Labrador Encyclopaedia

Your dog will never grow up, it's a Labrador. The Labrador Encyclopaedia is dedicated to the canine breed that, within one hundred years of its first official appearance, has become one of the world's two most popular breeds. It marks without doubt a fundamental advance in our knowledge of the Labrador Retriever, incorporating and detailing the full scope of its specific biological characteristics. Docile and resilient, endearing and intelligent, loyal, but also most roguish, the Labrador certainly deserves its own book. Indeed, on its hundredth anniversary it deserves the most comprehensive volume yet, packed with the knowledge humankind has accumulated on it. Although a very recent one, the history of the Labrador abounds in a richness perhaps only truly known in dog fancy circles. So it is unlikely that any one book can be exhaustive on a global scale. That said, while it is profusely idiosyncratic, the biology of the Labrador is becoming increasingly clear. Veterinary research is adding to our knowledge day after day, as the limits of our understanding are pushed back unremittingly, especially in those areas that affect the breed:

• a natural predisposition to corpulence that every Labrador owner knows is difficult to manage and fraught with harmful circumstances
• an osteoarticular system under great daily stress
• an extraordinary visual acuity that should be protected
• a coat of unique structure

To this we add the aptitudes of extraordinary intelligence and a no less exceptional sense of smell. No surprise then, in the fledgling years of the third millennium, that the Labrador is humankind's favoured assistant, helping people with a disability, sniffing out drugs and explosives and saving human lives in the most dangerous of conditions. Every day humans learn a little more about the Labrador. As a result we are able to improve screening, prevention and protection, in terms of nutrition, environment and behaviour, which help extend the life expectancy of this so endearing of breeds.