How To Check Quality of Golden Retriever Puppy

As a prospective golden retriever puppy owner, you should know the breed standard, which documents to request from the breeder, and how to spot a sketchy dog breeder.

If you buy a puppy without doing proper research beforehand, you may later find yourself questioning your choice.

However, if you’re careful from the start and adequately evaluate your options, you can be sure that your chosen puppy will grow into a beautiful, intelligent, and friendly golden retriever.

Which Documents Must a Golden Retriever Have?

The easiest way to determine the legitimacy of a kennel and the quality of a particular puppy is to check the documents. So, you should know what documents to expect from a dog breeder.

The first and most important document is the registration certificate that contains the puppy’s unique identification number.

Only licensed breeders can obtain registration papers for a litter, so if a breeder doesn’t provide you with them, they may be breeding dogs illegally.

Institutions that can issue registration certificates include kennel clubs, national breed clubs, and working dog clubs.

This document allows tracking other documents and contains the dog’s information, including the breed, color, sire and dam, kennel club, and owner’s name.

To ensure that the puppy is purebred, you need proof of pedigree. The golden retriever pedigree is the dog’s family tree that displays its ancestors. Without a pedigree, you can’t ensure that your puppy wasn’t inbred or mixed.

Unfortunately, the fact that a puppy and its parents are registered in a kennel club and have a pedigree doesn’t yet indicate that they have no health issues.

Health test documentation is essential to ensure that your puppy has no bad genes.

Therefore, a legitimate breeder must provide health test documentation for the puppy, sire, and dam.

The certificates should indicate that the pup doesn’t have inherited hip dysplasia, progressive retinal atrophy, or centronuclear myopathy (CNM).

The health certificate will come in handy if you ever decide to breed your golden retriever but also to be sure that your puppy is healthy genetically if any issues arise throughout its lifetime.

The veterinary documentation a puppy must have includes proof of vaccination, initial health check-up, deworming, and proof of flea treatment.

The breeder must provide you with the originals of each certificate when you buy the puppy.

However, getting a second opinion from your trusted veterinarian after taking the puppy home is always worth it.

Some breeders have veterinarians as friends or are veterinarians themselves and will write the puppy is perfectly healthy without actually checking it.

Lastly, a reputable breeder must provide you with a contract of sale. A contract isn’t mandatory by American Kennel Club’s rules, but it’s necessary to protect both the breeder and the new owner, so experienced breeders always have one.

The contract typically outlines information about the puppy and the price, the breeder’s and owner’s names, contact details, responsibilities and protections, and options if something goes wrong.

For example, if the puppy dies from a genetic fault, the breeder may replace it.

Many people are confused as to whether their dog needs a pet passport. In the European Union, a pet passport is an actual passport, a little book with vaccination stamps and basic information about the animal.

However, in the U.S., a pet passport refers to a set of documents like the registration certificate and health certificate. In other words, you don’t need a dog passport if you’ve received all the necessary paperwork.

However, you can buy a pet passport book to record all the information in a more convenient format. The passport must be filled out by a licensed veterinarian and not by hand by the owner.

Know The Breed Standard

Before you visit a kennel to see the puppies, familiarize yourself with the golden retriever breed standard – you can find it on the American Kennel Club or the Golden Retriever Club of America websites.

Note that the breed standard may differ slightly by country, so if you’re buying a puppy abroad, it may not fully comply with the American standard.

For example, the American standard states that too light coat color is undesirable, but it’s acceptable by the British standard. When you see the puppies, try to identify which better fits the breed description.

Note that checking a puppy’s compliance with the breed standard isn’t as easy as it seems. It requires experience, and AKC dog show judges study the standard for years to adequately evaluate each dog.

Still, you can at least note the breed’s most important traits and faults. But don’t expect a puppy to be perfect – such cases are rare, and most breeders leave perfect dogs in the kennel for breeding.

Check The Pedigree

For first-time dog owners, a pedigree is just a piece of paper. Many owners don’t know how to read a dog’s pedigree and how to know a dog’s pedigree is legit. Meanwhile, the pedigree can tell you a lot about your puppy.

American Kennel Club pedigrees typically list the puppy on the left hand-site.

You can see the dog’s full name, breed, color, birth date, and registration number. Moving to the right, you will see the same information about the sire and dam.

The next column will show the puppy’s grandparents, then great-grandparents, etc. If you inspect the names in the puppy’s pedigree, you may notice some of them contain abbreviations indicating titles or health information.

For example, “CFC” states for “Field Champion,” “CDX” – “Companion Dog Excellent,” and “CWGN” – “World Champion Supreme Grand Nite Champion.” The title may be a suffix or prefix to the name.

By checking how your puppy’s ancestors excelled, you can get an idea of its quality. Puppies of champion bloodlines typically comply with the breed standard and may even be considered show-class.

Make sure all dogs in your puppy’s pedigree are listed as the same breed, and there’s no close inbreeding.

However, the same name can appear in the pedigree more than once after at least three generations – this is a common practice known as linebreeding.

Now, you may wonder how to verify a dog’s pedigree. A legitimate American Kennel Club pedigree must have a gold, embossed AKC seal in the bottom left corner and be printed on watermarked paper, but the identification signs may differ by the club.

Check The Registration Certificate

The pedigree is the most informative paper in a puppy’s document package, so you won’t find any new information in the registration certificate. However, you should ensure it’s legit because there’s always a chance of a scam.

The registration certificate’s look may differ by issuing organization, but it always contains your puppy’s unique identification number.

If you aren’t sure you can trust the breeder, you can contact the issuing organization and ask to verify the paper.

Questions To Ask The Breeder

Documents and health checks aren’t yet a guarantee of great temperament and lack of other issues. To ensure that the kennel is legitimate and your puppy will make a good companion, make a list of questions to ask the breeder.

Ask to meet the puppy’s parents and see where the puppies live. Kennel clubs don’t check the conditions in which puppies are kept when issuing documents, so even breeders keeping dogs in unsanitary and inhumane conditions can obtain registration papers.

Ask how long the breeder has been breeding dogs and why they decided to do that. You’d want to buy a puppy from someone experienced and genuinely passionate about their job and who doesn’t do it solely for money.

Find out how the breeder socializes their puppies. Ask whether the puppies have been around people and other dogs. Pay attention to their behavior – they shouldn’t be unusually shy or scared.

Ask when you can take the puppy home – a reputable breeder will only give away a puppy after it’s eight weeks old.

Things To Be Aware Of

When choosing a puppy, watch out for the signs of a bad dog breeder. If a breeder sells a golden retriever puppy for less than it’s worth, ask why.

Some people set a lower price because they spare on the documents and health checks or breed dogs illegally. If a breeder refuses to give you a pedigree, you may suspect illegal breeding or a mix of breeds.

Stay away from people who breed golden retrievers under two years old because these dogs can only obtain a hip and elbow clearance after two years old. The dam also shouldn’t be too old or have over one litter per year.

Be aware of breeders who deny the possibility of any genetic problems in golden retrievers and say that tests are unnecessary. Reputable breeders make genetic tests for all dogs and puppies because they are aware of the risks.

Lastly, be careful with breeders who don’t ask you questions. Breeders who genuinely care about their dogs want to know as much as possible about the prospective owners and can even deny selling a puppy to someone they don’t deem suitable.

Sources