Breed History

Created in Scotland in the early 1800’s by crossing the Flat Coated Retriever and the Tweed Water Spaniel bloodlines, the Golden Retriever is one of today’s most popular dog breeds! This breed is known for being a fantastic family member, excellent with obedience and helping the handicapped community as well as hunting.

Breed Appearance

The Golden Retriever is a large breed dog, with males and females generally measuring 22-26 inches in height and weighing 60-80 pounds in weight. Please note that males and females may be smaller or larger than show standards and still be purebred. This breed has an athletic, strong and sturdy body build. Their head is broad at the forehead and rounds on either side where their two, pendant shaped ears fall gently alongside of their face. Their muzzle is rectangular and comes to a stop with a large black nose. Their two large eyes are available in dark brown to black in color. Their tail is medium in length and their coat should demonstrate feathering on it. When relaxed, their tail should be downwards and away from their body. Their double layer coat is medium to long in length, and semi wavy. Their coat is water resistant, which helps them when they are in the water. Their coat is available in a light cream, to dark golden in color.

Breed Temperament

The Golden Retriever is an excellent choice to add to any growing family that would like a canine family member! This breed is a great learner, extremely loving and friendly, patient, calm and happy. This breed does have a good energy level, so playing outside daily with the kids is a ‘must’. This breed requires a daily walk as well as other playtime outdoors when weather permits. The Golden Retriever is very social and is generally great with all other dogs and pets. Early socialization and obedience classes are always recommended to teach the owner and new puppy the basics for the rest of their new relationship. This breed can do well within an apartment environment if sufficiently walked and exercised. The Golden Retriever excels when he or she has a job to do and is pushed mentally as well; they are fantastic in obedience competitions as well as with agility and hunting. This breed is also an excellent choice for therapy and handicapped training.

Breed Grooming

Daily brushing and bathing when needed. Regular and professional trips to the groomer are highly recommended for proper care of their coat.

Special Notes

Please note that this breed is prone to mass cell tumors and cancer. Please fully educate yourself about the Golden Retriever health, needs and requirements prior to adding one to your family to ensure this is the correct breed of choice for you. Do not add a new dog to your family unless you are able to make a life long physical and financial care for your new pet. A properly fenced in area is highly recommended for this breed, or a proper harness and leash at all times while outdoors. All dogs originate from wolves (Canis Lupus). Each breed of dog was originally created by mixing different breeds together in an effort to bring forth certain characteristics. Once a breeder has created acceptable “breed characteristics” within their bloodline and these “breed characteristics” have shown to be reliably reproduced in the offspring for three (3) generations, the bloodline may be upgraded from the category of “foundation stock” to “pure-bred”. The same “pure-bred” breed standards vary from different continents, countries, territories, regions, breed clubs, and canine pure-breed registries depending on the goals of their breeders.

Dog DNA testing companies can have accurate results for a specific bloodline of a small colony of dogs. However, there are tens of thousands of different bloodlines in the world which have not yet been tested for marker baseline results by Dog DNA testing companies as of 2024. For this reason Dog DNA testing companies do not guarantee the 100% accuracy of their breed lineage results and will also show different marker results for the same pure-bred breed in different continents, countries, territories, regions, breed clubs, and canine pure-breed registries depending on the goals of their breeders.