The problem with the AKC show-type goldens are as follows: too much feathering, too much bone, and not enough leg. At least they aren't "white."
I’ve not been able to find good video of either of these breeds being shown, and I don’t want to use youtube videos, because I’m sure I’d tick off the users who posted them, particularly the show golden people. I think that video of the two breeds moving might give you some idea of what the problem is. I doubt that the promoters of this big dog show are going to hunt me down and troll this blog, so I’ll use their footage.
Here’s video of goldens (AKC show-type) being shown. Some of these dogs wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t have such excessive feathering. The heavy bone and short legs really does affect their movement. The gait is somewhat choppier than I would like in a working retriever.
And here are the flatties. The feathering is much more moderate. The bone is good but not cumbersome. The gait is fluid and even. These dogs can do the work for which they were bred. I don’t get that same impression from the goldens, although they sure are cute dogs. They look like golden teddy bears. And that’s precisely the problem. Remember, cuteness leads to coarseness.
These goldens are a long way from Michael of Moreton, FCh Rip, Ch. Noranby Diana, and Culham Brass.
But the flat-coats are being preserved as working dogs. It’s a shame that retrieving trials in the US tend to be designed for more water work, because the flat-coat could be a top upland game retriever, as it once was at the beginning of the twentieth century.
I know dogs can be shown as young as 6 months. But it amazes me how many of those dogs have puppy face. Cute, sure. But they literally have puppy faces… and they all can’t be puppies. The coat can’t grow that long in a puppy coat, can it?
And I agree with the cute = coarse observation. I ran across one of the teddy goldens at Agility practice and the thing almost took my shirt off. I’ve never seen such aggression from a Lab… but the only thing I could compare it to is Cocker rage.
Even the few pit bull attacks I’ve seen were a snap and done. This was more like my Aunt’s puppy mill cocker that should have been put down because the rage just didn’t stop until the dog was exhausted.
The problem is that they are breeding for a dog that has a low fear temperament, that is highly trainable, that is not aggressive, and is very calm. You can have three out of four, but not all four. Temple Grandin rights about how breeding for aggression is messing up the temperament of goldens and some Labs, and she blames it on breeding for calmness.
The dogs I had growing up would chew on the same bone together.
I agree that a balanced temperament is best. Take my Gemma, she is the sweetest little girl, she does cute things all the time, highly affectionate, a little needy, but she’s developed this fear of strangers. She’s doesn’t act the same with family as she does out in the world.
I’d say this was some flaw of mine in socialization, but her litter mate I also kept has none of the issues she does. It hasn’t been impossible to overcome, but I think that it’s easy to mistake submissiveness and even anxiety as “cute” and “affectionate.”
My guess is that you can breed too soft. Kind of like the human phenomenon you hear about… nerd rage… like Columbine and Virgina Tech. Kids who were submissive and shy nerds, didn’t really know how to be assertive enough to get by like normal people, and finally snapped.
I think people can do the same with dogs, like encouraging separation anxiety because they love the attention when they come home. Perhaps you can also breed this into your dogs.
It’s like spoiling them through genetics.