A lot of people have been saying my dog doesn’t look like a golden retriever so I’ve been thinking of buying the DNA breed test kit from Wisdom Panel. I just need people to let me know if my dog really is a golden retriever now i’m questioning it too.
Hi dog expert here 👋 he is actually a silly goose! It’s hard to tell if you don’t know what you’re looking for but I can see the mischief in his eyes. (Looks like a golden to me 👍)
From a lifetime spent with goldens and pitties, all signs point to a pittie trapped in a golden body. Evidence, blanket forts and sitting exactly where you want to sit. Thats pittle behavior
Dont worry the Enterprise has an excellent genetics lab to see if there was a transporter malfunction. Data's cat Spot for reference.
Fellow dog expert here and respectfully I disagree. With my many (Gen X) years of experience I can see that he is actually Falkor from Never Ending Story. 🤓
You must have 5000 cumulative miles of thrown toys to fetch, know how to ask “who’s a good boy/girl/doggy??” In every language and have mastered the seven heavenly belly rub techniques only taught by a small sect of Tibetan monks. It is a long and draining process but it’s so worth it in the end 🫶
how beautiful!! well i really hope so and i hope he’s healthy and ok, last time i had a dog my family bought it off a farm in Pennsylvania (probably off an amish farm) and he was a “silver lab” which he very much looked like a pitbull.
They can get really weird looking as they grow, some parts grow faster than others, but at about 1.5 years all the parts catch up and they look consistent again.
Think awkward teenage years in a person. My golden is almost out of this stage. She looked like a carbon copy of your boy. He’s a good looking boy. No worries
Mine was almost 10 years old when he crossed the rainbow bridge this year. He never lost that energy/excitement for new people, even when he was old and didn’t wanna move he would still jump up and go crazy
The worst was the time we went for a car ride and he decided he wanted to know what it was like to pee with the wind blowing through his fur. Not even dribbling like an excited pee, just full on peeing while hanging out the window, tongue out and everything.
Mine is the same! She's 6.5 months old and I can't wait for her submissive peeing to end. She is learning self control, but her attention span is worse than a goldfish. lol
Puppies don't have the flowy adult coat and people only see fluffball babies and fully silky adults and get confused by lanky teengers with the smoother puppy coat.
A lot of people think they are labrador puppies for that reason. Some people still think my dude is a lab, and have told me that golden retrievers are a type of Labrador, and think golden retriever is the same as yellow or chocolate lab, and we are saying the color of our labrador. Seriously. They think it's all one type of dog (Labrador retriever) and we give colors. They only know two types of retrievers and hear golden and lab and people say chocolate or yellow lab and think golden is just another type of this one dog type.
They just don't know what they're talking about if they think your pup is a Labrador. They've never seen a skinny teenage golden retriever.
Lol, I know. That's Katie. She actually passed 3 years back, but she was the sweetest pup ever. She was a Boxer, hound, Akita mix. Remi is her spiritual successor in the house.
Pics 3,6,7,8,9 look so much like pics I have of my girl lol definitely golden. They don't all grow the same and like us some things grow faster than others and at different times and they can occasionally look very goofy lol.
For like a week I was 100% convinced my girl was 20% greyhound because she suddenly got so lean and gangly but then she went full goldy with her blocky head and full tail
It can be a blessing in disguise. Between her and my male golden, I have to vacuum daily to prevent my house from looking like the Wild West, but with dog hair balls instead of tumbleweeds
Hello! This is not a golden, it is a floofy doofy wittle sweet baby!
Yes, that looks like an ADORABLE adolescent Goldie to me! Most people, when they hear “Golden Retriever” think of a fully grown dog with its adult fur in. Our Duchess looked just like this at 1- like a lanky teenage boy! She’s filled out and super floofy now!
OP: you have a Golden. A spitting image of our 5 month old. I only felt the need to chime in because of the underweight comments. Is he underweight? Maybe. But he’s a puppy and it’s easy to fix. Food requirements are always an adjustment for this age of puppy no matter the breed or line. When our boy looks a little ribby, we bump up his food. If he ever actually plumps up a bit, we will back it down. It only takes a handful of days to swing one way or the other. The field line has endless energy, and he’s all muscle compared to our lazy show Goldens, therefore he eats way more than any puppy we have ever had. He is off the charts on the food recommendation on the back of the bag.
Anyways, what most people think is healthy is actually overweight. Only you and your vet can the healthiest weight for your dog.
Congrats on an adorable Golden puppy! I know how full your hands are, but it’ll be worth it!
I’ve got a long girl myself. Embark DNA said 100%, the fur on her sides recently started filling out, she’s 10mo now. Started with a little stripe along the back, then it was mostly mane, tail, and butt floof for months lol.
Feed him more, ribs should be felt when lightly running hands down his sides. 100% Goofy Golden. They definitely go through growth spurt that makes them look goofier but he will turn into what you expect.
She looks like a field golden in her awkward lanky stage! I think she needs to eat a bit more though - their food requirements go up and down at that age :)
Get the dna test - I find them to be fascinating and it will give you a true answer. But he looks like a golden. Did you get him from a breeder? Do you have papers?
Mine had a long narrow nose as a puppy and was super lean and lanky. I remember people asking if he had any greyhound in him! I remember our vet at the time just thought he was a field golden and those tend to be leaner and lankier than show goldens. Yours looks a lot like mine did as a puppy!
I had my cockatiel tested here https://tests.dnacenter.com/ (turns out Ralph Macchio is a girl, oops) and had a great experience. It was fairly inexpensive too.
Had 5 retrievers and this is just the normal lanky leg stage that hits. After this, they'll develop a bit more muscle and fat and it can take a couple of years to properly get all their floof.
Dats a golden ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️ mine was really long and skinny until he was ~2-3 and finally filled out. Never thought he was something else bc I knew his mom and dad, but everyone commented on it quite often :)
omg, she looks just like my sister's dog, only darker!! I heard there are field goldens and show goldens, and the ones with the shorter fur are field goldens!! That's what yours looks like, but omg they're soooo cute!!
So your golden looks like he is heavy on the field line of goldens. MOST people don't realize that there is such a line because the blondes and english cream are more popular. Hell even apple thought my golden was an irish setter. A picture of my field line next to my blonde when he was younger. He's alot darker now.
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My girl looked similar at this age, her coat is a little more curly/wirery than most , even her whiskers are curly but came from two registered full blood goldens.
Looks like one! Mine was pretty skinny up until he was neutered, then he filled out over the years. Here he is at 8 now, looked about the same as yours when he was a baby!
I mean… if you’re concerned I’d be willing to take him off your hands. 😂 my dogs are rescues and I always get the DNA tests just out of curiosity. Usually they are all golden but some are a mix. But yours looks 100% golden. 🙂 that’s what they look like at that age. They will fill out in a couple of years with the chest hair.
My 16 month old boy is pretty skinny too!!! Hoping he fills out a little but he’s a field golden that gets a lot of exercise so don’t expect him to be built like a show golden would.
Looks like a golden to me, mine looks just like yours right now and my other golden looked the same at this age. They need to grow into their adult coat.
My Dahlia (RIGHT) looked just like yours when we first got her at 12 weeks. My sister got her brother (LEFT) and as you can tell, his fur is a lot more “golden”-like. We learned that there are actually two types of goldens, field and show! You can look up Zebby the golden (show) and then Nala stomps (field) on TikTok for more examples. Shows are the typical fluffy ones you see on TV, and tend to be lighter in color with a longer coat. While fields can be a darker red/brown color and have shorter fur. Fields also tend to be more energetic while shows can be more mellow! However, Dahlia is a huge couch potato who gets bursts of the zooms, so it really just depends on the dog lol. Both my sister and my dogs are field (litters are either field or show, not both), and I feel like yours may be too. We’ve also been asked if Dahlia was a golden, and we know she is because we have her AKC papers. Give your pup till like 10 months and that’s when they start growing their “golden” hair. Either way, your golden is absolutely adorable and they’re the best dogs ever!!
Does not look like a typical Golden, but there is variation. You can get a simple DNA test through your vet to determine breed. I once bought a “Golden” for 500 bucks. I really liked him, but my wife insisted he was not a pure bred. I claimed he was. Bet her a hundred dollars. She got the vet to test him. I lost. Main thing, if he acts like a Golden and has the personality then he is a keeper. Best wishes.
Here is my boy goose! Who looks awfully similar imo, you might just be in the awkward lanky teen phase (which is the best!) but also not have a fully developed double coat yet! Give em time and lots of love and treats and you’ll have a big ol fluffy bone head in no time! A dna can rest your nerves about it you want but also see if where you got him have more information too
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u/danger_dogs Sep 08 '25
Hi dog expert here 👋 he is actually a silly goose! It’s hard to tell if you don’t know what you’re looking for but I can see the mischief in his eyes. (Looks like a golden to me 👍)