Playing with the big dogs!

Last Sunday morning my family took me to meet up with some friends for a "dog walk" arranged by my Golden Retriever Club. Needless to say I had lots of fun running, jumping, swimming and getting pats. That is good pats from human hands, which are not to be confused with the cow pats and horse pats which some of the dogs found, sniffed, sampled and even rolled in during our walk!

Here are some of mum's photos - I'm on the left in the first photo...

Me waiting for my humans to catch up!

Now for a quick lesson as many of you have commented on my pale blond colour (or "color" if you are American), but here our breed standard is similar to the British breed Standard so us goldies are often lighter than our American friends.


The British Kennel Club breed standard is:
Colour
Any shade of gold or cream, neither red nor mahogany. A few white hairs on chest only, permissible.


Our NZ Kennel Club breed standard is:
Colour:
Any shade of gold or cream, but neither red nor mahogany. The presence of a few white hairs on chest permissible. White collar, feet, toes or blaze should be penalised. Nose should be black.

Americans tend to prefer their dogs darker so that is what they are more used to seeing. The American Kennel Club standard is:
Color
Rich, lustrous golden of various shades. Feathering may be lighter than rest of coat. With the exception of graying or whitening of face or body due to age, any white marking, other than a few white hairs on the chest, should be penalized according to its extent. Allowable light shadings are not to be confused with white markings. Predominant body color which is either extremely pale or extremely dark is undesirable. Some latitude should be given to the light puppy whose coloring shows promise of deepening with maturity. Any noticeable area of black or other off-color hair is a serious fault.

Here is a picture of me - I am the one on the left.

The darker and lighter dogs in the water with me both meet our standard for colour (both of these dogs have won prizes at breed shows) so while I am pale (especially if you are used to seeing American GR's), I'm not as pale as some of the dogs in New Zealand.



Here are some more photos of the chaos and fun...

Wishing you all a good weekend,

Woofs,

Riley