What do I need to know about getting a golden retriever?

[Tilllly]

As a puppy

From a reputable breeder

Advice gratefully received ☺️

You will suddenly wonder how you managed without them. They are so loving and loyal. Ours is 5 now and he's always been super chilled out, he's the best thing ever 🥰

I don't think there are enough pictures

Oh they are simply the best. We go to a weekly golden meet up and they are all so friendly! All the goldens I've met (including my own girl) are just nuts until about 2-3 years old, obsessed with people and other dogs (in a fun and friendly way) and just want to cuddle up at home in front of the fire. Oh and the hair lol. You will never be adequately prepared. Ps my girl has only ever barked once in her life at 9 weeks old. It frightened my 5 year old and she has never barked again. Such angels.

You may think you have prepared yourself for another level of hair and mud.

You have no idea 😂

So worth it though.

I LOVE the idea of a GR meet up.

@Tilllly DO you want to do a virtual meet up in the cafe?

It's your cafe @sashh 🤷‍♀️ 😊

But if you build it, they will come 😁

When we brushed ours we would end up with a puppy sized ball of hair. If we did it outside, the birds would make off with huge beaks full of it for their nest. She died in my arms 25 years ago and I still mess her. She really was the best dog ever. I would love another when our lives calm down a bit.

I had the most beautiful Retriever bitch who was known as DFS as when we brushed her in the garden we would leave the fur lying in the garden , so the birds would come down and furnish their nests with her fur 😁.
Still miss her . Here she is 😍.

We have a 12 week old golden puppy. She is beautiful, affectionate and fun but I heartily agree with everyone about them being land sharks. She bites constantly and when you offer her a toy instead she'll leap past it to savage your arm or ankles regardless of how enticing the toy you've picked is. It's quite tiresome tbh and most of what I've read says she's likely to keep doing this for at least a few more months. On the plus side she's been super easy to train with everything else and reliably knows the comments for sit, come, stay and drop it, she's pretty reliably toilet trained and she doesn't wake us in the night. She's friendly and confident, not nervous of anything so far and wildly enthusiastic about new experiences. So far we're very happy with our choice of breed!

Forgot to add a pic! Here's pup dressed in her Harry potter jumper!

Adorable, @mogtheforg3tfulcat - a gryffindog!

I’ve had mine two weeks.

The biting. OMG SO MUCH BITING. He is not my first puppy but he’s certainly been the most challenging!

They run pretty hot and pant a lot.
They love ice cubes. Best toy ever.
They grow FAST.
They will try and eat EVERYTHING. Furniture, leaves, garden, even the bloody concrete steps. Nothing is safe!
They’re happy and affectionate when they aren’t chewing your limbs to mince
They are pretty easily trainable (unless tired!)
They need a LOT of sleep. Force nap times or your life will be hell 😂

They are hard work as puppies and I’m hoping it gets easier!

Yes please Edith - if generally northern
I'm in Yorkshire and don't mind travelling but not stupid distance

Is this check able on the KC website?
Am a novice and don't know anything about these conditions

Would recommend some serious reading in that case. Also be extremely careful about hip and elbow scores. The lower the better. I keep a close eye on local Labrador breeders and even the seemingly ‘reputable’ ones breed from dogs with remarkably high scores, I imagine it’s the same with GRs. It’s no joke. Friend of a friend failed to research, picked up a puppy which suited their timeline, failed to stick to sensible exercise guidelines and now has a puppy with severe hip dysplasia requiring surgery.

And yes, inbreeding coefficient can be calculated on the KC website. UK average scores available online. Again, the lower the better.

Lower the better, got it, thanks

A couple of people said to me if they were in the kennel club, they would be fine, but I wanted to do a bit more research than that

Please don’t assume that KC means reputable. It just means they are that breed. The KC is happy to register pups from puppy farmers and other bloody awful breeders.

^This

😳
Thanks @Wolfiefan

I was doing more research, but I'd no idea about that

Completely agree with @Wolfiefan. you could go to local breed shows and see what you fancy there, nothing is better than seeing the parents of your prospective puppy.

KC are awful, dont place stock in litters solely because they are KC reg.

I’ve seen litters registered on their website with, variously, absolutely no health tests, pointless health tests, no checks on degree of inbreeding meaning grandparent to grandchild and even half sibling mating seen as absolutely AOK …

GRs are absolutely beset by health issues, particularly joint ones, so due diligence is essential. They’re also prone to cancers and higher inbreeding rates increases cancer risk.

the Facebook page mentioned upthread is good but even then, do your diligence and be careful about higher CoIs and the number of verifiable generations when considering risk regarding hip and elbow scores.

I have made my first enquiry on champdogs!

Breeder seems strict about who can have their puppies so I liked that

Lots of 0 health scores in parents (and grandparents and great grandparents) and "hereditary clear"s

Only thing I didn't understand, was it says something about, our puppies always have their KC registrations endorsed "progeny not eligible for registration" and "not eligible for the issue of an export pedigree"
Presume the latter means they are not sent abroad, but not sure what the first thing means

It means you can’t breed your pup and register the litter with the KC. It’s to prevent unauthorised breeding (obviously people could still breed their dogs, but they wouldn’t be able to register the litter). It’s a good sign.

Thanks @Tygertiger

I assumed it was something positive because the breeder had written it, but wasn't sure if it was something I needed to understand

I won't be breeding her, she will be getting neutered as soon as she is of age where it suitable

We found our first lab through champdogs and even there you have lots of litters with high coi's, partial health tests etc. When we were looking out of around 150 litters advertised, there were only 3 that even met my requirements and my requirements were only a coi at or below breed average, a hip score of less than 10 and even, 0 elbow score and the recommended eye and DNA tests.

Even with excellent scores, they get ill. Ours had perfect scores for everything but has had a myriad of issues including mast cell tumours, spinal degeneration and cancer.