Standard Schnauzer

Guards home and family keenly; can be headstrong.
A Standard Schnauzer
Photo: Standardschnauzer1
Adult weight
14–20 kg
31–44 lb
Lifespan
13 yrs
Class · Watchdog
also Sport, Family

What it's like

The breed is alert, intelligent and energetic, with a strong instinct to guard home and family. It tends to be reserved with strangers but devoted to its own people. It learns quickly, though it can be headstrong and likes to test boundaries.

Day to day
Activity
Needs lots of exercise
Intelligence
Needs daily brain work
Handler demand
Needs an experienced owner
With people
Affection
Affectionate on its own terms
Loyalty
Sticks close to its people
Independence
Cooperative, with its own ideas
Around the home
Sensitivity
Average
Voice
Barks to alert, then settles
Prey drive
Chases; needs managing
Breed explains only about 9% of how individual dogs differ in behaviour1. Meet the dog. A good breeder breeds for temperament as well as health, and matches each puppy's personality to the right home2,3.
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Living with one

It has a wire or harsh coat. Loose hair stays caught in the coat until it is brushed, stripped or clipped out. Plan on a brush once a week, plus hand-stripping two or three times a year. It needs a moderate amount of exercise compared with other breeds.

Size and growth

A Standard Schnauzer is a medium dog, about the weight of a grown Border Collie.

It is a robust, squarely built dog with a strong rectangular head, an arched neck and a short back. Its coat is harsh and wiry over a dense undercoat. The face carries the breed's trademark features: bushy eyebrows, a bristling moustache and a full beard. Coat colours are pepper and salt, in shades from dark iron-grey to silver, or pure black. In Britain, where cropping is illegal and docking largely banned, ears and tails are normally left natural.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
By about 5 months, a male Standard Schnauzer puppy is already as heavy as a grown Pug. They grow fastest between 3 and 4 months old.
Fully grown
11 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight6
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
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Age
Male
Female
2 months
3.0–4.4 kg 6.6–9.7 lb
3.4–4.8 kg 7.5–10.6 lb
3 months
4.5–6.4 kg 9.9–14.1 lb
4.8–6.8 kg 10.6–15.0 lb
4 months
6.5–9.3 kg 14.3–20.5 lb
6.8–9.7 kg 15.0–21.4 lb
5 months
8.4–12.0 kg 18.5–26.5 lb
8.6–12.3 kg 19.0–27.1 lb
6 months
10.0–14.3 kg 22.0–31.5 lb
10.1–14.4 kg 22.3–31.7 lb
7 months
11.2–16.0 kg 24.7–35.3 lb
11.2–16.0 kg 24.7–35.3 lb
8 months
12.1–17.3 kg 26.7–38.1 lb
12.0–17.1 kg 26.5–37.7 lb
9 months
12.7–18.1 kg 28.0–39.9 lb
12.5–17.9 kg 27.6–39.5 lb
10 months
13.1–18.7 kg 28.9–41.2 lb
12.9–18.5 kg 28.4–40.8 lb
11 months
13.4–19.1 kg 29.5–42.1 lb
13.2–18.9 kg 29.1–41.7 lb
12 months
13.6–19.4 kg 30.0–42.8 lb
13.4–19.1 kg 29.5–42.1 lb
15 months
13.9–19.9 kg 30.6–43.9 lb
13.8–19.7 kg 30.4–43.4 lb

Lifespan

In UK vet records, the typical Standard Schnauzer lived to about 13 years, about average for a medium breed.

Where it comes from

The Standard Schnauzer, the original of the three Schnauzers, was a stable and farm dog of southern Germany, kept among horses to kill rats and also used for herding and pulling small carts. Originally called the Wirehaired Pinscher, it took the name Schnauzer, meaning 'whiskered snout', from a dog that won the first class for the breed in 18794,8.

The Standard Schnauzer became a formal breed in the late nineteenth century, when German breeders wrote a standard for it. In the eighteen-nineties they founded a club covering both the wire-coated Schnauzer and the smooth-coated Pinscher. Similar dogs are said to appear much earlier in German art, including works by Albrecht Dürer. During the First World War it reportedly served the German army as a dispatch carrier and guard. With other breeds, it also helped create the Miniature and Giant Schnauzers.

Breed standard

The Standard Schnauzer is judged against standard no. 182, in group 2, Pinscher and Schnauzer, Molossoid and Swiss Mountain Dogs4.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Standard Schnauzer figure: most females have a first season somewhere between six and fifteen months, and cycles then settle to roughly every 180 days. Smaller breeds tend to start earlier and larger ones later, so a medium-sized breed is most likely somewhere in the middle.

Compare with related

Miniature Schnauzer
Pinschers & molossoids · Small
Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier
Terriers · Medium
Airedale Terrier
Terriers · Large
Kerry Blue Terrier
Terriers · Medium
Or compare the Standard Schnauzer with any breed you choose
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Sources

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