoos. But the overall sampling was small.

5. Weight Calculators

This is similar to the calculation above but instead of you doing the math, they do it for you. Most will ask for your puppy’s age and current weight. They are only semi-accurate because most do not ask if the dog is a large or small breed.

6. DNA tests

DNA tests look for genetic indicators to tell whether your dog will be a large or small dog. There is still a lot of research that needs to be done before they are completely accurate. One Goldendoodle owner reported that a DNA test predicted that her dog would be twice the weight she ultimately ended up being.

Which is bigger: a Bernedoodle or a Goldendoodle?

If you are still trying to decide if you want a Bernedoodle, you might be wondering how a Bernedoodle compares in size to a Goldendoodle. So, to make it easier for you we created a chart.

As you can see by the chart below the Bernedoodle is overall bigger than the Goldendoodle in every size range.

What to expect once your Bernedoodle is Full Grown

When a Bernedoodle is full grown it is not just their size that changes, but also their energy level. At around 2 years old your Bernedoodle will start to slow down. Now that doesn’t mean they no longer need exercise and play time. It’s just that they will lose some of their puppy energy.

Tell us which size Bernedoodle you chose and how big did they get?

Bernedoodle Full Grown Resources

• Bernese Mountain Dog Puppy Growth