Mary Allen
The median life expectancy of chocolate Labradors is almost a year and a half less than that of their black and yellow counterparts.
The Labrador Retriever is the most popular dog breed in Great Britain and the USA. In Germany, the floppy ears are number 4 in the VDH puppy statistics (2017). Almost a quarter of the dogs in this breed have chocolate or liver-colored coat. In a VetCompassTM study of over 33,000 British Labradors, it was surprisingly found that chocolate Labs live a median of just 10.7 years, compared to 12.1 years for black and yellow Labs.
Labrador Retrievers are considered the epitome of the friendly but also active dog. Researchers have now made a bitter discovery about their lifespan. Chocolate-colored animals, therefore, live shorter lives than other colored ones.
Chocolate Lab: higher susceptibility to disease
It’s different with chocolate Labrador Retrievers. According to McGreevy’s research team, their lower average life expectancy is a consequence of their generally higher susceptibility to disease. The researchers write in the journal “Canine Genetics and Epidemiology” that chocolate-colored Labrador Retriever dogs have a higher risk of developing ear infections or skin diseases.
Chocolate Lab: Otitis and skin problems
VetCompassTM is a project of the Royal Veterinary College in London and the University of Sydney. The scientists collect and analyze data from the practice software of British veterinarians. In this way, studies can be carried out with an enormous number of subjects.
In addition to life expectancy, the Labrador study dealt with the prevalence of diseases. At over ten percent, ear infections were the most common reason for presentations in Labradors. Here, too, the animals with brown fur were overrepresented: almost a quarter suffered from ear infections, and skin diseases also occurred more frequently. The health problems are probably an unconscious consequence of selection for the recessively inherited brown color during breeding.
Obesity and osteoarthritis – Chocolate Labrador Retriever
The breed as a whole struggles with obesity, with nearly nine percent suffering from obesity and over five percent from osteoarthritis. The most common cause of death was musculoskeletal disorders, from which almost a quarter of the animals examined died.
What’s the oldest age a chocolate lab has lived?
On average, Labrador Retrievers live 10-12 years. The oldest Labrador to ever exist was named Adjutant. He lived to be 27 years old and was far from the oldest dog in the world!
They are considered good-natured, friendly, and outgoing – Labrador Retrievers. The dog breed, which was originally bred for hunting, is also extremely versatile when it comes to looks: they are available in black, light cream, fox red, or chocolate. One might think that it is only a matter of appearance, which at best says something about the dog owner’s visual preferences. Not even close.
Color Indicates life expectancy – English chocolate lab
As a current study shows, the color of a Labrador Retriever can also be an indication of how long the dog and owner are allowed to roam through the woods and fields together – whereby the weak point is by no means the owner, but the dog.
An international research team headed by Paul McGreevy from the University of Sydney has shown that chocolate-colored Labradors, with an average age of 10.7 years, live almost a year and a half shorter than their fellow breeds of a different color. Because they are on average 12.1 years old. If you consider that 1.5 years in this dog breed corresponds to about 20 human years, that’s quite a lot. Imagine, for example, that you have dark brown hair and, because of this external feature, you must expect to retire 20 years earlier than your blond or black-haired colleague. Sounds pretty scary, but luckily for us humans, it has no basis.
Breeding increases susceptibility – chocolate retriever
According to the researchers, this susceptibility to diseases could be increased during breeding. In order to have a chocolate Labrador, both parents must carry the gene for the color. “If the chocolate color of the litter is desired, breeders may be motivated to only allow dogs from certain breed lines to mate with each other,” the study says. The researchers warn that this could “unintentionally” increase the susceptibility to diseases in the offspring.
The director of the Institute for Animal Breeding and Heredity Research in Hanover, Ottmar Distl, also advises against breeding animals within just one color variant. In order to ensure variety and not to increase negative effects, Distl says the mixture should be “colorful and across the board”.
Data from over 33,000 Labradors
For the current study of disease susceptibility and mortality rates in Labrador Retrievers, researchers compared demographic data from over 33,000 Labradors in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. They examined data on disease and mortality from almost 2,100 randomly selected dogs. To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, the connection between color and lifespan has never been established in such a way for any other breed of dog.
Brown lab puppy: disease susceptibility of dog breeds
However, it has long been known that different dog breeds are particularly susceptible to certain clinical pictures. Shepherd dogs, for example, have a high tendency (2017: around 20 percent) to develop the hip joint incorrectly (hip dysplasia) and have a life expectancy that is below the average for all pedigree dogs. Dachshunds, on the other hand, are predestined to a special form of herniated disc, the so-called dachshund paralysis, due to their short legs and relatively long spine. Pugs, on the other hand, have major breathing problems due to their extremely short snout.