Labrador Retriever: Size, Colours, Lifespan and Genetics

The Labrador Retriever is a medium-to-large, short-coated retriever descended from water dogs kept by fishermen and settlers in Newfoundland. It has been Canada's most popular breed for 32 years running, according to the Canadian Kennel Club. Labs come in black, yellow or chocolate, a choice made by just two genes, and large UK studies put their median lifespan at about 11.5 to 13 years.

At a glance

From Newfoundland to No. 1

The CKC's breed page traces the Lab to dogs taken to Newfoundland by explorers, fishermen and settlers. They went by several names, including the St. John's dog and the lesser Newfoundland, and they retrieved fish and game for the fishermen they sailed with. In the early 1800s, English sportsmen acquired some of these dogs from the fishing boats, and British breeders developed the breed by crossing in other sporting dogs, including the Flat-coated and Curly-coated Retrievers. The Kennel Club in England recognized it in 1903.

That history makes the Lab one of the breeds the CKC counts as originally Canadian, and the only one in the current top 10. Our guide to the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever covers another. The Lab still leads registrations in six of the CKC's 12 regional zones, from Newfoundland to the B.C. Interior, as our list of the most popular dog breeds in Canada shows.

Black, yellow and chocolate: two genes

A Lab's colour comes down to two genes:

• The E locus (MC1R) decides whether the coat can make dark pigment at all. Two copies of its recessive e variant limit the coat to yellow, a variant a 2000 study found in yellow Labs, Golden Retrievers and Irish Setters.
• The B locus (TYRP1) decides whether that dark pigment is black or brown. Two brown copies make a chocolate Lab; a 2002 study found that every brown dog it tested carried two brown versions of the gene.

So a black Lab has at least one E and at least one B, a chocolate Lab has at least one E and two brown b copies, and a yellow Lab has two e copies, whatever its B genes say. That's why two yellow Labs can only have yellow puppies, while two black Labs can surprise their owners with yellow or chocolate ones. Our guide to Labrador colours works through every pairing, plus fox red and "silver" Labs.

In UK veterinary records, black was the most common colour, at 44.6% of Labs, followed by yellow at 27.8% and chocolate at 23.8%, according to a 2018 study of 33,320 Labradors.

How long do Labradors live?

The largest, a 2024 study of 584,734 UK dogs, found a median of 13.1 years for Labradors, compared with 12.0 years for crossbreeds. The 2018 veterinary records study found 12.0 years, and a Kennel Club survey of owners found 138 months, about 11.5 years, while still counting the Lab among the longer-lived of the 25 breeds it compared.

In the 2018 veterinary study, chocolate Labs had a shorter median lifespan than black and yellow ones: 10.7 years, against 12.1, though only 34 chocolate Labs that died were included. Chocolate Labs also had more ear inflammation, at 23.4% compared with 12.8% of black and 17.0% of yellow Labs, and more of a type of skin infection. The study's authors suggested the shorter lifespan may reflect that heavier burden of skin and ear disease. Because chocolate is recessive, they added, breeding for it may draw on a narrower gene pool that happens to carry risk genes for those conditions. Both are hypotheses the authors said need more research, and the colour gene itself hasn't been shown to cause either problem.

The most common problems recorded in that study were ear inflammation, overweight or obesity, and joint disease. The PuppyGenes report doesn't include genetic disease or health screening, so your vet is the right person for health questions.

The appetite gene

Labs are famous for their love of food, and part of it is genetic. A 2016 study found a small deletion in the POMC gene in Labradors, carried by about 12% of the gene copies in the dogs studied, and linked it to higher body weight, more body fat and stronger food motivation. Among other breeds, it turned up only in the closely related Flat-coated Retriever.

It's one reason portion control matters so much for Labs. Our guide to whether your dog is overweight explains how to check body condition at home.

Temperament and energy

The CKC describes the Lab as gentle, intelligent and eager to please, an outgoing family dog that loves outdoor exercise, especially swimming. Labs work as guide dogs, gun dogs and police and service dogs, and they're happiest with daily exercise and something to do.

Those are breed tendencies, not promises for one dog. A 2022 study of more than 18,000 dogs found breed explains only about 9% of behavioural differences between individual dogs. Our guide to what a dog's breed means for daily care covers how to use breed context sensibly.

Lab mixes and DNA tests

"Lab mix" is one of the most common labels on shelter dogs, and often an unreliable one. Our guide to Lab mixes covers what DNA studies of shelter dogs found, and our Labradoodle guide covers the best-known Lab cross. If you're weighing a test, our guides to whether dog DNA tests are legit and dog DNA testing in Canada cover what to check before you buy.