Methodology

How puggle.org actually researches and calculates the numbers on this site — as distinct from Source Standards, which covers which sources we trust and what the Verified / Estimated / No Data labels mean. This page is the "show your work" companion to that one.

How a Verified number is produced

For a purebred breed, Verified means the figure was read directly off that breed's own national kennel-club standard — for example, the American Kennel Club's official breed page — and not copied from a third-party site repeating the same number. Where a breed standard gives a range rather than a single figure (most do), we publish the full range rather than picking a midpoint, since the midpoint would imply a precision the standard doesn't actually claim.

How an Estimated number is calculated for a cross like the Puggle

No kennel club publishes a breed standard for a first-generation hybrid — there's no "Puggle standard" to read a number off. So every Estimated figure on this site (the Puggle's 15–30 lb, 10–15 in size range, its 10–15 year lifespan) is built the same way:

1. Take the Verified range for each parent breed (Beagle and Pug) from its own primary source.
2. Span from the lowest low across either parent to the highest high across either parent, rather than averaging the two midpoints.

The span (not the average) is the deliberate choice: a first-generation cross can inherit close to either parent's build, so a puppy that lands near one parent's extreme is normal, not an outlier. Averaging the two breeds together would understate how much a Puggle litter can actually vary — see why littermates can differ in size for what that looks like in practice.

This also means an Estimated range is inherently wider and less precise than a Verified one, and we say so rather than presenting the two with equal confidence — that's the entire reason the Estimated label exists as something distinct from Verified.

How we decide something is No Data

No Data is not "we didn't get around to it." It means we looked for a primary source or a reasonable parent-breed basis for an estimate and didn't find one we'd stand behind — so the field is shown as genuinely unknown rather than filled with a guess dressed up as a number.

How the "Published" and "Updated" dates work

The date shown at the top of every article is not typed in by hand — it's pulled from this site's own git history: the first commit that created a page's content is its Published date, and the most recent commit that touched it is its Updated date. If a page's content hasn't changed, its Updated date doesn't change either, even if the page around it (navigation, design) was touched.

Updates and corrections

When a published claim turns out to lack a solid source, it gets tracked as unsourced — needs review rather than quietly deleted or given a citation that doesn't actually check out — see Source Standards for how that review process works. Spotted a figure that looks off, or a source that's gone dead? Tell us via Contact — corrections are the fastest way this site's labels stay meaningful over time.