Golden Retrievers question

[WildRosie]

This afternoon a chap walked past with his two dogs. They looked every bit like GRs but for their colour; both were much darker than usual, almost a vivid ginger colour. Is this a normal shade of 'golden' for a retriever or did I see a different breed of dog? Thankyou.

Yes, all shades from pale ivory to rust are possible, but the rusty ones are less common.
It may have been red setters or setter crosses you saw too, though.

Thankyou. They definitely weren't setters but their unusual colouring distinguished them from the GRs I've often come across. They could have been crosses, I concede.

You can get a red fox colour too. The shape of the dog tends to be more "muscley" and they look more like workers if you know what I mean.

The American type tend to be red in colour too. Our boy was a lovely honey colour: not too dark, not too pale, just right .

One of the two I saw was a little more sleek than the other.

I’ve had them all my life (apart from the past 8 years as I rent, sadly). We’ve had all different colours from very pale to very dark.

Also, they are the best breed of dog EVER. Wonderful temperament.

Working GRs tend to be slimmer and a darker red.
They are beautiful

We breed them and I’ve had them for 30 years. Back then, the dark ones were much more common but the paler ones became popular and sort of took over. As a PP said, the working type tend to be a bit darker. The breed standard says that they can be any shade of cream or gold but should be ‘ either white nor mahogany’.

This is my old boy on the beach...

Photo fail. Trying again.

Here you go op.

My childhood Goldie was far left in colour. Dh's was 6th from left. Our current girl is 3rd from right. I prefer the farmers coats over champagnes.

I have a darker haired goldie, I met a man yesterday who asked me if she was a fox red Labrador. She’s still a puppy so not too hairy yet. Our last goldie was dark coloured too. They are all beautiful!

Chickoletta, they're beautiful!

Ffs. Redder not farmer.

This is my girl, I think she's beautiful but if it had been solely my choice I'd have probably looked for a darker litter. This is the face she pulls when I tell her to smile nicely

Thankyou Bernard. The two I saw were coloured like the one first from the left.

Best dogs ever. Mine was a very dark almost red colour but she was crossed with a collie. Out of all the pups only two were gold the rest were black and white.

Are they different in terms of characteristics?

@Jihhery

Are they different in terms of characteristics?

The only difference I’ve found is between dogs bred from working lines and ones bred from show lines.

All the working GRs that I’ve grown up with or owned over the years have been really intelligent, fast to learn, love rough and tumble and been really hardy (as well as totally soppy, loving, adorable hairy idiots ).

We had a few over the years that were, to put it in a nice way, bred for beauty, not brains

One that sticks out was the last girl I owned. She was lovely but refused to get wet or dirty. She would look at puddles and mud in horror. I resorted to picking her up and carrying her over a few muddy patches more time’s than I care to remember while the working line dog we also had at the time would be rolling around in it loving life. She was happiest when standing stock still in a crufts position having her hair brushed and being told how beautiful she was.

Lol 😂😂😂

I think ginger/rust/gold-coloured dogs are among the most handsome. Apart from GRs, there's Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Cocker Spaniels, Boxers, the ginger version of the Groenendael whose name escapes me, Great Danes and Labradors. Must be a fair few others.