Golden Retriever vs Labrador: how to tell them apart
Both are British retrievers. The Golden has a flat or wavy, feathered coat in any shade of gold or cream; the Labrador has a short, dense coat with no wave or feathering, and is wholly black, yellow or liver. A yellow Labrador and a Golden can be the same colour, so look at the coat and the tail.
Six dogs: Golden Retriever, Labrador, or another breed?
Dog 1.
Photo: Canarian, CC BY 4.0 Dog 2.
Photo: IDS.photos from Tiverton, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0 Dog 3.
Photo: Fesoj-wr, CC BY-SA 4.0 Dog 4.
Photo: Barras, CC BY 3.0 Dog 5.
Photo: Original uploader was Keith Rousseau at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 Dog 6.
Photo: Mattias Agar, CC BY-SA 2.0
The two side by side
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| Golden Retriever | Labrador Retriever | |
|---|---|---|
| Home | Great Britain | Great Britain; popularly thought to have begun on the coast of Newfoundland |
| Bred as | A gundog | A retriever |
| Height, males | 56 to 61 cm | 56 to 57 cm, ideally |
| Height, females | 51 to 56 cm | 54 to 56 cm, ideally |
| Coat | Flat or wavy, with good feathering and a dense, water-resisting undercoat | Short and dense, without wave or feathering, fairly hard to the touch, with a weather-resistant undercoat |
| Colour | Any shade of gold or cream, neither red nor mahogany | Wholly black, yellow or liver (chocolate); yellows run from light cream to fox red |
| Tail | Carried level with the back, reaching the hocks, no curl at the tip | Very thick at the base, tapering, with no feathering: the “otter” tail |
How do you tell a Golden from a yellow Labrador?
The coat first. A Golden’s coat is flat or wavy, with good feathering: longer, softer-looking fringes of hair. A Labrador’s is short and dense, with no wave and no feathering at all, and feels fairly hard.
Then the tail. A Labrador’s tail is very thick at the base and tapers, covered all round in short, dense hair, which gives the rounded look its standard calls an “otter” tail, with no feathering. A Golden’s tail is carried level with its back and reaches the hocks.
Colour only helps at the edges. A Golden is any shade of gold or cream. A yellow Labrador runs from light cream to fox red, so the two overlap. A black or chocolate dog is not a Golden.
Height barely helps. Golden males stand 56 to 61 cm, Labrador males ideally 56 to 57 cm.
Can a Golden Retriever be black?
Not by its standard. It allows “any shade of gold or cream, neither red nor mahogany”, a few white hairs on the chest only, and says any other colour is unacceptable. A black retriever is far more likely to be a Labrador, which can be wholly black, or a Flat-Coated Retriever, which comes only in black or liver.
Where does each come from?
Both breed standards name Great Britain. The Labrador’s gives the longer story, carefully worded: it is “popularly thought” that the breed began on the coast of Newfoundland, where fishermen used a dog of similar look to retrieve fish. It was introduced to Britain in the late 1800s by Colonel Peter Hawker and the Earl of Malmesbury, made its name in field trials, and is not a very old breed: its breed club was formed in 1916 and the Yellow Labrador Club in 1925. The game counts both Canada and the United Kingdom as right for a Labrador.
Other retrievers that look alike
Flat-Coated RetrieverUnited Kingdom
Nova Scotia Duck Tolling RetrieverCanada
Chesapeake Bay RetrieverUnited States
Curly-Coated RetrieverUnited Kingdom
Facts from the Golden Retriever standard (No. 111) and the Labrador Retriever standard (No. 122), both of 8 September 2026. The dog age calculator is built on a study of Labradors.