Weimaraner

Friendly and devoted, quick to learn but strong-willed.
A Weimaraner
Photo: cadillacdeville2000
Adult male
30–40 kg
66–88 lb
Adult female
25–35 kg
55–77 lb
Lifespan
12.8 yrs
Class · Sport
also Field

What it's like

The Weimaraner's colour sets it apart: a uniform silver, mouse or roe grey with a metallic sheen, which earned it the nickname grey ghost. The coat is usually short and sleek, though a long-haired variety is recognised in Britain, and the eyes are amber or blue-grey. Puppies are born with faint tiger stripes that soon fade. In temperament it is friendly, fearless and strongly attached to its people, quick to learn but strong-willed, and alert with strangers. The photographer William Wegman helped make it widely known through portraits of his own Weimaraners.

Day to day
Activity
Needs lots of exercise
Intelligence
Needs daily brain work
Handler demand
Needs an experienced owner
With people
Affection
A lap or leaning dog
Loyalty
Sticks close to its people
Independence
Cooperative, with its own ideas
Around the home
Sensitivity
Needs a calm, predictable home
Voice
Barks to alert, then settles
Prey drive
Likely to chase small pets
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

The biggest grooming job with a Weimaraner is the nails: once they grow long, getting them back to a proper length is hard. If you can hear them tapping on a hard floor, they're overdue a trim. Bred to quarter ground all day, it needs plenty of exercise.

Size and growth

A Weimaraner is a large dog, about the weight of a grown Labrador. Males end up clearly heavier than females.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
By about 5 months, a male Weimaraner puppy is already as heavy as a grown Border Collie. They grow fastest between 3 and 4 months old. Most males grow into the size large-breed puppy foods are made for.
Fully grown
12 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight8
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
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0102030402m3m4m6m9m12m18m
Age
Male
Female
2 months
6.3–8.4 kg 13.9–18.5 lb
5.8–8.1 kg 12.8–17.9 lb
3 months
9.5–12.6 kg 20.9–27.8 lb
8.3–11.6 kg 18.3–25.6 lb
4 months
14.0–18.7 kg 30.9–41.2 lb
12.0–16.9 kg 26.5–37.3 lb
5 months
18.0–24.0 kg 39.7–52.9 lb
15.3–21.5 kg 33.7–47.4 lb
6 months
21.4–28.6 kg 47.2–63.1 lb
18.0–25.2 kg 39.7–55.6 lb
7 months
24.2–32.3 kg 53.4–71.2 lb
20.0–28.0 kg 44.1–61.7 lb
8 months
26.2–35.0 kg 57.8–77.2 lb
21.3–29.9 kg 47.0–65.9 lb
9 months
27.6–36.8 kg 60.8–81.1 lb
22.4–31.3 kg 49.4–69.0 lb
10 months
28.4–37.9 kg 62.6–83.6 lb
23.1–32.3 kg 50.9–71.2 lb
11 months
28.9–38.5 kg 63.7–84.9 lb
23.6–33.0 kg 52.0–72.8 lb
12 months
29.2–39.0 kg 64.4–86.0 lb
23.9–33.5 kg 52.7–73.9 lb
15 months
29.7–39.5 kg 65.5–87.1 lb
24.6–34.5 kg 54.2–76.1 lb

Health and lifespan

Vets record these more often in Weimaraners than in crossbreeds, and neither is rated serious. Fatty lumps (minor) are more likely, and a blood blister in the ear flap (moderate) slightly more likely. These are figures for the breed as a whole, not a prediction for your dog.
Listed by likelihood level, highest first, then by how serious it is, then by name.
  • Fatty lumps
    More likely
    Impact: minor
  • Blood blister in the ear flap
    Slightly more likely
    Impact: moderate

Lifespan

In UK vet records, the typical Weimaraner lived to about 13 years, longer than the typical large breed.

Where it comes from

The Weimaraner was kept at the Weimar court by the early 19th century, and The Kennel Club credits Grand Duke Karl August's court with developing it as the nobility's pointing dog. Before stud-book breeding began around 1890, gamekeepers and hunters in Thuringia bred it from the old leash hound crossed with pointing dogs. The Kennel Club records that its owners' club kept it exclusive, sterilising dogs in secret before selling them to non-members5,13.

The Weimaraner stayed a closely guarded German breed long after its club formed in the late nineteenth century. An American, Howard Knight, joined the club and took dogs to the United States in the late nineteen-twenties, and the breed reached Britain in the early nineteen-fifties, largely through servicemen returning from Germany. Breed histories often say it was first used on large game such as deer and boar, and that it was turned to birds as that work declined. In Britain it is classed as a hunt, point and retrieve breed, expected to search for game, hold a point and fetch what is shot, on land or from water.

Breed standard

Kennel clubs do not all register this breed the same way.

The Longhaired Weimaraner

The Longhaired Weimaraner: the FCI standard describes its coat as "soft, long topcoat"5.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Weimaraner 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 large breed is most likely at the later end.

Compare with related

Bracco Italiano
Pointing dogs · Large
Spinone Italiano
Pointing dogs · Large
Irish Setter
Pointing dogs · Large
Gordon Setter
Pointing dogs · Large
Or compare the Weimaraner with any breed you choose
Track your own Weimaraner
Log a minute a day and watch them sit on these curves. Free.

Sources

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Parts of this page were written by AI ·