I am a golden retriever lover...

Question
I am a golden retriever lover and I have this dog that looks  like one except his coat is a brilliant golden reddish color he has most of the characteristics of the golden retriever hes very sweet and very playful. Also the tip of his tounge is purple Im just curious is my dog part golden retriever or what?  

Answer
Sort of ''Why does that Irish Setter have such a big, square head?''.  I wish I had a good picture of Brick to link to.  He is a huge, gorgeous Golden named for his color.  Nice boy.  He is a demo dog for a service dog school.  I don't remember if he has spots on his tongue, but many Goldens do.  I don't know if I have seen Golden crosses with other than Labs.  Many of them come out looking very Lab, although my Sheba's coat is just too fine, curly, and long to be all Lab.  I met a couple of her litter mates and they are the same except more like a yellow Lab.  The only way to really sort out a dog's breed is DNA.  As you have described him, I have seen many pure Goldens that looked like that.

We visited the dog guide school school recently. Thought I would share some of what I learned.  One of their veterinarians gave a talk on current hazards. Xylitol, a newer artificial sweetener finding wide use in sugar free gums, is very bad for dogs, see http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=2&aid=75125 The word on grapes and raisins being toxic to dogs has been around for a while, but new findings show some dogs are very sensitive to them, only taking a few to kill them. Her last point was bottle caps. Their sharp edges can cut dogs internally is swallowed. And like many other things, they can block the digestive tract.  She had some nice X-rays of dogs that had swallowed all sorts of things.  They fish the bottle caps out with a magnet.  Other stuff, they have to operate.