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Flat-Coated Retriever — BetterBred Breed Page – BetterBred.com
BetterBred Breed Profile

Flat-Coated Retriever

Temperament: Happy, confident, intelligent. Active working dog. Good with children and dogs. Sheds seasonally and needs occasional grooming. Highly biddable.
Height: 23-24.5 inches (male), 22-23.5 inches (female)
Weight: 60-70 pounds
Life Span: 8 - 10 years
Outlier Index ?
0.24
Born before 2016: 0.25 Born after 2024: 0.18
Avg Genetic Rel. ?
0.00
Born before 2016: -0.01 Born after 2024: 0.02
Internal Relatedness ?
0.01
Born before 2016: 0.02 Born after 2024: 0.14
Flat-Coated Retriever
#NameGender OIAGRIR
1 Blacfriar Aurora's Spirit Over Otter Cliffs F 0.41 -0.08 -0.06
2 Northwood's Cheeseburger In Paradise M 0.23 -0.07 0.25
3 CGH AM GCH Knightcastle Black Tie Affair M 0.27 -0.05 -0.08
4 Dare's Sail on Sailor M 0.22 0.02 -0.06
5 Blixthalka's Exploration Series F 0.24 -0.01 0.09
6 RUSH's Yet Again At Wynflat M 0.21 -0.06 0.22
7 Banquo Alley Cat Blues at Shalyn F 0.32 0.01 -0.17
8 Shalyn's Ice To Meet You M 0.15 0.09 -0.02
9 Almanza Color Me Happy at Bristol F 0.20 0.01 0.14
10 Bristol's Point Break at Sunset M 0.30 -0.01 -0.11
Flat coated retrievers were developed in the UK to be hunting bird dogs from ancestors imported from North America like the St. John’s water dog and the Newfoundland. Founders also included collie-like dogs and Setters. The breed was officially recognized in 1915. Only a small number of dogs existed after World War II, but careful management by breeders brought their numbers back up. This suggests evidence of at least one bottleneck in the population.
Breed Specific Diseases: Hemangiosarcoma, Lymphoma, Osteosarcoma and other cancers
The population of 190 Flat-Coated Retrievers first tested had an average number of alleles of 5.182. This number is low compared to other breeds that have been tested, once again confirming that there is a low level of genome wide genetic diversity in the breed. The mean effective alleles per locus were 2.592, also one of the lower effective allele values that we have observed. However, the distance between the average and effective alleles shows the breed community has done a reasonably good job of retaining what diversity exists. Flat Coated Retrievers have only a comparatively small portion of the diversity that exists today in modern village dogs, evidence of one or more genetic bottlenecks in the breed. One half of Flat Coated Retrievers, when assessed with village dogs, had IR values that ranged from +0.304 to +0.633. Since the average IR of offspring of full siblings is 0.25, that means that half of Flat Coats when compared to village dogs are more inbred than dogs whose parents are full siblings. This highlights the necessity for Flat Coated Retriever breeders to be very careful to avoid further overall inbreeding which leads to further loss of diversity.

Average metrics by birth year for dogs with recorded birthdates in the BetterBred database.

A 3D genetic map of enrolled Flat-Coated Retriever dogs in the BetterBred database, based on allele-sharing distance across 33 STR loci. This is not a complete picture of the breed — it reflects only dogs whose owners have enrolled them. Drag to rotate · scroll to zoom · hover for dog names (public profiles only).

Historical founders — oldest 25% of enrolled dogs     Current gene pool — most recent 50% of enrolled dogs
Building plot… this may take a minute for larger breeds.

The Dog Leukocyte Antigen (DLA) region controls immune function and is the most polymorphic portion of the canine genome. Every dog carries two sets of DLA haplotypes — one from each parent — which almost never recombine across generations. Frequency percentages reflect how often each haplotype appears across all allele copies in the breed, not the percentage of dogs carrying it.

Class I Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
1017
43.4%
1068
29.8%
1142
14.2%
1054
11.0%
1035
0.6%
1199
0.4%
1143
0.4%
1092
0.1%
1033
0.1%
1171
0.1%
1055
0.1%

Class II Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
2005
40.6%
2053
15.6%
2003
15.0%
2018
14.2%
2022
11.5%
2014
2.8%
2083
0.1%
2066
0.1%

Class I & II Combinations

Class IClass IIFrequency
1017 2005
40.7%
1068 2053
15.1%
1068 2003
14.6%
1142 2018
14.0%
1054 2022
10.9%
1017 2014
2.8%
1035 2022
0.6%
1199 2003
0.4%
1143 2053
0.4%
1068 2018
0.2%
1092 2053
0.1%
1142 2083
0.1%
1055 2018
0.1%
1142 2005
0.1%
1054 2066
0.1%
1054 2053
0.1%
1171 2022
0.1%
1033 2003
0.1%
https://fcrsa.org/cancer-research-studies/
https://fcrsa.org/

The Canine Diversity Test from UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory is the foundation of BetterBred’s breed management tools. Testing your dog adds to the breed database and gives you access to the full suite of breeding analysis tools.

Order from UC Davis VGL →
Blazingstar Flat-Coated Retrievers
Alberta, CA
Visit Website →
Eagletarn Flat-Coated Retrievers
British Columbia, CA
Visit Website →
Radford Retrievers
British Columbia, CA
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Duenorth Flat-Coated Retrievers
Ontario, CA
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Highpoint flatcoated retrievers
British Columbia, Canada
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RUSH Reg’d Retrievers
Ontario, Canada
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Light-Foot
New Jersey, United States
Sanderling Flat-Coated Retrievers
California, US
Visit Website →
Wind Dancer Flat-coated Retrievers
California, US
Kingsbridge Flat-Coated Retrievers
Illinois, US
Visit Website →
Kistryl Flat-Coated Retrievers
Illinois, US
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Krieger's Ridge Kennels
Wisconsin, US
Visit Website →
Orenda Flat Coated Retrievers
Wisconsin, US
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OI
Outlier Index

The Outlier Index (OI) measures how unusual a dog’s allele combination is relative to the tested population of its breed. A higher OI means the dog carries alleles at lower frequencies across the breed — genetic variants that are underrepresented in the population as a whole.

Dogs with high OI are genetically valuable because they carry diversity that most other tested dogs don’t share. Breeding them thoughtfully into the broader population helps redistribute lower-frequency alleles rather than allowing them to become even rarer over generations.

The breed average shown here reflects all dogs tested in the BetterBred database. The senior and youngster comparisons show whether diversity is trending up or down in recent generations.
AGR
Average Genetic Relatedness

Average Genetic Relatedness (AGR) measures how similar a dog’s DNA is, on average, to every other tested dog in the breed. It reflects the dog’s mean kinship — how closely related it is to the population as a whole.

A lower AGR means the dog is more genetically distinct from the majority of the breed. Dogs with low AGR carry alleles at lower frequencies across the tested population, making them higher-priority candidates for inclusion in a well-managed breeding program.

AGR is conceptually related to mean kinship used in conservation genetics for managed species populations. A declining AGR average in younger dogs suggests the breed is successfully redistributing genetic diversity across generations.
IR
Internal Relatedness

Internal Relatedness (IR) measures how much identical genetic material an individual dog inherited from both parents. IR is a useful indicator of inbreeding: lower IR generally reflects lower inbreeding, and it is widely used and reported in the scientific literature.

A high IR is not the cause for alarm it might appear. Elevated IR can often be resolved in a single generation by pairing with a dog whose ancestry is less represented in the breed. It is a signpost, not a sentence.

BetterBred reports IR for reference, but it is not our primary breeding guidance tool. OI and AGR together give a more complete and actionable picture of a dog’s genetic value to the population.

AGR tells you which dogs are genetically unusual relative to the population. OI tells you which dogs are most valuable to preserve. OI specifically weights mid-frequency alleles, identifying dogs whose ancestry is underrepresented in a way most likely to benefit the breed.