How Big Do Maltipoos Get? Our 3-Year-Old’s Real Size, Weight, and Growth Chart
How big do maltipoos get? Most breed guides say anywhere from 5 to 20 pounds, which is a huge range when you’re trying to figure out what size bed, carrier, or harness to buy. So here’s the real answer from our house: our maltipoo is 3 and a half years old, he weighs 8.2 pounds, and he stands 12 to 13 inches tall at the shoulder.
I measured him properly this week with a tape measure and a bathroom scale, and I’m also sharing the weights I wrote down since he was 6 months old, plus photos from the day we first met him. He’s the youngest of our three dogs and the only curly coat in the house, so I put him next to our other 3-year-old boy and a tumbler for scale too.
One honest spoiler first. He turned out bigger than I expected, and he kept filling out well after his first birthday.
| Age | 3 years and 7 months (born February 2023) |
| Weight now | 8.2 lb (3.7 kg), weighed at home |
| Shoulder height | 12 to 13 inches (30.5 to 33 cm) |
| Parents | A miniature poodle and a regular-size Maltese |
| Weight at 6 months | 4.8 lb (2.2 kg) |
| Adult weight range | 8 to 8.4 lb (3.6 to 3.8 kg) since he turned 2 |
| Coat | Curly, and he barely sheds |
| Best for / Good to know | Best for people who want a small dog who sticks close to them. Good to know: ours is the first to bark at small noises, and he takes a while to warm up to new people |
How Big Do Maltipoos Get? What the Guides Say vs. Our Boy
A maltipoo is a Maltese crossed with a poodle, and the size depends a lot on which kind of poodle is in the mix. A toy poodle stands 10 inches or under, while a miniature poodle is taller than 10 inches and up to 15. Maltese dogs are small, usually under 7 pounds. So it makes sense that guides land on a wide range of about 8 to 14 inches and 5 to 20 pounds.
Ours came from a miniature poodle and a regular-size Maltese. He’s right in the middle of that range for height and on the lighter side for weight. If you’re trying to picture a full-grown maltipoo, think of a dog who weighs less than a gallon jug of water and still stands taller than you’d guess.
Our Maltipoo’s Growth Chart From 6 Months to Now
These are the weights I have for him, from the numbers I wrote down over the years and our own scale. I wish I’d written down more of them, but this is enough to show the pattern.
| Age | Weight (lb) | Weight (kg) |
|---|---|---|
| 6 months (Sep 2023) | 4.8 lb | 2.2 kg |
| 16 months (Jun 2024) | 7.2 lb | 3.3 kg |
| 2 years 10 months (Dec 2025) | 8.0 lb | 3.6 kg |
| 3 years 3 months (May 2026) | 8.4 lb | 3.8 kg |
| 3 years 7 months (Oct 2026, our scale) | 8.2 lb | 3.7 kg |
He gained 2.4 pounds between 6 and 16 months, then another pound or so over the next two years. His adult weight ended up being about 1.7 times what he weighed at 6 months. The wiggle between 8.4 and 8.2 is probably just different scales and how recently he ate, so I wouldn’t read anything into it.
Our Maltipoo’s Growth in Photos, From Puppy to Now
I don’t have a weight for every stage, but I do have photos, and honestly they show the growing up better than a chart does.
This is the day we first met him. We had gone to meet a mini goldendoodle, and only a mini goldendoodle, because we already had our Pomeranian and the plan was one new dog. Then my husband saw this little curly guy and fell for him right away. He couldn’t stop saying how much he wanted to take him home, and that’s how one puppy turned into two.
We brought both puppies home on May 16, 2023, when he was about 11 weeks old. They were so grimy after the trip that the first thing we did was put them both in the tub. That’s our maltipoo on the right, tucked in behind our mini goldendoodle, who was already the bigger one.
At about 3 months old he was small enough to be held up with one arm, and his curls were coming in fast.
By late June, at around 4 months, he and our mini goldendoodle were snuggled up together on my lap. The mini goldendoodle is on the left and our maltipoo is on the right.
Skip ahead to December 2025, when he was 2 years and 10 months old and weighed 8.0 pounds. Here he is asleep in his dog bed, wearing a hoodie. He has the same curly coat and the same dark nose as the puppy in the tub, but most of his growing was already done by then.
How I Measured Him at Home (Weight and Shoulder Height)
The easiest way I know to weigh a small dog at home is to weigh yourself first, then weigh yourself again while holding him, and subtract. You need a scale that shows tenths of a pound. That’s how I got 8.2 pounds for him. I blurred the display in the photo because my own number is staying private.
For height, I measured from the floor to the highest point of his shoulders, with him standing square on a flat floor. That’s the number most guides use, and it doesn’t include his head, which sits higher. I held a tape measure upright against him, and it read 12 to 13 inches. Fair warning that he did not want to hold still. I took nine photos to get a few good ones.
When Do Maltipoos Stop Growing?
Ours felt fully grown around age 2, and that’s when his weight stopped changing in any real way. Since then it has bounced between 8 and 8.4 pounds. Small dogs usually finish getting taller well before that, so my guess is that most of his late gain was him filling out, not getting taller. That’s just my guess, though, so ask your vet what’s normal for your dog.
Does Grooming Change How Big a Maltipoo Looks?
Yes, a lot. He looks like a different size right after the groomer than he does when his curls have grown out. The number on the scale doesn’t change, but his shape sure does. If you’re buying a harness or a jacket, try it on over the coat he’ll have most of the time, not the freshly trimmed one.
For comparison, here he is right after a professional groom this fall. Our groomer takes a photo after every appointment, which is one of my favorite little perks. It’s the same dog at the same weight, but his shape looks completely different from the grown-out coat above.
His coat is the easiest of our three to live with, because he barely sheds. It does need regular care, though. I go through what I do between salon visits in how I keep our dogs clean between grooming appointments, and I break down our daily brushing routine in how to deshed a dog at home.
How He Compares to Our Other Dogs
Our other 3-year-old boy is a mini goldendoodle, and he has his own post on how big mini goldendoodles get, with his growth photos from 14 weeks to now. They were born 24 days apart and we brought them home the same day from the same place. Here they are side by side on the play mat, so you can see the size at a glance. Our oldest, a 14-year-old Pomeranian, weighs 12 to 13 pounds, so our maltipoo is about 4 to 5 pounds lighter than her.
Living With a Maltipoo This Size
At about 8 pounds, he’s easy to pick up, and honestly he makes sure I do. He fusses until someone lifts him into the car.
The thing I didn’t expect is how much personality fits in a dog this size. He’s the loudest of our three. He’s scared of small noises, so he’s the first to bark and run toward them, and the other two follow right behind him. He’s also the most attached to us. At the dog park he’d rather sniff around alone or stay next to me than play with other dogs, and he’s very wary of strangers. Once he decides you’re his person, though, you get unlimited love.
He and our mini goldendoodle lean on each other like an old married couple. Our Pomeranian licks him all the time, and she never picks on him. He’s smart and reads the room, sometimes to the point of being a little too clever. The two of them even share like a married couple. The first time I put out lick mats, he walked away from his half-finished one and our goldendoodle cleaned it up for him. Here are the lick mat recipes we tried that night.
He’s also the most dramatic about being handled. Brushing, tooth brushing, and ear cleaning all get a performance, so I do them with a lot of kisses and a lot of “good job, handsome.” If you want to see how we handle it, here’s our ear cleaning routine and our nightly teeth brushing routine.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you’re trying to figure out how big a maltipoo gets, the most useful things you can do are to measure shoulder height with a tape measure, use the hold-and-subtract trick for weight, and write down his weight every few months starting as early as you can. And when you buy gear, size it to his coat, not just his number on the scale.
If you have a maltipoo, I’d love to know how much yours weighs and how tall yours is in the comments, because I’m curious how our boy compares. I’ll keep adding to his growth chart as he gets older. And if you want to see the other end of the age range in our house, here’s how long Pomeranians live, with our 14-year-old.
