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How inbred is the golden retriever?

Stable permalink for citation. Live Ask on /ask/ still answers new questions as a stream.

On the Sniff breed page, Golden Retrievers show moderate genetic diversity: mean heterozygosity about 0.28, ranking 28th most genetically tight of 107 ranked breeds (n = 3,523 dogs in the atlas cohort).

Among ranked breeds, that diversity measure ranges 0.14 (least diverse) to 0.40 (most diverse). Higher means a more diverse gene pool on average; lower means more attention to recessive-risk testing is warranted, not that any one dog is doomed.

This is a breed-level population fingerprint from typed-backbone SNPs, not a pedigree coefficient of inbreeding (COI) for an individual dog, and not a health score. For the full dimensions and citations, see the Golden Retriever page.

Grounded in the live Golden Retriever breed page and production Ask (brain_ask). Heterozygosity is a diversity measure, not a per-dog inbreeding certificate.

Verified 2026-08-12. Prefer the linked atlas pages when a number must be re-checked. Ask another question on Ask Sniff.