Border Terrier weight: what's normal and how much to feed

Border Terriers may be small, but finding the right amount of food isn’t as simple as matching their weight to a number on a chart. The breed standard puts males at around 6kg to 7kg and females at 5kg to 6.5kg, but your dog’s ideal weight, age, activity levels and the food you’re feeding all play a part in how much they need.

For Border Terriers eating dry food, that might mean somewhere between 85g and 140g a day, depending on their individual needs and the recipe in their bowl. If you feed wet food, or a mix of wet and dry, portions will look different, so always start with the feeding guide for the food you’re using.

The most important thing isn’t hitting an exact number on the scales. It’s keeping your Border Terrier at a healthy weight and body condition, then adjusting their portions as their needs change.

There’s no one-size-fits-all portion for every Border Terrier. Our small breed recipes are made with smaller dogs in mind, but finding the right amount for your dog means starting with the feeding guide and keeping an eye on their weight and body condition as you go.

What should a Border Terrier weigh?

The Royal Kennel Club breed standard gives separate figures by sex (The Royal Kennel Club, n.d.):

• Dogs: 6kg to 7kg, or 13lb to 15½lb

• Bitches: 5kg to 6.5kg, or 11½lb to 14lb

PDSA works to a general 5kg to 7kg for the breed (PDSA, n.d.-a), which covers both.

One thing that surprises people: the standard gives no height at all. It describes the dog by proportion and by feel rather than by measurement, which tells you something about how this breed has always been judged.

The number to feed from is your dog's ideal weight rather than what the scales say today. If your Border has drifted up, feeding from the heavier row keeps them there. Agree a target with your vet and work from that, and our guide to how much your dog should weigh covers the basics.

Why the male and female figures matter

Male and female Border Terriers have slightly different typical weight ranges, so it’s worth keeping that in mind when working out where your dog sits on a feeding guide.

Our published starting point is 100g of dry food a day for a 5.5kg Border. Scale that properly for a 7kg male and it comes out nearer 120g. An owner feeding the headline figure to a male dog at the top of the standard is running roughly a fifth short.

That isn't a flaw in the guideline so much as what happens when one average has to stand in for a breed whose own standard splits by sex. Most feeding charts, ours included, give a single figure.

None of which means you should simply feed more. It means find your dog's row rather than the breed's row, then check the result by hand over a few weeks.

Border Terrier feeding chart by weight

These are daily totals, not per-meal amounts. Divide across two meals for an adult dog. They're scaled from our published 5.5kg figures using metabolic bodyweight, which simply means energy needs rise more slowly than bodyweight does.

 

The sex labels follow the breed standard's ranges. A 6kg or 6.5kg Border could be either, which is exactly why the label matters less than the weight.

Always cross-check the feeding guide on the pack in front of you, because that one is written for that exact recipe. Recipes differ in energy density, meaning the calories packed into each gram, so a richer food needs a smaller portion for the same energy.

The span test, and why it beats the rib check

The breed standard contains its own body condition check, and it's a good one. It states that a terrier should be "capable of being spanned by both hands behind the shoulder" (The Royal Kennel Club, n.d.).

That clause isn't about looks. A working terrier follows its quarry into tight spaces, and a dog too broad through the chest simply can't do the job. It's a pass-or-fail check with a real-world reason behind it, and it's been used by terrier people for generations.

How to do it:

• Stand or kneel behind your dog while they're standing square.

• Place both hands around the ribcage just behind the shoulders.

• Bring your thumbs together on top of the spine and your middle fingers together underneath.

• If your hands meet comfortably, your dog spans.

One honest caveat. Hand size varies and so does frame, so a dog who doesn't quite span isn't automatically carrying extra. What the test is good for is tracking the same dog with the same hands over time. If your Border spanned in March and doesn't in September, that's information.

Back it up with the standard three checks, which together make up a rough body condition score, the usual way of judging how much fat a dog is carrying:

• Ribs. Feel along the sides. The ribs should be easy to find under a thin layer.

• Waist from above. There should be a narrowing behind the ribcage.

• Tuck from the side. The belly should slope up towards the back legs.

All three are harder on this breed than on most, because the standard calls for a coat "harsh and dense; with close undercoat" and states that "skin must be thick" (The Royal Kennel Club, n.d.). A dense double coat over thick skin hides a waist rather well. Hands, not eyes.

Why an hour of exercise is the floor for this breed

Feeding charts usually assume more activity than a dog actually gets. With Border Terriers it tends to run the other way

Our published figures assume "a low to moderate exercise regime, i.e. one hour a day". PDSA says a Border Terrier needs "a minimum of an hour of exercise every day" (PDSA, n.d.-a). For this breed, an hour is the floor rather than the average.

So a Border doing two hours on the hills, or working, sits above what the chart assumes. That dog may well need the upper end of their row, or more than it. A retired or less active one sits closer to the assumption.

The way to tell isn't the bag. It's the span test and the scales, checked over a few weeks. Our dog walking guide has more on building up activity sensibly.

Border Terrier puppy feeding by age

A Border puppy is fed to their expected adult weight rather than their current weight, and that expected weight differs by sex in this breed. Ask your breeder or vet which end of the range your puppy is heading for.

Our help centre asks owners of puppies under eight weeks to get in touch rather than work from a chart, which is the right call at that age.

For the gram amounts by age, our puppy feeding guide has the full small breed chart, and our puppy recipes come in a small kibble and in trays.

Weighing 100g accurately

Researchers gave 100 dog owners three common measuring devices and asked them to measure out set amounts of dry food. Individual accuracy ranged from about 48% under to 152% over, and the errors were worst on the smallest portions (Coe et al., 2019).

There's a second reason scoops struggle. Kibble density differs between recipes and between batches, so the same scoop really does hold a different weight depending on what's in it. That's how a volume measure behaves with an irregular solid.

Digital kitchen scales, weighed in grams, every meal. On 100g a day, a scoop running 20g heavy adds a fifth to what your dog eats, which is the same size as the error we've just spent a section trying to correct in the other direction.

Cramping episodes, and what the research says about diet

This one needs care, so here it is straight.

PDSA lists "Canine Epileptoid Cramping Syndrome (CECS) – tremors, muscle spasms, seizures, affecting whole or part of body" among the conditions this breed is prone to (PDSA, n.d.-a). Some owners and breeders call it Spike's disease.

Episodes typically pass on their own, and the dog stays conscious throughout, which is part of what distinguishes it from a seizure.

There's peer-reviewed work in this breed specifically. A study of six Border Terriers with confirmed CECS measured gluten-related antibodies and then trialled a gluten-free diet. All six had raised levels at the start, five showed both clinical and serological improvement over nine months, and two relapsed when gluten was accidentally reintroduced (Lowrie et al., 2015).

A later study looked across several breeds and found 14 of 31 dogs with suspected paroxysmal dyskinesia tested positive on gluten serology (Rogers et al., 2023).

Three things an owner can take from that:

• Episodes are a reason to see your vet, not to change the food. Film one if you safely can, because footage helps enormously with diagnosis.

• There's a blood test route your vet can consider, which is what both studies used.

• Any diet trial belongs inside a vet-led plan, with the diet specified and the response monitored.

Being clear about the limits here. The Border Terrier study followed six dogs, which is a small number, and neither paper tested any particular product. We make no claim that any Harringtons recipe prevents, treats, or improves this condition, and we'd never pretend to.

One point of terminology, since it causes confusion. Grain free and gluten free aren't interchangeable terms, and a clinical elimination diet is something your vet specifies rather than something to pick off a shelf. Our guide to what grain free dog food actually is explains the general terms.

Keeping a working terrier in working condition

A Border Terrier was bred to be lean enough to get through a gap. That's a useful thing to keep in mind, because a few hundred grams sits differently on a 6kg dog than most owners assume.

A couple of simple habits can help:

• Count treats inside the daily total, not on top of it. On 100g a day, a 10g treat is a tenth of the day's food.

• Keep an eye on their weight and shape. Regular weigh-ins, alongside checking their body condition, can help you spot small changes early and adjust their portions if needed.

Adjust the portion when the walking changes, which for this breed often means seasonally. A Border doing long summer days on the hills and short wet winter ones may well need two different figures.

If your vet thinks your Border needs to lose weight, that's a plan to make with them and keep reviewing, rather than something to work out alone.

This is a long-lived breed, with PDSA giving an average of over 12 years (PDSA, n.d.-a). Steady condition across that stretch matters far more than any short-term change.

Which Harringtons recipes suit a Border Terrier

We don't make a Border Terrier recipe, and we'd never pretend to. What we do make is food that suits a dog this size and this build for particular reasons.

• Small breed recipes use a smaller kibble piece. A 5kg to 7kg Border sits in the 5kg to 10kg band on the pack, and turkey and rice comes in 1kg bags that stay fresh.

• Grain free recipes use carbohydrate sources like potato in place of grains, for owners who prefer that. Described for what they are, rather than as an answer to anything clinical.

• Just 6 keeps things simple with six key ingredients, which some owners prefer for a dog with sensitivities. It comes as dry food and as 380g trays, such as the chicken with vegetables and gravy tray.

• Grain free wet trays are freshly prepared with our FreshCook® process, and suit mixed feeding or a softer texture.

None of these is better than the others. They do different jobs. Whichever you pick, take the daily amount from that pack's own feeding guide, and all our recipes are developed with veterinary and nutritionist input.

Switching your Border Terrier onto a new food

Change food gradually over seven to 10 days, mixing a little more of the new food in each day. Watch for loose stools, a drop in appetite, or a dog who seems uncomfortable, and speak to your vet if it doesn't settle.

If you're mixing in wet food, open trays go into an airtight container in the fridge and get used within two to three days, with a clean spoon each time and binned if they look or smell off. There's more in our guide to storing wet dog food after opening.

If you take one thing from this page, make it the span test. It costs nothing, it takes five seconds, and it tells you more about your Border than any chart can.