The first Golden Retriever breed standard was created based on the English Standard when the Golden Retriever Club of America was incorporated in 1939. The Golden Retriever standard underwent several revisions and serves as a guide for breeders and judges. It describes type and conformation in the ideal Golden and pointing numerous deviations called faults.
Type and Conformation
Type and conformation are closely related, yet each has distinct meaning and importance in the overall picture. Type, in a broad sense, is what separates one breed from another in shape, size, use, performance, and temperament. For example, Alaskan Malamutes are sled dogs built to pull; Fox Terriers are dogs bred to run into earth and flush a fox out of its burrows. Golden Retrievers are primarily swimming dogs used by hunters to recover game in water and upland fields. In a more limited sense, type applies to the specific traits of an individual dog as an example of its own breed, such as expression, character, coat texture, or color. Conformation has to do with body structure, i.e. how the bones, muscles, and ligaments fit together to best accomplish a specific function.
To be really outstanding, a purebred dog must possess good type as well as a sound conformation. Most have moderate degrees of both, some are strong in one quality and weak in the other. A golden retriever might display good type through a beautiful head, a lustrous coat and an outgoing personality, but his feet might be badly splayed. Every judge has his preferences. The improvement of the Golden breed depends on the ability of breeders to recognize and promote good quality.
Golden Retriever Temperament
Intelligence, loyalty, friendliness, trustworthiness, devotion and responsiveness are qualities among others that seem unique to Golden Retrievers and that won its ever-growing popularity as a great family and therapy dog.
Typical is the Golden that lives for his family, befriends the cats and neighborhood dogs, plays with the children, and waits for the arrival of the school bus with remarkable punctuality; that welcomes guests with paw shake, yet stands his ground with detachment at the arrival of suspicious strangers. Tipical is the Golden Retriever that takes treatment in the veterinarian office with unquestioning tolerance; that patiently and prowdly allows visitors to view newly born pups. Typical, too, is the Golden Retriever that guides his blind owner in assignements where initiative and common sense are of primary importance.
As a breed, Golden Retrievers are not intended to be watchdogs, but they possess a keen awareness of the unusual. Most Golden Retrievers will alert their owners by barking or showing signs of uneasiness. Signs of aggressiveness should not be tolerated, and any tendency to growl at other dogs should be disciplined on the spot. Shyness should be avoided.
In conformation, the body of a mature Golden Retriever should have more length than height to allow room for the ribs to extend well back and provide free action. Variation in movements, as observed in field trials, are the results of differences in conformation which relate basically to angulation and balance. Balance in Golden Retrievers has to do not only with the proportions of head size, neck, depth of chest and the ratio of the body to legs, but also to the angulation on both ends. Angulation is the bend in any or all of the joints and their influence on efficiency. If the front fails to match the rear, the Golden Retriever will not move properly.