How Long Do Golden Retrievers Live?

The average lifespan of a golden retriever is typically listed as 10-12 years.

Still, experts say we just don’t have enough data to accurately determine golden retrievers’ life expectancy.

Lots of factors play a role in lifespan: diet, body condition, exercise and fitness, quality of preventative veterinary care, exposure to toxins, and stress. To fully understand the genetic and environmental risk factors associated with longevity, you would need large-scale research studies that follow a group of dogs through their lifetimes, but those types of studies are difficult and expensive to do.

Without that information, the lifespan ranges you see online are really just estimates. But to give your new pup the best chance at living a long, healthy life, start by buying from a responsible golden retriever breeder.

How good golden breeders screen for heritable health conditions

Goldens are prone to inherited disorders like hip dysplasia and subaortic stenosis (a partial obstruction of the heart), but good breeders start screening for health issues before your puppy is even born to make sure it starts off on the right foot. 

“The parents’ heart, eyes, hips, elbows — that’s the minimum,” says Tracy Urban, the breeder behind Glenmac Goldens in Redding, California. “And that will cost me between $500 and $1000 dollars per dog to get those certifications.”

(To see Good Dog’s health testing requirements for golden retrievers, click here.)

Once a female golden retriever has her litter, a responsible breeder will get your puppy vaccinated against potentially life-threatening diseases like parvo. They’ll also make sure your puppy is checked for worms. But while good breeders do extensive health testing and provide great early care, there’s always a chance your dog could develop some form of illness later in life.

“My youngest dog that I’ve bred that has died was 8 ½, due to cancer,” says Pat Swallows, the breeder behind Topmast Goldens in Otisville, MI. “The parents both lived long lives, so I don’t know where it came from.”

Golden retrievers and cancer

In 1999, a health survey published by the Golden Retriever Club of America (GRCA) came to the grim conclusion that goldens are highly prone to developing incurable forms of cancer. And what’s worse, those cancers can develop in dogs as young as age two.

According to Gayle Watkins, Ph.D., the breeder behind Gaylan’s Golden Retrievers in Highlands, NC, cancer is the single biggest threat to goldens right now — and it’s having a serious impact on golden retriever lifespan. When she started breeding goldens in the 1970s, she writes, the average lifespan of a golden retriever was around 12 ½ years, but now it’s down to 10. She and other breeders attribute that decline at least in part to a shallow gene pool.

“In the years since the ‘70s and ‘80s, breeders have unintentionally bred into lines that had lower longevity, but brought something else to the table,” says Watkins. “They were top-winning show dogs, they were top-winning field trial dogs. They were bred a lot, and they ended up having short lives or contributing in some way to cancer.”

The Morris Animal Foundation’s Golden Retriever Lifetime Study, the first of its kind, hopes to yield advances in cancer screening and prevention, and the University of Minnesota’s Shine On Project is doing major research as well. But for now, cancer is always a very real possibility.

Dorie Campbell, a golden retriever owner living in New York City, lost her first golden, Chloe, to bone cancer in 2017. Although she was given excellent medical care throughout her life, Chloe died at 14.

“She was diagnosed at 13 ½,” Campbell says. “But I can’t complain because you rarely get golden retrievers for much longer than that.”