Advice on buying a golden retriever.

quote:

---

$3000 puppy from a kennel better than a $700?

---

Health Clearances... just make sure you can see lineage far enough back that line breeding or in breeding is not present. AKC nor UKC no care if line or in bred..



OFA, CERF DM add value

FWIW I saw a real nice golden a few weeks back at the spillway.

It depends on what you are looking for. House pet or working dog. Health and bloodline are what drives pricing up. Golden’s are the best.

We have an English Creme (white) Golden and my kids abuse her and she doesn’t even blink.

Get ready for the fur though.

My golden just made a year on Halloween (picked him up the day after Christmas last year). If you've done any research, I'm sure you're aware that goldens are at an elevated risk for cancers and the typical hip/elbow issues most larger dogs are prone to. That is why a good, healthy pedigree is very important. Your breeder should be able to provide you with the pedigree info on the Sam and Dire which you can use to research on k9data.com--look for longevity. As other people have mentioned, look for hip & elbow, heart, and eye certifications (OFA/PENNHip cert for hips). Also make sure that the heart and eye certs were performed by actual specialists (Cardiologist /Ophthalmologist). Make sure the breeder is able to give you current certs for everything mentioned. It's a lot to consider, it will cost you more up front, but will more than likely save you a lot of money and heartache in the long run. We paid $1800 for ours, which was very fair in comparison to what the puppy mills in LA a charging ($2000 & up).

With that being said, I did not find any breeders in LA that I was comfortable with. I know of several people who have goldens from Hunnington who have had health issues (cancer), so I steered clear of them. After reaching out to several people from out of state, I landed on a breeder outside of Birmingham, AL; however there are several very reputable breeders on the MS Gulf Coast (Rhythm and Runnymede Kennels). Kelli from Rhythm was very helpful in finding me a good breeder, as she didn't have any litters planned in the immediate future. There's quite a bit of useful information on goldenretrieverforum.com, but obviously there are a lot of the loopy dog nuts on there.

If you find a breeder you're interested in, I'd be happy to check the pedigree information out for you.

Good luck!

I have one but they are in Fort Payne, Al and I have a English Cream Golden Retriever

Here's a few pics of mine:

[/img]

[/img]

[/img]

That's a beautiful dog my man!

Any reputable breeder should have this information readily available, especially if they recent bred or about breed.

And that's essentially what my dog is. I'm pretty happy with the energy level of my dog; he has the energy to do pretty much anything I would like him to do, but also is fine just relaxing.

Are you looking for a bird dog or a house pet?

house pet

I want one of the english creme Golden's bad. How much is that gonna cost me?