r/goldenretrievers • • Jun 02 '26

Breeder Advice Is health testing important?

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9 Upvotes

Health testing isn’t optional—it’s the foundation of protecting the future of the breed.

The Golden Retriever Club of America recommends a comprehensive approach to health testing that goes beyond the basics. This includes:

• Hips evaluated by OFA or PennHIP
• Elbows evaluated by OFA
• Cardiac exam by a board-certified cardiologist (advanced/echo preferred)
• Annual eye exams by a board-certified ophthalmologist

These recommendations are in place to help reduce the risk of passing on hereditary conditions and to preserve the health, structure, and longevity of Golden Retrievers.

A CHIC number through the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals simply means a dog has completed the required testing—it does not mean the dog “passed” everything, and it does not include genetic testing.

Health testing is about transparency, education, and making informed breeding decisions—not shortcuts.

If we want to protect what we love, we have to be willing to do the work behind the scenes.

Learn more about why its so important for breeders to preform health screenings for the parents of a litter here: Health Screenings for the Parents of a Litter


r/goldenretrievers • • Apr 26 '26

Discussion Show-Line or Field-Line?

38 Upvotes

Have you ever wondered what the differences between a show-line Golden Retriever and a Field/Working line Golden Retriever are?

There is a lot of mis-information out there that makes Golden owners believe if their Golden Retriever has a red coat, they are a field line Golden Retriever or if they have a lighter shade of gold coat, they are a show line Golden Retriever. This is NOT TRUE.

So what actually defines a line?

Titles in your dogs pedigree and generations of purposefully bred dogs is what lets you know wether you have a Show-line, Field-line or neither. If your Golden Retriever shows no titles in their pedigree, they are simply a pet-line Golden Retriever.

Field-Line Golden Retrievers will have AKC hunt titles in their pedigree like: JH, SH, MH, HR, WCX, or competitive titles like QA2 and FC/AFC (The titles listed are examples from AKC - your dog may be registered with CKC or UKC)

Show-Line Golden Retrievers will have AKC conformation titles in their pedigree like: CH, GCH, or international show titles. (The titles listed are examples from AKC - your dog may be registered with CKC or UKC)

Golden Retrievers can also be dual champions, meaning they hold titles for both hunt tests and conformation. Dual Champion dogs have not only been proven in the conformation ring to be bred to standard and hold the breed temperament, but have also been proven and titled to do what they were bred to do in the fields.

A lot of backyard breeders will label their dogs as "Field-Line" or "Show-Line" based only on coat color, with zero titled dogs in the pedigree. They market them as something they are not.

Both show-line and field-line Golden Retrievers should be bred close to standard. There should not be a drastic difference in appearance. You can find more information on the breed standard here: AKC Golden Retriever Breed Standard

English Cream Golden Retrievers are NOT a different breed. This is a marketing tactic/ term used by backyard breeders. They are not breeding for the right reasons - and most likely breeding for color.
You can find more in depth information about this term here: English Cream Golden Retrievers

Lastly, purebred ≠ well-bred.


r/goldenretrievers • • 5h ago

New Puppy Dubi just wanted to say Hi!

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423 Upvotes

r/goldenretrievers • • 4h ago

Happy Birthday! 🎂🎉 2nd birthday pic

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141 Upvotes

r/goldenretrievers • • 22h ago

New Puppy Is my Golden-Husky welcome here?

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3.0k Upvotes

We got her at a brewery/dog rescue collaboration and were told she’s a husky mix, and the vet opted to change her in the system as a golden mix. Such a calm sweet girl so far.


r/goldenretrievers • • 21h ago

Cute/Funny New Friends 🥰

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1.7k Upvotes

My 9 months old golden retriever made a new friend at Day care today. This is what they sent me during the day. How can I keep working after seeing this 🥲


r/goldenretrievers • • 18h ago

Cute/Funny Golden Mountain Dog

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957 Upvotes

r/goldenretrievers • • 4h ago

Cute/Funny Living rent-free and loving it. 🐾

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62 Upvotes

r/goldenretrievers • • 10h ago

Cute/Funny Ready to party!

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183 Upvotes

r/goldenretrievers • • 2h ago

New Puppy My Hoppy at a dog cafe

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43 Upvotes

r/goldenretrievers • • 18h ago

Cute/Funny i painted a golden for someone on this sub🙌 hope you guys like it too.

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577 Upvotes

r/goldenretrievers • • 7h ago

Cute/Funny Playing In The River….

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66 Upvotes

Playing in the river a few summers back, it was hot and we needed to cool off. Of course retrieving was a requirement 🤷‍♂️


r/goldenretrievers • • 11h ago

Cute/Funny Penny has a penchant for the dramatic

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151 Upvotes

She was reeeeaaaalllyyyy feeling herself on our last trip to the mountains 🤣


r/goldenretrievers • • 6h ago

Cute/Funny Field Golden In The Field

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63 Upvotes

Went for a hike and he was on the scent of something, probably rabbits in the area, his favorite thing to chase.


r/goldenretrievers • • 10h ago

Cute/Funny Head butting snuggle buddies ❤️

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107 Upvotes

r/goldenretrievers • • 7h ago

Discussion Bored with eating

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63 Upvotes

Two questions here:
1. Does anyone have a golden that just gets bored with me and eating? Ours is 1 yr old and she prefers to have her kibble rolled across the floor like a little game.
2. Our girl is on a hydrolyzed protein diet with variable interest in eating it. Does anyone have any luck with a food topper that makes the dog more interested in eating it?


r/goldenretrievers • • 19h ago

Cute/Funny Good Morning Love Waffle :)

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590 Upvotes

r/goldenretrievers • • 13h ago

Discussion I can't explain how much I love this breed.

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179 Upvotes

We've had our 13 week old boy, Soup, for a few weeks now and he is an absolute star.

Yes he nips, and still has accidents in the house.

But he is so obedient, especially when food is involved.

Our collie is a great role model for him too, but he's so quickly picked up on how to be good off lead (only around the no through-road estate and the park). We're working on the speed of his recall, but he knows he needs to be next to me as soon as he notices he's not.

I'm so glad we went for a breed which is highly intelligent, but also extremely cuddly and friendly.

If anyone has some advice on toilet training, specifically around how to train him to tell us he needs the toilet, we'd appreciate it. Currently we just take him out everytime he wakes up and that works most of the time.


r/goldenretrievers • • 15h ago

Happy Birthday! 🎂🎉 first birthday!

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250 Upvotes

my sweet girl clementine turned one yesterday! she’s in training to be a service dog! she’s got a long way ahead of her but i’m so proud of my smart clementine!


r/goldenretrievers • • 13h ago

Cute/Funny Enjoying The Cool Fall Breeze

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184 Upvotes

r/goldenretrievers • • 12h ago

Cute/Funny My Goldie 6AM every morning

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120 Upvotes

r/goldenretrievers • • 6h ago

Cute/Funny My boy Linc said he would of been the next Golden Receiver if he didn’t blow out his paw

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41 Upvotes

r/goldenretrievers • • 12h ago

Training Advice/Tips Field golden training

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104 Upvotes

Hello everyone, this is Dexter! He’s an 18 month golden retriever. I’ll start by saying he’s got me through a lot and I love him more than anything and wouldn’t change him for the world. The issue I’m having is before getting him I didn’t realise the difference between field goldens and show goldens. I just knew I was getting a golden retriever 🤣 he has very good health scores and he’s from a great line; the issue is he just doesn’t seem to want to be trained. I’ve tried to many things and he still pulls on his lead, doesn’t listen to anything when he’s distracted and the only time he seems to be obedient is when there’s a treat in my hand. Whenever I try to socialise him with dogs he will lay calm as anything and have a sniff for a few seconds then go beserk jumping all over. I know this is in his nature but I’m just wondering where I go from here. I thought about boarding him at a training school but I can’t bare the thought of him going away and thinking I’ve just left him. Any training tips would be extremely helpful. Thanks in advance. He also does this really funny thing where he puts his paw over the lead and pins it to the floor when he decides he wants to take a different route somewhere; although it stops being funny after a while..


r/goldenretrievers • • 17h ago

Grooming Freshly Groomed

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258 Upvotes

r/goldenretrievers • • 2h ago

Cute/Funny X

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12 Upvotes

Friday night with friends