Anyone know? Is it dominant? Recessive? Polygenic?

Here is the scoop...had a litter out of my girl by a poplular sire. The entire litter has allergies in one form or another. I kept two gorgeous show prospects and both have constant ear issues and skin irritation. Littermates are reporting the same.

This was my girl's third and final litter. First two litters did not produce any allergies. First litter was a linebreeding and the other two breedings were outcrosses.

This is my third generation on the bitch side and have not dealt with this before. My two keepers that are affected are going to be spayed/neutered as I do not want to perpetuate this. Both are specialty class winners.

I don't think that is known. I have read that heritability for atopy is about 40% in Labs, heritability = The proportion of phenotypic variance that is due to genetic factors. That would be higher heritability than hip dysplasia according to the book it was in. I think that figure came from the book "Breed predispositions to disease in dogs and cats" 1st Ed. by Alex Gough.

I'm interested to know the colors of the sire, dam, allergy puppies and non-allergy puppies? It always seems to me that yellows are more likely than blacks to have allergies.

I apologize for my delay. Thank you for the information.

With regard to your questions....both sire and dam are dominant black. The dam, her dam and her sire (I own all three) have never shown symptoms of allergies nor have they produced any that I am aware of.

This litter of 5 all have shown symptoms of allergies. Chronic ear issues, itchy skin, red/watery eyes during high pollen. The puppies are about 13 mos old. I suppose this will only get worse with age??

It seems really odd to me that an entire litter would have allergies. Sounds more like undetected mange or lice that was never treated with Revolution or Lime Sulfur Dip. Mom's can be stressed and puppies often share in the environment of trying to recover from the stress of whelping. Vets often miss this possibility and then the dog is treated to a lifetime of medications, diets and other precautions that wouldn't have been necessary in the first place.

Well..since these allergies did not develop until this summer when the pups were almost a year old and all in different homes...I really doubt your theory. Plus it is not all skin...alot of ear infections, a couple with red eyes.