We seem to do a good job with things we can test for (hips/elbows, eyes, heart, EIC, etc.). What about things we can't test for such as epilepsy and allergies? What health conditions should we be keeping an eye out for? Do we have the character to not breed, or at least to be honest and up front, with our bitches and stud dogs who have these types of issues?

For the most part I see good people acting responsibly with hard decisions. What have those of you who are more experienced learned about specific health conditions that you can pass on to more novice breeders?

Good question! IMO I believe that breeding from dogs with allergies is not good. I have had a Weimaraner bitch many years ago and she was allergic to everything! She was so bad that sadly she had to be put down at a young age.... we were at the vet's office few times a month for her steroid shots, beside that she had to be on Prednisolon which didn't work well on her temperament. She was beautiful, and did very well at shows... this just shows you that health is the most important thing! I would not wanna do this to another dog by breeding dogs that had allergies!
Thats just my opinion ;)

I had 2 separate lines with minor allergies generation after generation. Since they were minor, I would just keep trying to breed away from it. But when they kept coming, I realized they either had 1) a dominant component, 2) stud owners were not being honest, and/or that 3)allergies are more pervasive in the breed that I realized and therefore were behind everything I bred to. I ended two pretty nice lines.

I would also say allergies. Allergies aren't just allergies, they indicate immune system dysfunction. Haywire immune systems have an impact beyond allergies. Cancer is a prime example.

It would be good if more people tested for hypothyroidism. Again because it tells you about the immune system of the dog. Testing once is not necessarily enough to catch whether there is autoimmune thyroiditis, has to be multiple times between 2 and 6 years.

How about breeding for longevity in general? Difficult to do when you don't know how long a dog will live, but why keep breeding to lines that only make it to 8-10? If its a choice between using frozen semen from a dog that lived to be 8 and one that lived to be 15, how about factoring that into the decision. Flat coats are in a really sad state now, getting terminally ill at younger and younger ages, wouldn't want labs to go down that path too.

I'm not a breeder, but health impacts everybody who owns a lab, and I have owned many.