NEW STUDY SHOWS YOUR DOG'S COLOR COULD BE LINKED TO HEALTH ISSUES

The Ark Pet Spa & Hotel loves dogs of all shapes, sizes, and colors, but did you know that your dogs color may be correlated to health issues and a shorter life span? A new study from the University of Sydney indicates that chocolate labs have a 10% shorter life expectancy than their yellow and black lab counterparts. 

The University studied more than 30,000 labradors from the UK and found that the most common health issues are obesity, ear infection, and joint issues. Lead researcher Paul McGreevy, says "The relationships between coat colour and disease may reflect an inadvertent consequence of breeding certain pigmentations," he said. "Because chocolate colour is recessive in dogs, the gene for this colour must be present in both parents for their puppies to be chocolate. Breeders targeting this colour may therefore be more likely to breed only Labradors carrying the chocolate coat gene. It may be that the resulting reduced gene pool includes a higher proportion of genes conducive to ear and skin conditions."

For everyone looking to adopt a new furry friend you may want to consider color and breeding methods before making your final choice. If health is a major factor for you consider the breeds below. According to PetMD these are the healthiest dog "breeds":

• Australian Cattle Dog
  
• Foxhound
• Chihuahua
• German Shorthaired Pointer
• Mixed Breed (Mutts!)
• Havanese
• Australian Shepherd
• Labradoodle 

Click Here to read the full article from University of Sydney