Light golden Golden Retriever Puppies

Light golden is the shade between cream and the classic mid golden most people picture when they hear the breed name. It is the most common coat we produce, and it is the one that changes most between eight weeks and three years.

Expect the puppy to darken. A light golden puppy at seven weeks will usually be a shade or two deeper by its second birthday, and the change happens gradually rather than all at once. If you are choosing on colour and you want the adult dog to stay pale, a light golden puppy is a gamble, and a cream one is the safer bet.

Read the ears, then read the parents. The ear fur is the best available preview of the adult coat, but the honest answer is that both parents tell you more than the puppy does. Ask any breeder to show you both, in daylight, and look at their ears and the feathering on the back of the legs rather than at the body.

The feathering comes in late. The long fur on the chest, tail and legs is barely present at eight weeks and fills in over the first eighteen months. A light golden puppy that looks slightly plain and leggy at three months is entirely normal, and it is not a sign that the coat will be poor.

Grooming is the same for every shade in the breed: a proper brush through twice a week, more in spring and autumn when the undercoat goes. Colour makes no difference to how much a Golden Retriever sheds, whatever you have read.

The light golden Golden Retriever puppies here are below. Bear in mind that this is the shade that moves most, so what you are looking at now is a puppy that will very probably be a shade or two deeper at two years old.