Overweight goldens are a "pet peeve" of mine!  I believe it is so critical that you keep your dog at a healthy weight as there is a whole list of health issues linked to any dog being overweight, from poor joints to even cancers. Nothing that I do breeding wise or through health testing will help if your golden is severely overweight. According to data collected by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention 63% of golden retrievers are likely obese on the BCS rating scale, which is very similar to our human version of the Body Mass Index (BMI) rating.

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Being that most dogs are overweight and most medium/large breed puppies are growing too fast, Golden Retrievers have a huge chance of having hip and elbow dysplasia /arthritis as they get older. One main reason for this is because they have lived all or most of their lives carrying around far more weight than their joints were meant to carry.  Every time they run and jump an overweight golden will land with much more force on their joints than they were designed to due to the extra weight. This will eventually wear out their joints much faster.  Hip dysplasia surgery for a dog can range upwards of $7000 to $14,000 to replace both hips surgically just so they can walk again, not to mention the long road to recovery for such a surgery! This is why many people have to put their goldens down younger than expected because the golden can't walk but the owners do not want to or simply can not afford such an expensive surgery.