If you're a "golden person," no other breed will quite do. If you're not, even the finest golden may not please you. How can you tell which you are? Read the following description of the ideal golden and trust your instinctive reaction.

The ideal golden hits the water with great enthusiasm.

Incidentally, although I've been involved directly with the breed since 1968 and indirectly since 1948, for this article, I've interviewed three other long-time goldenites: Lorie Jolley, Dana Oaks, and Chuck Wheeler. See the "Interviewees" sidebar for information about them.

The "Ideal" Golden
Physical
The breed standard says males should stand 23 to 24 inches at the withers and weigh 65 to 75 pounds, while females should stand 21.5 to 22.5 inches and weigh 55 to 65 pounds. Such an animal is substantial without being ponderous. Properly assembled, he exhibits athleticism in every movement.

"Overall structural balance," Dana Oaks said, "makes a golden athletic. Good front. Good rear. Proper, but not extreme, angulation fore and aft. Balance."

The double coat has a dense, insulating undercoat overlaid by a longer outercoat for protection from the often punishing hunting environment. The outercoat shouldn't be excessively long and should be relatively waterproof. The color might be any shade of gold, from light yellow to deep orange.

"In duck hunting," Chuck Wheeler said, "my golden sometimes gets covered with ice, but I can warm my hands up by pushing them down into his undercoat!"

"The outercoat," Lorie Jolly said, "should dry quickly after a good shake."

Clearly, the ideal golden's appearance and movement should suggest the work for which the breed was developed.

Temperament
The ideal golden's charming personality so matches his physical beauty that what you see is truly what you get. He's gentle, affectionate, outgoing, eager to please, and friendly with man and beast.

If he has a temperament fault, it's that he's a total washout as a watch dog. He loves everyone too much to be protective or territorial. If a burglar could let the resident golden know what he wants, said golden would lead him straight to it, and might even carry it out to his car!

Keenly aware of the boss' wishes, the golden adapts his energy level to his immediate situation. When working in the field, he's pleasingly stylish, while around home he's comfortably laid back.

This rare combination of beauty and charm explains why the breed has "enjoyed" such great popularity for the past several decades.

Working Ability
The ideal golden's genes must carry five working traits: birdiness, retrieving instinct, marking ability, a good nose, and trainability.

The ideal golden brings ducks back rapidly and tenderly.

First, he must be extremely birdy. Otherwise, he'd be too smart to go into the places he must enter and do the things he must do to help the boss enjoy an occasional feast on birds he's by-George shot himself!

Second, he needs a strong natural instinct to retrieve. Actually, this is more an instinct to carry objects to his lair, which training converts into retrieving. If you watch a litter of well-bred goldens at play, you'll see that most of them just love to carry small objects around. Some older goldens are seldom without something in their mouths, whether an old shoe, a food bowl, or whatever. This trait is in their genes, Deo gratias!

Third, he needs reasonable marking ability, so he can locate the birds shot over him. Granted, few goldens equal the average Chesapeake or the better Labs in marking.

Nevertheless, the ideal "rug" (as goldens are sometimes called by Lab and Chessy folks) won't often need help finding a bird he has seen fall, although he may hunt a larger area.

Fourth, he needs a good nose. Actually, most goldens excel Labs and Chessies in this trait, but they need to in order to overcome their somewhat lesser marking ability.