Retrievers are known to be food-motivated dogs, but a gene mutation found in some of these pups causes them to have not only an insatiable appetite but also lower metabolism, a combination that can lead to obesity, a new study finds.
"We found that a mutation in the POMC gene seems to make dogs hungrier," Eleanor Raffan, an assistant professor in systems physiology at the University of Cambridge in the U.K., said in the statement."Affected dogs tend to overeat because they get hungry between meals more quickly than dogs without the mutation."
After the test, dogs slept in chambers that measured the gases they exhaled, as an approximate measure of their metabolic activity. This revealed that the POMC canines burned about 25% fewer calories than the other dogs when at rest.