Golden retriever only photos

Carguy2Banker said:
I see that you have an ivory Golden in one picture. Tell me more about it please. We are adding another dog (wife's dog) to the house soon and she is set on a Golden Retriever, but will only consider an ivory one. We had a golden for 11 years before he passed, but he wasn't from a hunting lineage and to top it off was scared of everything including gun shots, shadows, leaves rustling grass.... Since I hunt more than most, it only makes sense to me that the next dog hunts, but I can't find much in my research about ivory's from hunting families. (I know all dogs can hunt, but this doesn't always correlate to high energy, intelligent dogs.) My last golden was a great pet and tremendous therapy after a long day, but he was not smart at all. I loved him, miss him, but don't ever want to have a dog that isn't intelligent and scared of everything. It seems like breeders have bred out all of the hunting traits in search of the perfect "pretty dog".
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Typically the white ones are more from the show line and are less bred for hunting. The red and darker colored Golden's are usually field bred and have more of the hunting instinct. Both are Golden's, both are great pets.
 
Carguy2Banker said:
I see that you have an ivory Golden in one picture. Tell me more about it please. We are adding another dog (wife's dog) to the house soon and she is set on a Golden Retriever, but will only consider an ivory one. We had a golden for 11 years before he passed, but he wasn't from a hunting lineage and to top it off was scared of everything including gun shots, shadows, leaves rustling grass.... Since I hunt more than most, it only makes sense to me that the next dog hunts, but I can't find much in my research about ivory's from hunting families. (I know all dogs can hunt, but this doesn't always correlate to high energy, intelligent dogs.) My last golden was a great pet and tremendous therapy after a long day, but he was not smart at all. I loved him, miss him, but don't ever want to have a dog that isn't intelligent and scared of everything. It seems like breeders have bred out all of the hunting traits in search of the perfect "pretty dog".
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I have had a couple blonde Goldens that were great hunters. In fact I have one that will be 16 in February that I still shot birds over this fall. All my younger ones are red, more the field lines. I got the blonde ones out of a kennel in New York, don’t know if they are still active, they were more going to service dogs. I got three from that kennel all excellent bird dogs.
 
One of Joel's kids, who will hopefully have another of Joel's kids as a sister this spring
 

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Getting pretty heavy in the facial salt department but he turns 9 this year. Unfortunately I’m looking at taking my stud fee this year; starting another puppy sounds like a nightmare but that’s what we all sign up for.
 

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grossklw said:
Getting pretty heavy in the facial salt department but he turns 9 this year. Unfortunately I’m looking at taking my stud fee this year; starting another puppy sounds like a nightmare but that’s what we all sign up for.
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Looks like a good boy.
 
Carguy2Banker said:
I see that you have an ivory Golden in one picture. Tell me more about it please. We are adding another dog (wife's dog) to the house soon and she is set on a Golden Retriever, but will only consider an ivory one. We had a golden for 11 years before he passed, but he wasn't from a hunting lineage and to top it off was scared of everything including gun shots, shadows, leaves rustling grass.... Since I hunt more than most, it only makes sense to me that the next dog hunts, but I can't find much in my research about ivory's from hunting families. (I know all dogs can hunt, but this doesn't always correlate to high energy, intelligent dogs.) My last golden was a great pet and tremendous therapy after a long day, but he was not smart at all. I loved him, miss him, but don't ever want to have a dog that isn't intelligent and scared of everything. It seems like breeders have bred out all of the hunting traits in search of the perfect "pretty dog".
Click to expand...
Yes. We call them "english cream" goldens, but I'm not sure that's technically correct.

My dad has a couple of them as does one of my buddies. They are much more hit or miss with hunting. My dad's female (older now) had a ton of "prey drive", but is very unathletic. She will hunt hard, has an unbelievable nose, but is a relatively poor retriever with zero retrieving drive (she will find downed birds but rarely pick them up and retrieve). Could never get her to retrieve a tennis ball, dummy, anything. Crazy smart dog however, and the most perfect combination of a family/hunting dog you could imagine - since she was a puppy she was content sleeping all day like an old dog, never had too much energy or hyper at all. My dad's male english cream is an average hunter. Strong drive to retrieve, but overall a very average dog (despite a ton of hunting). My buddies english (pictured above) is very average as well. Hunts close, good nose, will point, but doesn't cover much ground, poor retriever, etc.

My two field (red goldens) in the pictures above. Kota is 4 years and is unbelievable. He's had ~1,000 wild roosters shot over him in his 4 years so far and is as good of retriever as I have ever seen. Can hunt all day long for days on end it seems. Great family dog with kids, etc., but certainly much more energy and is much more of handful in the offseason (as expected, requires and gets a ton of exercise year around).

Copper is the puppy - he is just shy of 7 months right now. He's been out with me every hunt this year and is slowly starting to figure it out. Haven't done any formal training with him yet as he was too young for the e-collar to start the season, but has flushed dozens of birds this year, stays relatively close (he's gotten out ahead a few times, as expected), and hunts hard. I expect he will be every bit as good as Kota in the next year or two.

The english creams will hunt, and I've shot a lot of birds over them in the field. They aren't going to cover the ground of a field bred dog, and it doesn't come as natural for them. I am fortunate enough to be able to get them out hunting a TON, so that really helps turn an otherwise below average dog into a pretty good one. They do hunt close, they listen, and are very serviceable in the field. However, stacked up next to a true field bred dog, they will come up short from a natural ability standpoint in my experience.
 
This is Oakley. She is the only Golden Retriever that I have ever hunted around and she was incredible. Her and my Griffon were one hell of a team on upland birds. She got cancer this last fall and died quickly. She was a remarkable retriever and one hell of a brush pounder on upland birds.
 
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