We strongly recommend purchasing from Hobby Breeders who compete in some facet of the sport.

Golden Retrievers are active in conformation, hunting, obedience, agility, and tracking. If the breeder is competing and involved in one of these areas, it is more likely that he or she is breeding to produce dogs that will perform well in these areas; in other words, breeding better Golden Retrievers.  Don't be fooled by the people who talk Championship lines.  Ask how many of their dogs have earned titles in the last 12 or 24 months under AKC or UKC sanction, not International titles.

Be concerned if the Breeder does not plan to keep a puppy out of the litter. Sometimes when you find a person breeding but selling every puppy, they may be just doing the breeding to make money. And if that is the case, you need to be concerned about whether they invested the time and effort and money in making sure it was the best breeding they could possibly do. If they are keeping a puppy, you can be more certain that they will have done their best.

There are times a breeder cannot keep a puppy. But when you talk to them about this you'll probably find it very easy to tell those that are just trying to make money from the responsible breeders who want to improve the breed.

Be concerned if the breeder owns both the brood bitch and the stud dog. In breeding good dogs, it is extremely common to either ship the mother (dam) or to have semen from the father (sire) shipped to the breeder. There are hundreds of stud dogs in the country. If, with all those choices available, the breeder chooses to only consider their own dogs, you may want to ask why.

What types of guarantees and contracts do they have? Most reputable breeders will use a written contract and they will include in that contract that they will take a dog back at any age for any reason. This is not to say that they will refund your money. But they will provide or find a home (in other words be responsible for) any dog that they have bred for the life of that dog.