Labrador Retriever gehören weltweit zu den beliebtesten Familienhunden. Eine kürzlich veröffentlichte Studie zeigt, dass die besonders beliebten braunen, so genannten „chocolate Labradors“ durchschnittlich eine 10% kürzere Lebenserwartung haben als ihre blonden und schwarzen Kollegen
Labradore leiden bekanntermaßen unter einer Vielzahl von Krankheiten und genetischen Prädispositionen – wer sich mit der Rasse beschäftigt, weiß von ihrer Neigung zu Hüft- und Ellbogendysplasie, Hautproblemen und Ohrenentzündungen. Laut einer Studie von 2018 sind bei Labradoren tatsächlich ganze 67 unterschiedliche Krankheiten als häufig bekannt (Gough A, Thomas A, O’Neill: Breed predispostitions to disease in dogs and Cars. West Sussesx: Wiley-Blackwell, 2018).
A total of 33,320 Labrador Retrievers were examined in Great Britain for their susceptibility to disease and their mortality rate.
Of these dogs, 15,427 (46.4%) were female and 15,252 (53.6%) were male. A larger number of females were spayed than males (59.7% versus 54.8% of all males). Adult males were significantly heavier on average (35.2 kg) than females (30.4 kg). The average life expectancy of Labradors was 12 years. The most common causes of death in Labradors are musculoskeletal disorders and cancer.
The average life expectancy of neutered Labradors was 12.5 years, longer than that of intact dogs (11.6 years).
The most common colors of the dogs studied were black (44.6%), yellow/blond (27.8%), and chocolate (23.8%). The average life expectancy of non-brown Labradors was longer (13.9 years) than that of chocolate Labradors (10.7 years).
Random surveys of 2,074 Labradors revealed that 1,277 of them (61.6%) had at least one illness: The most common illnesses were gastrointestinal problems (22.7%), osteitis externa (inflammation of the external ear canal) with a prevalence of 10.4%, dermatological problems (16.8%), musculoskeletal disorders (16.2%), and obesity (12.98%). Obesity was not statistically significant among spayed females, but was prevalent among neutered males. The incidence of osteitis externa was 12.8% in black Labradors, 17% in blond Labradors, but rose to 23.4% in chocolate Labradors. The situation was similar with purulent skin inflammations: the number was 1.1% in black Labradors, 1.6% in blond Labradors, and 4.0% in brown Labradors.
Breeding focused on color, not health.
At first glance, a dog's coat color might seem unrelated to its health; however, studies like these prove otherwise. For example, blue dogs are known to frequently suffer from alopecia, a pathological, massive hair loss often caused by a structural disorder of the hair follicles. The "merle" gene gives dogs a pale blue or pale red mottled coat and usually blue eyes, but it is also associated with high rates of blindness or deafness. The so-called "piebald" Dachshund (a form of extreme piebald spotting) or the "Dalmatian gene" causes deafness in one or both ears in many dogs. The brown coat gene in Labradors is not associated with genetic defects—the danger lies in the popularity of the color. For a very long time, brown Labradors were very rare, which is why many breeders overused their brown dogs in their breeding programs to produce more of the highly sought-after brown Labradors.
The brown coat gene in Labradors is recessive, meaning both parents must carry the brown gene. If the gene pool becomes too narrow for the sake of color, breeders risk additional complications regarding the inheritance of genetic defects and diseases. Selecting for specific coat colors or dividing the breeding population into separate color varieties almost always leads to a narrowing of the gene pool. Behavioral problems have even been linked to coat color: If dogs are primarily selected for "fashionable" colors, various factors can contribute to these dogs developing behavioral issues.
Coat color and behavior
In reality, this has nothing to do with the specific color gene. Instead, breeders produce as many puppies of certain colors as possible (for example, French Bulldogs in the fashionable colors sable, lilac, tan, and blue and tan are currently in high demand and particularly expensive, as are Chihuahuas in merle) with minimal effort: Only dogs carrying the sought-after color genes are used for breeding, without regard for minor or major illnesses, resulting in dogs with little diversity, and little or no attention paid to the health of the breeding dogs over the years and (or generations) in order to maximize profit margins. For a long time, red Cocker Spaniels were considered particularly aggressive, while black Cocker Spaniels were considered even more aggressive than their spotted counterparts. This behavioral abnormality was soon given a name: the so-called "Cocker Rage."
In fact, this "classification" overlooked two very important factors: the significance of selective breeding within the breed. Until the release of the Disney film "Lady and the Tramp," red Cocker Spaniels were very rare: the Cocker Spaniel used for hunting was more likely to be dark or roan. In the 1960s and 1970s, the popularity of red Cockers increased dramatically, and red Cockers were bred relentlessly, regardless of whether the breeding dogs were socially compatible or not. In Germany, solid red Cockers were bred separately from the parti-colored ones from the very beginning, so the gene pool was incredibly narrowed from the outset. This was compounded by the use of very few stud dogs (the so-called "popular sire effect"), which further exacerbated genetically predisposed behavioral problems.
Although the temptation is strong to see a connection between coat color and behavioral problems, this connection does not actually exist. While personality traits are naturally genetically programmed, a link to color genes has not yet been proven, even though dog trainers often report that dogs of currently fashionable colors such as merle, blue, blue-tan, or chocolate are particularly nervous or hyperactive: This is due to the often inadequate breeding of these fashionable colored dogs and the poor socialization of the puppies, nothing more.
