The finest tool for a prospective puppy purchaser or breeder to use for investigating the pedigree of a puppy or the ancestral lineage of a particular parent is  http://k9data.com   Please keep in mind that this site is an 'honor' system, which means that the information is only as honest and reliable as the person who input it.  It is a great source for determining whether a breeder's 'English Cream' is really an imported dog, or merely a light blonde American they are passing off as imported. Look to the foreign registry - there is provision on this site for Country of origin.  If an animal is Fully English, but bred from imported parents, you could click on the parents and determine their origins.  And a tip for people who are new to researching pedigrees - titles such as CH (Champion) or SH CH (Show Champion) appear before the dog's name.  There may also be a reference to the arena in which the title was achieved.  Agility, obedience, etc generally appear after a dog's name.

If you see names in the pedigree such as Goldrush, Pekay, Jayba, Asterling etc....these are American kennels and would indicate an American lineage. Also I would advise that if you are researching an animal and you click back more than a couple generations and they are AKC registered, this is probably not an English animal.  Canadian animals have had English influence for longer than we have here in American so you might go back a few generations there.  Because of the travel exchanges between England and Canada, diversity has remained stronger in those Canadian lines.  There are many European Kennels of fame and note, but I will attempt to name the superlatives (with an apology to excellent kennels whom I may have omitted).  By far and above the finest and most accomplished Golden Retriever to have ever walked the earth is Camrose Cabus Christopher.  http://www.camroseretrievers.co.uk/achievements.htm   The greatest influence on the breed is the great Joan Tudor - a legend in Golden Retriever circles.  Because it is my goal to have only the finest for my breeding stock, my lines include this animal as the highest genetic contributor.  With that dog as an example; Camrose is the kennel.  Other kennels would include Erinderry, Standfast, Stanroph, Majik, Styal, Ritzilyn, Dewmist, Dream Max, and Morning Valley

**As a warning to pedigree reviewing.  There are an increasing number of 'English Breeders' - you really need to look at pedigrees more than ever!  There are two very famous English puppy mills here in America that sell full registration animals to people without concern of the future breeding practices.  We are now seeing these animals in breeding and would be an easy giveaway to the quality of their breeding program.  If they are using these dogs; their hearts were not aimed at producing healthy wonderful examples of the breed.  One of the Kennels is easy to discover as they advertise heavily.  Any search of English Golden Retrievers will bring them up.  The other is a kennel formerly in Arizona and now located in Kentucky I think.  For me, finding their kennel names in a pedigree would automatically be a no!  Really a good reputable breeder will not have to advertise on the internet and can rely solely upon referral and reputation to keep litters under steady reserve.  If someone is using puppy mill animals in their breeding program that really says a lot.  Same with Americans in the lineage - be very careful if you see American or Canadian lines in an 'English' pedigree.  You could have English lines in a Canadian program, but you could also have Americans in there too.  BE CAREFUL.

Here is an example of my Johnny's pedigree.  Note the Champions of Multi International title.  When viewing the pedigree, be advised that the ancestors are all hot linked - many with photos of the animal.  Please note as well that (yes I am bragging) this is not an average pedigree, this is not even a great pedigree, this is a pedigree you will likely not find a match as excellent here in the US.  There may be a handful of animals of this stature here.   http://k9data.com/pedigree.asp?ID=216868  

In the previous paragraph we discussed the quality of Champions in the line.  This means that the animals individually were so superlative that they could outshine their peers in the conformity ring.  Generations of health, testing, and only breeding champions or near champions together to guarantee the excellence of the conformity of a puppy.  Another important factor in breeding is breeding for TYPE.  Take Snowflake as an example, this breeder started with the Champion factor in her lines, but through generations of breeding in methods called linebreeding and outcrossing she chose characteristics that she wanted to blend and 'harden' in her lines.  This may have been breeding a blocky head stud with her blockiest of females and then crossing that puppy years later with an outside dog that had a full, luxurious coat.   In this method, each small aspect of the whole is taken into consideration and the breeder must be able to acknowledge the strengths of their lines and more importantly the weaknesses in order to provide the right blend of redundancy with corrective outcrossing to perfect the look (and or temperament) of the dog as a whole.  This can only be achieved when you have the reputation to access other superlative lines and the patience to wait for years and generations to continually improve your own lines.  This type of breeding doesn't always include the flash of Pedigree, but it improves the health and conformity in attaining a TYPE through diversity (an important, often overlooked factor, in preventing genetic defects from entering one's lines).

Lastly on the issue of comparing American Goldens and English Goldens.  As I've said before, they came from the same place; Scotland is where this breed was developed.  However, due to differences of standard from the AKC vs. virtually all the rest of the world - they really have quite a few differences.  I contend, as always, that the beauty is not in the coat color; but in the health heritage and the temperament traditions.  Here is an interesting link that does some analysis on the body types and their differences between the breed standards.  http://brightongoldens.com/AboutGoldens.html   I do want to point out however that the particular website is of a Pet Broker - not a breeder.  This person imports the puppies and then resells them - not ideal IMHO.  It is an interesting analysis of the two types of Goldens.  I actually hope that one day the AKC wouldrecognize an English Golden Retriever, much like we have English Springer Spaniels or English Bulldogs etc.  The differences are huge and becoming more so. 

So, go see for yourself the standard as dictated by THE Kennel Club (UK) http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/item/108

And, our standard as dictated by the AKC (and don't even get me started about the CKC or the UKC; if a person COULD register their dog with the AKC, they WOULD!)  http://www.akc.org/breeds/golden_retriever/

Does your breeder even know what withers, flew, stop or gait are?  Do they know where the ear should attach to the head?  Who was the greatest and most influential Golden Retriever to have lived?  Yeah sure, they know about goldens.

On occasion someone will ask me about my opinion on 'Golden Doodles'.  Well, as you are already aware, I am one opinionated dog breeder!  Boy oh boy do I have an opinion about that abomination.  Look, a poodle is a fine dog for some people.  There are poodle enthusiasts the world wide and I'm sure for their particular purpose and characteristics, Poodles are just fine.  BUT A POODLE TEMPERAMENT AND A GOLDEN'S TEMPERAMENT COULDN'T BE FURTHER APART!!  I think that a Golden is the finest all around dog you can fine.  Loving, loyal, smart, companionate, humorous, gentle, patient, but that is not the same as a poodle.  What will you end up with; a poodle in a golden's body or a golden in a poodle's body?  A sweet loving Golden with the yippy un selfassured nature of a poodle?  Golden's have much heavier frames than poodles do.  Did the solid body type get mixed onto a light poodle frame?  Oh and the fur, the fur....the breeders brag about the fur.  They are taking the hypoallergenic properties of the poodle and hoping to improve the temperament of the poodle as well.  What happens if you get the Golden's shedding coat and a poodle temperament?  There are just too many unknowns in this experiment.  This is why we have breed standards.  The Golden's was dictated to be one way and the poodle's another.  This is a bad, unreliable experiment that has ended poorly on more than one occasion.  Get the poodle if you want one, get the golden if you don't; don't get the mix!

What do you get when you cross a Golden doodle with a Cock-a -poo?    A Cocka-Doodle-do-Poo!       That is just how ridiculous it is.