RE: chessie or lab?
Doc,
I have to respectfully disagree with you on the statement regarding hip dysplasia. I admit I'm biased as I raise Chesapeakes, but according to OFA statistics Chesapeakes do not have the highest rate of hip dysplasia. That"distinction"goes to Bulldogs at a whopping 73%.
Statistics can be very misleading also. OFA shows that they have evaluated 176,444 Labs and 12% were dysplastic. They've evaluated 10,465 Chessies and 21.4% were dysplastic. What would the percentages be if the numbers were swapped (if they'd evaluated 176,444 Chessies and only 10,465 Labs)? Who knows? It could prove you are absolutely correct, but it could also be just the opposite.
The other thing with hip x-rays is that only those that people feel will pass OFA are sent in. If a vet does an x-ray and it's obvious a dog has bad hips, people will not send them to OFA. Another factor to consider is how many people ever even have a dog's hips checked? The only people I know of who do it are breeders (reputable breeders, that is) or people who have a dog that is having problems running, jumping, etc. In reality a very small percentage of dogs within any breed are ever evaluated by OFA.
What is most important, regardless of what breed a person is looking at, is to look closely at the dogs in a pup's pedigree. You can go to the OFA website and look up every dog listed. I have pedigrees in front of my at this very moment of a Chesapeake sire and dam that I'm looking at to get a pup from and every dog in each pedigree going back 4 generations has OFA hip certifications.......that'sthe last 30 dogs in this pups pedigree that all have sound hips....every one. You will find this same thing with any reputable breeder, Chessie, Lab, or otherwise.