Dog breed guide
Golden Retriever
The Golden Retriever is a kindly, friendly and confident medium to large gundog. It sheds moderately all year with heavier seasonal moults, so it needs brushing once or twice a week and more often during a moult. It needs plenty of daily exercise, is described as relatively easy to train, and suits a house with a garden.
Also searched as Golden, Goldie.
Golden Retriever at a glance
- Adult weight, male
- 29 to 34 kg
- Adult weight, female
- 25 to 32 kg
- Size
- Large, 25 to 40 kg
- Height
- 51 to 61 cm
- Lifespan
- 10 to 12 years
- Coat
- flat or wavy with good feathering, dense water-resisting undercoat
Ratings
Petboost editorial ratings from 1 to 5, drawn from the breed standard text under Sources. A breed with no basis in the sources for a rating shows none.
- Shedding
- Grooming effort
- Energy
- Trainability
- Good with children
- Suits an apartment
5 means it sheds heavily
5 means it needs the most grooming
5 means it needs a lot of exercise
5 means it learns quickly and eagerly
5 means it suits a family best
5 means it copes best in a small home
Next steps
- Find a local groomer or daycarePet businesses near you that take bookings online.
- Check a Golden Retriever puppy's weightWhere a puppy sits against the breed's adult range.
- Dog age in human yearsFrom a formula, not the seven-to-one rule.
Sources
- Petboost breed reference data, adult weight ranges (breed list snapshot).
- Dogs Australia, Golden Retriever Breed Standard, https://dogsaustralia.org.au/members/breeds/breed-standards/Golden-Retriever, read 2026-10-05
- American Kennel Club, Is the Golden Retriever the Right Dog Breed for You?, https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/dog-breeds/golden-retriever-right-for-you/, read 2026-10-05
- Dogs NSW, Golden Retriever, https://www.dogsnsw.org.au/breeds/browse-all-breeds/golden-retriever/, read 2026-10-05
- The Royal Kennel Club, Retriever (Golden), https://www.royalkennelclub.com/search/breeds-a-to-z/breeds/gundog/retriever-golden/, read 2026-10-05
General information about the breed, not veterinary advice. Speak with your vet about your own pet.