Originally Posted by hig4s

". . . Steven N. Austad, PhD, a professor and researcher on aging at the Department of Cellular and Structural Biology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, says besides looking at small dogs, people looking for the longest-lived dogs also should look at mixed breed dogs and females.
"Female dogs tend to live a bit longer, although it's not as pronounced as it is with humans," Austad says.
Many purebred dogs come with a laundry list of health issues, which can cut into their life spans. Some are specific just to one breed, others can be a problem in many breeds.
"Mutts haven't gone through the inbreeding, so they should live longer, or at least be healthier than your purebred dogs," Austad says. . . "

Perhaps if people still bred dogs for just for their original purposes, mostly hunting and working, it might be different. But most pure bred dogs today are bred for an on paper standard, which is correct only in the eyes of the of the kennel club executives that wrote it, not even necessarily in the eyes of the rest of the members of the club.

There seems to be a fair amount of contention just in the basset organizations as to whether the current conformation standard is correct or if the trend toward bigger, bulkier, and floppier has reduced their ability to do what they were first bred for. I perfer smaller lighter bassets myself, even though I no longer hunt. And don't see how breeding for bigger is a good thing, as it is statistically show that smaller dogs also live longer.