I was extremely interested today to meet a Labrador with Skeletal Dysplasia 2. He was a working line Labrador (SD2 is more common in working, rather than show, Labradors), and works successfully each season. He was very fast, looked fit, and his owner says he has no joint problems, or any physical problems at all. Just short legs! He looked exactly the same as the photo in this link: http://www.laboklin.co.uk/laboklin/showGeneticTest.jsp?testID=8235D Thankfully, there is a genetic test for it. I had heard of this before, but I have never actually seen it!
Have you met Sue (who trains with SWMBO)'s dog, Fleur? She has dwarfism - not sure if it's the same type.
The dog in the link looks so similar to my next door neighbour's Labrador. Chilli is the fastest, bouncy Labrador I have ever met with no health issues at all. She is incredibly strong and robust. Her short legs have never been an issue.
I just thought she was a small Labrador! I'll have a closer look - another dog that successfully works with this condition then. I'm glad there is a test, but also glad these dogs seem to be having pain free lives.
Tilly's mom had shorter than normal legs. She was a Master Hunter, but appeared to be more show than field stock. Tilly's dad was a tall American field lab and Tilly came out looking more show stock than field, although she is at the minimum height (AKC) for a female.
This is a genetic disease, not short legs in a normal range. The link I posted above traces it back to a popular sire used in 1966.
We do see the odd lab with pretty short legs. I wonder if you can tell by looking or is it just "degree of shortness" (given I wouldn't dare ask a random short lab owner if they had congenital dwarfism )
Well, you wouldn't! I hadn't really noticed anything odd about this Lab - the owner came up with 3 Labs and said Charlie was lovely and we started chatting, dogs mingling, all normal. I hadn't noticed until we got into detail about the dogs (one of her Labs was from a breeder I'm interested in so we'd started talking about conformation) then, once pointed out and I looked properly it was really striking. Charlie doesn't have super long legs, but this dog looked, well, slightly Dachshund like! Apparently, Dachshunds and the like actually breed for this condition! Arghhhh! The more I learn about pedigree dogs, the more I wonder.......
I don't know if Tilly's mom had the disease, but she was definitely short. Even though she was a pretty big dog she would have been to short for the breed standard. Her call name was Badger
Gosh,I'd never heard of it and I don't think I've ever seen a lab that looks like the one in the link ...
About four years ago, at the dog club I was training at, there was talk about all the "leggy" Labradors around, implying they were badly bred. (I never asked what was wrong with leggy Labs -- is there anything wrong with them?) A couple of years later I met a couple who proudly said their Lab was from such-n-such a breeder. That Lab had very, very short legs. Subsequently I found out that the breeder specialised in breeding short-legged Labs as they were seen as desirable. I've come across a few more very short-legged Labs on the beach and they are incredibly fit and healthy, retrieving endlessly into the deep sea. It always amazes me: that big body on short legs. One time a couple walked past me and greeted Snowie (funny how people always greet the dog but never the person!!) and made the comment: Is he short legged or normal legged? Hmmm. Let's look more closely (as they bent down to inspect as they walked past), and then proclaimed: Yes, he's short legged. (Compared to those short-legged Labs on the beach, I can say he is not. But his chunkiness does lend itself to a squat appearance rather than tall.) When I see long-legged dogs racing over the grass, I think lean body and long legs is far healthier than chunky. Poor Snowie, I am pretty sure the breeder was breeding for a big block head and a chunky body and not for athletic ability. Even though I do have preferences for aesthetics, I am far more inclined now to appreciate a healthy dog.
If you want to breed a labrador within the Deutsche Retriever Club, you have to do a genetic test for SD2, as it is quite prevalent in working line labs. Poppy turned out to be a carrier (which wouldnt have been a problem, I would just have had to mate her with a stud dog who tested clear for SD2).
