Because many field-type goldens have white on them, I probably wouldn’t have recognized this dog as a mix.
My guess is the golden in this mix was a little lighter than normal. Although lighter tollers exist, most of them are fairly dark in color. However, today, it’s not very unusual to come across very pale colored goldens, which would lighten the color of this cross a little bit.
I think this cross produces a fairly attractive dog, although it’s somewhat difficult to tell if this dog is a crossbreed or just a working-type golden retriever.
I refer to Tollers as Goldens with breed faults, not true but it does get their attention.
I call them “little collie goldens.”
They do share two distant ancestors: the wavy-coated retriever and the St. John’s water dog.
But they have a lot of that English red decoy dog in them, plus some kind of recent collie. They are the only retriever to get Collie Eye Anomaly.
Something else, and I’ll put this mildy, tollers have a “somewhat less dynamic gene pool” than goldens have.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20136772
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20646119
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20101241
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19636550
Honestly?
The toller stands out to me more than the golden does…
even though it would be more common to see a golden cross than a toller cross. I find this especially in the face – the way the ears are set and the muzzle/pink nose, and in the positions of the white on the body. If I recoll correctly, the pictures of the goldens you’ve posted with white have had less white on them too…
I see a lot of goldens with high set ears. And with a lot of white on them.
The coat and head look more goldeny than tolerrish.
You can get goldens in working lines that have brown skin.
This is a pure golden from working lines that has more white on it than this toller cross:
https://retrieverman.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/golden-retriever-with-white.jpg?w=450&h=338
That particular dog I would suspect of having something other than pure Golden ancestry. Not just the white on the face, but the shape of the head and other factors.
https://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/some-more-goldens-with-white-on-them/
Second dog from the left has the same head as the toller cross.
I see more Toller in this cross than Golden Retriever. The leanness of the face, flatness of the skull, and higher set ears all scream Toller to me.
I don’t.
I see plenty of goldens with heads just like this.
They aren’t all blocky headed.
Tollers actually look more like collies of some sort than golden retrievers.
Check out this dog’s head and tell me they aren’t almost the same.
This is definitely a Golden/Toller mix? It looks absolutely gorgeous!
Are there breeders for these dogs?
I don’t think anyone breeds this dog intentionally.
http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/18846286
These dogs are really good lookers! It is a wonder (to me) that they aren’t bred!