I am looking at purchasing a Labrador Retriever/English Springer Spaniel cross

Can anyone tell me if they suffer from the same problems as purebred.
ie. hip and eye problems.

Thanks

Phil

You certainly could end up with Hip Dysplasia, as this is present in most dog breeds. As regards eye problems, it all depends on whether the two breeds have the same genetic form of the eye disease. For example quite a lot of breeds suffer from PRA, but it has been found that they are caused by different genes. On the other hand the sane gene has been found to be responsible accross a number of breeds. I am not sure about other eye diseases. If both the parents lines for example had Epileptics you could get the problem, but this one is as common in crossbreeds as purebreds.

Practically speaking I think the highest health risks likely to be inherited in such a cross would be Hip trouble if both parents are poor, and of course any question marks over temperament. JMO

A very large proportion of hip problems are caused by damage rather than inherited so hips could be a problem with any dog.
As far as eyes are concerned, both Golden and Labradors share the same gene for PRA but I don’t know about Springer’s. What I will say though is, we get a fair proportion of crosses with eye problems at our testing sessions. Not as many as in pedigrees but most pedigrees are tested to find if they have a problem whereas generally crosses don’t come to testing unless their own vet has referred them because he thinks they do have a problem!

Regards John

When buying a pedigree dog you do have the knowledge that there are hereditary problems to watch out for. With crossbreds this is not the case. If you are looking for a Labrador/Springer Spaniel cross then you must expect to have to check for the hereditary problems found in both breeds. I run eye testing sessions and we have several crossbreds who come to us because their vet has suspected something is wrong. Mostly these dogs are real "muttleys" of unknown origins. Two years ago we had a labrador/golden retriever cross attending. It had two problems, one inherited from the lab parent and the other inherited from the retriever parent. If you do have a lab/springer cross then be prepared to check for hereditary problems from both parents.