Admirers of the breed appreciate its beauty, much it found in a lustrous coat in shades of gold, but the Golden Retriever is first and foremost a working dog, a workmate to hunters. For that reason, coat texture is far more important than color.

A Golden’s coat can be straight or wavy, but it must be firm, resilient, dense, and water-repellent with a good undercoat and lying close to the body. Anything less fails to provide the protective qualities of a correct coat because it fails to repel or shed moisture and dampness. In the water, too much coat absorbs too much water making it harder to swim, but a soft, limp, silky coat also absorbs water to the extent that when the dog emerges out of the pond, they take most of it out with them. There’s an old slang term used by Golden people to describe a Golden Retriever with excessive coat length and improper texture: Swamp Collie. Collie folk shouldn’t take umbrage. A moniker affectionately given to Boykin Spaniels is “Swamp Poodle.” We’ve come to decide that “Swamp (fill in the blank)” is pretty amusing.

Images: Top photo from Deposit Photo; Middle photo by ©Renate Hartland/Dreamstime