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A man who thought he had welcomed home a corgi mix quickly realized something wasn’t adding up when the puppy simply refused to stop growing.
Corgis may have a big-dog personality, but they’re known for their compact size. Depending on the breed of corgi, either Pembroke or Cardigan Welsh, these dogs typically stand from 10 to 12 inches tall and can weigh up to 38 pounds for males, the American Kennel Club says. The breed’s long association with the British royal family has made corgis one of the world’s most recognizable dogs.
Knowing this about the breed, owner Christian Joy-Ito expected his dog, Apollo, to be a small- to medium-sized companion, but then the puppy kept getting “bigger and bigger,” he shared in a July 16 Instagram video under the account @apollothecorgimute. Joy-Ito told Newsweek via email that he knew Apollo was a corgi mix when he adopted him in March 2025, but had no idea just how big he would become.
The video shows Apollo at various stages of his growth, with each clip making it increasingly clear the pup was destined to be much larger than anyone initially expected. From taking up the entire back seat of the car to being the biggest corgi at a dog race, he quickly outgrew any expectation.
“I was shocked at about 7-8 months,” Joy-Ito said. “He started to get extremely long; he was a relatively big puppy for a corgi, but he just kept growing, getting longer and longer every day and then eventually thickening out around the 1-year mark and filling out his frame.”
Apollo is now over a year old and weighs about 73 pounds. Joy-Ito said the dog is now “as long as any large dog” he encounters, including German shepherds and mastiffs. Joy-Ito calls him a “Mega Corgi.” Yet, Apollo still maintains his unmistakable short corgi legs.
Joy-Ito said Apollo is a Cardigan Welsh corgi and Alaskan malamute mix, though he suspects there could be other breeds in his ancestry as well.
Apollo’s surprising growth isn’t unusual for mixed-breed dogs, as predicting the adult size of a puppy with unknown ancestry can be a “guessing game,” because pups can inherit physical traits from any combination of their ancestors, according to the American Kennel Club.
Despite his imposing size, Apollo has remained an affectionate people-lover with the typical bright personality of a corgi.
“He really is the sweetest and most friendly dog to every person he meets,” Joy-Ito said. “He loves attention and will get it by any means.”
His unexpected size attracts attention wherever he goes. Joy-Ito said he cannot walk down the block without getting stopped by people asking about Apollo. He hears several times a week that Apollo is the cutest dog they have ever seen.
And Apollo loves the recognition, even having a signature way of greeting admirers.
“He has this little dance he does when he wants to say hi to a person, dog or just to get treats, where he stands up on his hind legs and waves his paws in the air,” Joy-Ito said. “I didn’t teach him to do that—he just randomly started doing it one day.”
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