[Gennie]

See, that's just the thing...I'm not sure I believe that even by doing nothing with the dog they would live a "full, normal" life because their bodies possibly break down sooner than a dog would otherwise. My vet agrees. Playing ball outside or going for walks certainly isn't overly stressful, though I agree that most pet owners aren't planning on working their dog hard.

That's not to say a dog that has, as you say, moderate conformation is automatically going to be healthy...since you mentioned diseases such as hip dysplasia in Goldens, Labs, etc. which is why health testing still needs to be done. However, there is no wild canine that has the structure of this dog, and I believe there is a reason for this.

[Varda]

For most people, full normal is the dog doing moderate family stuff for 12-16 years. Dogs with bad conformation do this all the time. If they had better conformation would they last longer? I kind of doubt it. Most pet owners let their dogs get badly out of shape and over weight. I think that’s vastly more harmful and life shortening. There are so many other things that can go wrong as dogs get older (injuries, chronic dieases) that shortens a dogs life.

You’re right that no wild canine has this conformation but we aren’t talking wild canines. Wild canines have conformation suited to their prey, domestic canines have conformation suited to their purpose.