I agree that any kind of extreme breeding be it smashed faces in Persian cats or over angulated German Shepherds can lead to health problems. You can still find old types of these breeds though - there are people who breed field-type labs and goldens. However, I’m going to pick apart the above statement a bit… humor me. 
You stated “nature”. I’d say that the only mixes that aren’t manipulated by humans in some way had 2 strays as parents - and they generally don’t live in large packs where the strong would rise to the top. Usually it’s the above mentioned Joe Shmoe who thought it would be cool to put Scruffy in with the neighbor’s dog so the kids can experience the “miracle of birth”. That is not what you are talking about above - which I would agree with if dogs were truly wild. It is the sad truth that most people breed their dogs with no thought other than how much money they can sell the pups for and no thought as to where the pups end up (i.e. the pound). There are lots of people cashing in on the current ‘Poo-dog’ phase and I doubt most of them know a lick about genetics - just put any two dogs together and make some pups. Check out some of the puppymillers who purposely breed mutts and sell them for exhorbitant prices to unsuspecting people - they do not use good stock. That’s why I say hybrid vigor is a myth.
There is nothing wrong with pound puppies, which I hope I didn’t imply.
After reading this I am more likely to go through a rescue agency but just wanted to add that when my parents bought our family’s Golden they went to a breeder. They negotiated a much lower price because she had prominent white markings which made her less desirable to show. We thought she looked just fine.
You could also check out Petfinder. There are 450 Goldens and Golden mixes on there right now:
Petfinder
I need to mention that a GOOD breeder breeds for health as well as standard. Not all breeders are breeding for the perfect show dog, some are bred to be working dogs. If you choose to want a puppy from a breeder, join some Golden lists and start meeting people. Any good breeder will want to meet you and get to know you before letting you take one of their dogs home. They will give you the third degree, and that’s a good thing!
A good breeder will always be there for you for the life of your dog.
If you choose to go rescue make sure you take the same precautions. A good rescue will temperament test dogs, as well as give them a medical check up. Again, look for a place that will be there for you for the life of the dog. Adopting a rescue can be just as much fun as bringing home a puppy!
There are also lots of shelter dogs that you can also look into, but you rarely have the temperament testing or the health checkup beforehand. I’m NOT dissing shelter dogs, just make sure you bring the whole family down to play with the dog and ask a lot more questions. (Good with other dogs, kids, cats etc. Some shelters just don’t have the manpower and resources to test all dogs that come in.) Take the dog for walks outside to see how it interacts with others.
I really suggest you seek out some Golden lists and start asking some breeders & rescuers lots of questions. Try this one first and go from there:
Good luck!
I had a golden as a child and if I had my choice I’d get another one this afternoon if I coudl take care of it.
The dog was indestructible, really. He took flying leaps off our deck (a story above the ground), drank Round-Up, and ate two pounds of chocolate fudge as a puppy. The first two didn’t phase him (though it confused the poison control people) the last made him walk a bit funny for a few hours. We did get him from a breeder, but we had no health problems until he was very, very old. (He lived until he was 13 and then we had him put to sleep when his liver failed. Hardest decision I think I have ever made, I loved that dog…)
He was constantly loving, energetic, happy. You have to be dedicated to excersizing him every day, for as long as he lives. And he will shed and want to play constantly. (The shedding can be helped by getting him a buzz cut twice a year or so…Not breed standard grooming, but who cares?)
They love people, will put up with anything kids will do to them. (Ours had three little girls and we put him through the wringer, never growled at us no matter what we did to him. ) They are hard to obediance train though, at least ours was. He was stupid, rock dumb, and just didn’t learn all that quickly. We took him to a trainer and that helped. He got basic obediance stuff down, but never much else.
Golden’s are great dogs. Sweet, harmless (though they can surprise you, we never thought he had a mean bone in his body until somone tried to mug my mom on her walk in the morning.) indestructable, energetic, all around good guys.
Whoa! I think i have a lot more research to do before I actually pick a breeder/rescue/shelter dog… yikes! It will probably be a few months before I do get a dog, so i will definatly make sure i check things out in the mean time. I sure hope my dog doesn’t ever drink any round-up!
I have subscribed to the golden mailing list suggested and I found a rescue organization here in alberta Thanks for the help!
Just a note that there is a big difference between goldens bred for field work and goldens bred for show work. The field lines are usually smaller, have a LOT more energy, and tend to have more of a reddish curly coat. The bench/show goldens are blonder, fluffier, and less energetic. I have a good friend who’s heavily involved in field goldens. She says they are almost like two separate breeds at this point. There is apparenly almost no one who breeds for both show and field in the U.S anymore.
My family’s first golden was bred for hunting, and turned out to be incredibly gun shy. (No toy guns in the house, she couldn’t handle them. Not even the ones that only vaguely resembled guns… if it propelled another object it was out.) The second was a rescue. Who had been abused - certain things caused her to cringe (but we knew that and could easily avoid those things).
The only real cons were the shedding (the exercise needs were fairly easy to handle), gold hair everywhere.
And the carrying things. Soft objects within dog reach didn’t tend to stay where you’d put them. (We’d gotten in trouble for a while for not putting our toys away, until my mother found Amber picking up the stuffed animals from the box where they belonged and moving them around the room, just carrying them from one place to another.)
Ours also did stalk things, so they would see a bird in the middle of the lake and attempt to catch it. Or hear a squirrel and try and creep up on it. Which is hard on your arms when you’re holding the leash.
Pros: Just incredibly sweet dogs.
They loved being around us (these dogs do need attention). One didn’t bark at all, the other only very rarely.
They could be completely trusted around children (though it would be foolish not to watch them).
Plus, they’re gorgeous. (which is superficial, but cool nonetheless).
Let’s see…save for the three years I’ve been at college, I 've had at least one, if not two, goldens in my house. The first one was trained as a bird dog, and as such was very intelligent, butm sadly, his foot got ran over by a car and he had a permanent limp. 
But he was a great dog. The second came when the first was ~12 years old. He was much larger, and much dumber. After the first one died a few years later, the newer one always seemed sadder, because he lost his playmate. He then died a few years later as well. Both dogs had hip problems later in life, and the first one went deaf, but they were still very loveable.
The newest dog my family has now is also a golden. This is the first one that we raised from a puppy, also the first girl. She chewed EVERYTHING she could get her mouth on. Nothing seemed to work to stop her, either. Not that bad-tasting spray, not scolding, nothing. She did grow out of it, though, and now only chews her toys. She always likes to carry around socks…not chew, just carry.
I love goldens, they are very friendly, and don’t have to be dumb if you take the time to train them right.
Sounds like you’re taking a good route, finn1911. I know the rescue I work with has a lot of dedicated volunteers, and VERY strict standards. We simply will not adopt a dog out without (a) the dog being in good health (or having known health problems – we successfully placed a dog recovering from demodectic mange last year with a young veterinarian, an ideal placement!), (b) a careful home visit by a knowledgeable person, which involves asking a lot of questions as well as taking a dog along to see how the prospective adopters interact with a dog (we had one applicant who never touched the home visitor’s dog, which got her turned down!), © temperament testing and occasionally remedial work with a trainer before placement, etc.
So I hope your Alberta group can answer lots of questions for you, and help you find the perfect dog! I’d offer to see if we could send up one of ours, but crossing the border is enough of a challenge for humans!
I worked as a dog groomer for a summer and learned about all the many skin problems of the Goldens. We tended to get a lot of Golden Retrivers that had sensitive skin that would get brush burn (a really nasty rash) from too much brushing very easily (you just have to be careful when you brush them, making sure you don’t go over the same spots multiple times). They also tended to have “hot spots,” which were itchy, red rashes on the skin that the dogs would lick and chew at (because they were itchy or painful), causing the hair to fall out in those patches. If you do get a Golden, use a sensitive skin soap to give him a bath and often times this will help. Also, Golden Retrivers do require quite a bit of grooming. They have a lot of fur that can get tangled and matted, so be ready to keep up with combing and brushing the dog regularly. For the most part though, the Goldens I have met have been sweet as pie. You might want to consider getting a shelter dog mutt with a shorter coat if you are not into all the grooming requirements of these dogs.
I ran into a nice lady at the petshop today while picking up cat litter. She had a Lab/Pitbull cross, it was a very handsome dog. She said she kinda lucked out and got a the Lab disposition and the pitbull coat and muscles, so much shorter hair. Whatdya think of that? What are the major differences between lab’s and retrievers?
I like labs…they’re cute and easier to care for, grooming-wise, than Goldens. They are retrirvers too actually! They do have a tendancy to get overweight, so you have to exercise them a lot and make sure to keep people food away from them though!
I raised a Lab and a Golden together for over 13 years and they are very different types of dogs. Of course, all dogs have individual temperments, but in general, my Golden was the very definition of sweet and mellow (she died in January).
My lab is still a very sweet and energetic, hyper dog at 13 years, 8 months of age. Their grooming requirements are similar–both shed like crazy. The golden tended to have an oilier coat, though, which she liked to rub on my couch.
They are both sweet, smart, loyal breeds, but the labs tend to need quite a bit more exercise than the Goldens. As I said, my almost 14-year-old lab is still extremely energetic.
I grew up with a golden retriever and they’re great with kids. Our dog never bit anyone in his life except for the vet one time (and let’s face it, that guy had it coming).
They are super-friendly. Everyone they meet will be their new best friend. That also means that they want a lot of attention.
They can learn a lot of tricks, but if you’re looking for rigid, show-dog-like obedience, you gotta go somewhere else, because they can be really hyper. Ours didn’t even begin to slow down noticeably until he was ten or eleven.
Their long hair is very striking, but as others have mentioned, it needs to be brushed often, especially in the ahem back.
We already had a couple of cats before we got the dog, and they all got along just fine. Well, they were never best friends or anything, but there were no actual injuries.
Our dog also liked to bark at anyone and everything that came within three hundred feet of our house. I don’t know if that’s a trait of the breed or if it was just our particular goofball.
He was also pretty gullible, which provided hours of entertainment to bored little kids.