Labrador Retriever

(C) Hyper Paws Gaming, LLC

The Labrador Retriever is a waterdog that surprisingly originates from Newfoundland, Canada and not Labrador. This breed worked along side fisherman and retrieved ducks for hunters. They were assigned jobs on fishing boats to retrieve fish from the trawls for their fishermen masters. The beloved Lab became popular in the 1800s when English nobles came to Canada and spotted the breed. The earls and lords returned with these waterdogs and dubbed them “Labrador dogs”. It is still unclear how the breed is associated with Labrador. The dog has a thick tail known as an “otter tail” that works as a rudder and helps the dog swim and better turn in water. Temperament is a big part of the Labrador Retriever as well. The Labrador is known for their gentle demeanor, eagerness to please, and outgoing personality.  Because of their great temperament, these are ideal dogs for working as guide and rescue dogs. Many Labrador Retrievers were bred with other retrievers, but the Labradors traits stayed dominant in these interbred litters. Despite the traits remaining, anti-interbreeding laws were put into place to preserve the well-known traits of the Labrador Retriever.

## Breed In Wasabi

The Labrador Retriever was added to the Wasabi Dog Sim gameplay officially on June 12th, 2021 during pre-alpha testing as a surprise breed additional. The breed has 11 standard breed colors in the game with currently 3 color-modifying sushi colors. Within the game, the breed is considered a Sporting breed group and can thus enter competitions listed as Sporting-group only. Players voted to leave out more controversial colors in Labs like Silver and thus they were excluded in the breed release.

The Wasabi "chimera" Labrador Retriever could arguably be a somatic mutation representation as well. However, the image is loosed based off of one of the only confirmed Chimera Labs, used in the following research study here. While many people think of Chimeras as having the "half-faced" marking, this is usually caused by the merle gene in other animals, not the animal being a Chimera. Visually identifying a Chimera vs a Somatic Mutation is considered to not be possible and genetic testing would need to be completed. For the purposes of Wasabi, we assume all dogs marked Chimera would genetically represent a Chimera if genetically tested.

## Breed Stats

Each dog breed within Wasabi Dog Sim is given their own breed bonuses to their breed stats based upon realistic dog breed standards. Each breed is awarded two "High" bonus stats, two "Average" bonus stats, one "Above Average" bonus stat, and one "Low" bonus stat. This helps balance the gameplay upon the various dog breeds within the game and as helps prevent pet shop born puppies stick close to the breed standard upon entry into the game. Listed below are the bonuses awarded to this breed upon creation:

Breed Stat Bonuses
 Trainability
 Speed
 Stamina
 Strength
 Temperament

Each dog breed within Wasabi Dog Sim is also given their own socialization stat bonuses based upon realistic dog breed standards. For this category, each breed is given bonuses of three "High", three "Above Average", three "Average", and three "Low". This helps balance the gameplay upon the various dog breeds within the game and as helps prevent pet shop born puppies stick closer to the breed standard upon entry into the game. Listed below are the socialization bonuses awarded to this breed upon creation:

## Breed Colors

All colors with a \* next to their names are available in the game Pet Shop. All other colors can be achieved through breeding or use of certain sushi items.

* Albino
* Black\*
* Black and Tan
* Black with Brindle Points
* Brindle
* Chimera
* Chocolate\*
* Chocolate and Tan
* Red Fox
* Light Yellow
* Yellow\*

## Sushi Colors

* Snowshoe Hare (achieved with the Alaskan Roll)
* Tricky Batty and Batty Treat (achieved with Batty Roll)