The Havanese Club of America is funding a study of the relationship of chondrodysplasia to cholesterol. CD is a problem in the breed. There are lots of articles about it on the internet. I don't know if that's what you are looking for, but it's interesting.
What constitutes a "dwarf"...it it a certain height or how do you know when your "little" lab is a dwarf or just small. Pictures anywhere we could view? TIA
I have never seen a dwarf puppy in person, but it is my understanding that there is always some limb deformity as well as the smaller size. Here is a link to several sites including some photos of dwarf PBGV puppies where you can see the deformities of the limbs.
http://www.pbgvfoundation.org/Pages/research/skeletal_dys.html
http://www.amchessieclub.org/dwarfism.html
http://www.dogstuff.info/dwarfism_lanting.html
There seems to be different causes in some of the affected breeds. A friend of mine used to have field trial labs and she had a litter of dwarf puppies. She said they were normal looking at birth, but by 5 weeks they looked 'different'. They also became blind by about 3-4 months of age. She said in her research that dwarfism in Labs, blindness was associated with the dwarfism. To my knowledge the dwarf PBGV puppies are still living and are now over a yr old. At last word from their owner, they are were not having any other associated health problems.
Julia
Dwarfism in Labs is related to retinal dysplsia/folds. The skeletal defects show up in varying degrees. A friend has had 2 dwarfs several years apart. When the second one was about 5 days old she called me and asked if dogs had Down's Syndrome. It turned out that pup was a dwarf. He was donated for research. Now days the researchers only need a picture, pedigree and blood.
