Your Purebred Puppy, Honest Advice About Dogs and Dog Breeds

Sensible advice for raising your Labrador Retriever puppy so he lives a long healthy life and seldom needs to visit the vet. Learn about the most common health problems and issues in Labrador Retrievers, the best dog food diet for feeding Labrador Retriever puppies and adult dogs, the truth about vaccinations, spaying and neutering, and natural health care.

How To Raise a Healthy Dog

The Best Dog Food For Feeding Your Labrador Retriever

The Second-Best Dog Food

Vaccinations and Booster Shots: Are They Needed?

The Type of Veterinarian I Recommend

Spaying and Neutering: Pros and Cons


11 Things You Must Do Right To Keep Your Dog Healthy and Happy, my best-selling dog health book

Labrador Retriever dog breed

Labrador Retriever Health Problems and Raising a Labrador Retriever Puppy to be Healthy

By Michele Welton. Copyright © 2000-2011

How To Raise a Healthy Dog
Feeding the Best Dog Foods
Vaccinations: Needed or Not?
Spaying and Neutering: Pros and Cons

The most common health problems in Labrador Retrievers:

Orthopedic problems are very common, with Labrador Retrievers suffering high rates of hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, and luxating patella.

  • Between 1974 and 2005, the Orthopedic Foundation of America evaluated the hip X-rays of 176,000 Labs and found 12 dysplastic. Compare that to the Flat-Coated Retriever, who has a hip dysplasia rate of 4%.
  • Similarly, the elbow X-rays of 33,000 Labrador Retrievers were evaluated and 11.5% were dysplastic. Compare that to the Flat-Coat at 1.5%
  • Luxating patella was evaluated at 18% – the 5th worst rate of 57 breeds.

Other orthopedic health problems in Labrador Retrievers include osteochondritis, panosteitis, cruciate ligament rupture, wobbler's syndrome, and hypertrophic osteodystrophy.

Eye diseases are common in Labradors, as well:

  • Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) appears at 4-8 years old and leads to blindness.
  • Cataracts can appear anytime from birth to old age.
  • Retinal dysplasia is very common in Labrador puppies, especially from field-hunting lines – it ranges from mild to severe and can be accompanied by a form of dwarfism in which the front legs are shortened and bowed out at the elbows.
  • Eyelid abnormalities include entropion and ectropion.

Heart disease (tricuspid valve dysplasia) and epilepsy have become serious concerns in Labrador Retrievers.

Tumors and cancers (especially mast cell tumors, melanoma, histiocytic sarcoma, digital squamous cell carcinoma) are increasing in the breed.

As with all deep-chested breeds, Labs are at higher-than-normal risk for the emergency gastrointestinal syndrome called bloat.

Skin problems are common, especially allergies, which cause itchy skin and often lead to bacterial skin infections (pyoderma). Other skin diseases include seborrhea, lick granuloma, and nail bed disease.

Hormonal/endocrine system diseases occur in Labs, especially hypothyroidism, but also diabetes and Addison's disease.

Blood-clotting diseases (von Willebrand's, hemophilia A, hemophilia B) are potential concerns in the breed.

A number of neurological/neuromuscular diseases affect Labrador Retrievers, including polyneuropathy (specifically centronuclear myopathy), laryngeal paralysis, megaesophagus, myasthenia gravis, cerebellar ataxia, narcolepsy, and also vague head tremors that may be the result of unknown abnormalities in the brain.

In field/hunting lines, exercise-induced weakness is an odd disease in which young adult Labs (7-24 months old) who have been vigorously exercising suddenly begin swaying, collapse, and require a rest before they can move again.


You probably want to know if you can prevent those health issues from happening to YOUR Labrador Retriever.

Yes, often you can.

  1. Some health problems are genetic, which means inherited from parents. Genetic health issues are common in Labrador Retrievers today because of unwise breeding practices. My book, Dog Quest: Find The Dog Of Your Dreams, shows you how to find a Labrador Retriever puppy who is genetically healthy.
  2. Other health problems are environmental, which means they're caused by the way you raise your dog. My best-selling dog health book, 11 Things You Must Do Right To Keep Your Dog Healthy and Happy shows you how to prevent environmental health problems by raising your Labrador Retriever puppy (or adult dog) in all the right ways.

Here are my dog health tips for raising a healthy Labrador Retriever puppy or adult dog:

Obedience instructor and author Michele Welton How To Raise a Healthy Dog – My Philosophies
Read my advice on sensible feeding and health care so that your Labrador Retriever lives a long, healthy life and seldom needs to see the vet. An excellent goal, yes?


Real homemade dog food The Best Dog Food For Feeding Your Labrador Retriever
The best diet for feeding your Labrador Retriever is real food. Real chicken, turkey, beef, bison, venison, fish....This is not "people food" and I'll tell you why.


Natural dog foods for your Labrador Retriever. The Second-Best Dog Food For Your Labrador Retriever
If you can't (or won't) feed what your Labrador really needs, the best I can do is to point out what to look for – and look out for – when choosing a brand of kibble or canned dog food.


Information on booster shots for your Labrador Retriever. Vaccinations and Booster Shots: Needed or Not?
How many vaccinations does your Labrador Retriever puppy really need? Does your adult Lab need yearly booster shots? The vaccination guidelines have changed. Find out what some vets aren't telling you....


Information on choosing the best vet for your Labrador Retriever. The Type of Veterinarian I Recommend
Does your vet belong to the AVMA or the AHVMA? They're not the same at all, and which one you choose will make a world of difference to the future health of your Labrador Retriever.


Information on spaying or neutering your Labrador Retriever. Spaying and Neutering: Pros and Cons
Advantages and disadvantages of spaying your female Labrador Retriever or neutering your male.