I’m considering getting a dog, most likely a retreiver or lab, what are the pros and cons of a Golden retriver/lab cross. I don’t intend to breed them or anything so KC stuff doesn’t matter or does it?

All things being equal – ie. done all the checking-out you can do, all that, I don’t think it makes any difference at all. Some pure bred dogs can be in-bred, some crosses can be well bred.

I like mine anyway.

Mixed breeds generally suffer far fewer inherited defects that pedigree dogs can exhibit. Breathing problems with snub nosed dogs like boxers, pugs and bulldogs, hip displasia in breeds like German Shepherds. They seem to have better behaviour too, although training goes a long way to alleviate this. Pedigree dogs are fine, but you must be sure of the animal’s bloodline to avoid inherited defects, and a good animal is going to be expensive. Really, a mutt is likely to be a much happier, fun dog that will probably live longer too. I’m not a dog person really, but I’ve had two dogs in my family that were Heinz dogs (57 varieties), both were well behaved, even tempered animals that both lived to around sixteen, seventeen years.

Commonly thought that cross breed dogs have less health problems. However probably mostly true for real cross breeds ie not just a mix of 2 breeds.

Lots of these Labradoodles and Cockerpoos going for a lot of cash.

Advantage of pure breed in these situations is that the parents are more likely to have been hip and elbow scored and eye tested, disadvantage they may have been more closely bred in the 1st place.

As a family dog I would say Labrador rather than Retriever as generally more reliable temperament. Quite a few sharp Retrievers out there.

I had one collie cross, and one purebred collie. I know i’m extrapolating from a small sample, but the crossbreed was happier, healthier and lived longer. I’ll never have another purebreed, its tantamount to animal abuse in some cases.