Working cocker, labrador, flat coated retriever, golden retriever

[Han23]

Any thoughts on these breeds would be much appreciated as thinking of getting a puppy for our family with 3 youngish kids. Plenty of outside space. Although beautiful, slightly off the GR now due to malting. Many thanks

My working cocker doesn't moult hardly, and is all the things that MrsAdora says. Gentle, sweet, placid, good natured, friendly, eager to please and loves to train. I can't recommend him highly enough, he's been perfect.

Labs moult like bastards, and then some...

What's not to like?

I can't recommend a goldie enough! Ours only moults twice a year. They seem to have a self cleansing coat as well- one walk and they come back black, then half an hour later they are clean and dry! Ours isn't neutered though, I think that totally mucks up their coats in my experience and they go like woolly sheep!

Have a look at the breed clubs' websites:

www.thetollerclub.org.uk/toller/

And: www.toller-club.co.uk/

If you get in touch with some of the breeders they're always happy to show off their dogs and talk Tollers

If you're near Birmingham you could always go to the Discover Dogs section at Crufts which is happening soon - there will be lots of Tollers there

They have a lovely temperament but they do like having a job to do - we do fun agility and obedience training with our boy which he loves and little bits of training every day

I grew up with dogs but he's my first dog as an adult

We have a show cocker, a working cocker and a working lab, the two cockers although they do shed a little, moult hardly at all. The lab (yellow) on the other hand seems to moult all year round. Ours range in age from 3.5 years down to 1.5 years.

The easiest to train by far is the lab as she's very food orientated. All 3 including the show cocker need between 1-2 hours exercise per day and on top of that they each do addition training I.e obedience, agility, ring craft and the lab is about to stArt assistance dog training to keep her out of mischief!!

I know of 2 flat ties, lovely lovely girls with great temperaments, one of which has just turned 9 and is very healthy.

Black lab all the way!

Black lab is the perfect dog and they have absolutely no malting masses of moulting though

Our working lab, now retired, lab (officially 'fox red', sort of dark reddish gold) moults year round but is fab with kids, easily trainable and very gentle natured. We are off to look at a lab x cocker cross litter at the end of the month having debated lab v german pointer for a while. A friend of a friend's working lab accidentally mated (well very deliberately on the dogs' part, just not the humans') with a working cocker. And we thought why not add black hairs to the storm of golden hairs we already have. He'll be trained as a gun dog though which is why working lines are a real bonus for us. Have lots of friends with fairly mad cockers though.

We had a Goldie for 15 years. Absolutely lovely, gentle dog but my god, the hair. I was still hoovering it up two years after she died. And, yes, she was nice but dim.

I've always had Golden Retrievers and Labs in my life and they are delightful.

I grew up with yellow labs, then had black labs and now have a 13 yr old black lab and a 4.5 month old show cocker. and am hankering after a golden retriever

They have all been bloody marvellous dogs. After the mad zoomie puppy stage they grow into wonderful dogs.

I remember one breeder telling us that choosing between Labradors was simple. Either you are never able to wear clean black clothes ever again (yellow hairs) or you will find black hairs in the butter even when it's only been open for ten minutes!

I have owned Goldies since 1979, I have friends with Labradors, and family members with cocker and springer spaniels.
They all moult, though spaniels slightly less. Goldie fur is soft and fluffy and floats through the air to settle on absolutely everything, even in rooms they never go in. Labradors hair is a bit "stiffer" and sticks to everything, spaniels more silky. But the point is, expect shedding and if you can't live with it, these are not the breeds for you.
Goldies love water (but NOT bath water) and will swim, roll and wallow at every opportunity, as will labs.
However, goldies have "magic" fur, a filthy wet goldie, comes home and has a nice snooze in her bed. When she gets up, she is lean and dry and the bed is filthy as the muck just drops off.
A lot of goldies are a bit dim, but the working lines are cleverer. They love their families and hate being left alone, they are loving and kind and playful. They also teach the family to be tidy as they can be chewers.
I have two at the moment, who are nagging for their walk....

Working cocker, they are very laid back and not at all loopy. Our lad is just over a year now and full of bounce but such a loving dog, I am considering changing his name to Lena as he had to constantly lean against a human. Ours doesn't seem to moult too much, nowhere near as much as our border collie does or our black Labrador did.