My Golden is about 11 now and totally white faced. I used to post a picture of him when he was young (it was carried on the Success Story page of Golden Retriever Rescue of Wisconsin 2002) but they’ve taken all those pics down — too old, I guess. So, I don’t have a good picture of him now.
He has the most regal head that I’ve ever seen on a Golden, complete with the occipital bump. My dog trainer (who hated Goldens) said that you have to “pay extra” for that bump. But he’s long, tall and lean and well porportioned. He weighs 78 lbs year round. Unlike my previous Golden, he doesn’t seem to gain weight. He just stays at 78. His hips seem to be good, no lameness at all.
His only medical problem seems to be and allergy to grass pollen at certain times of the year which causes him to scratch. We take care of that with mild doses of Prednisone.
Sounds so much like our first golden, Sandy. She was a rescue of sorts (not from an official rescue, but headed to the pound and a friend asked me if I wouldn’t like to take her instead and in a moment of weakness I, who had never SEEN a golden retriever and thought she meant a lab said, “sure!”. And a love affair started.
Sandy was an AWESOME hunting machine after my husband managed to get her over gun shyness. She was a late starter, we didn’t even get her until she was about 18 months old and she never saw a bird for some time after that. She was not anything anyone would look at in a show ring, but she was wonderful. I did put an obedience title on her, and that opened a whole new world to me. But she had allergies, which also required pred, unfortunately in fairly large doses as time went on. I need to find some photos of her to scan and put on my page so I can post them. She was quite a girl. Who cares if they can win in the show ring, they have golden hearts. Would love to see a pic of your boy. :)