The English cream Golden Retriever is a variety of one of the two main types of Golden Retrievers: The English Golden retriever and the American Golden retriever. English Golden Retrievers are also referred to as “British Golden Retriever”, “European Golden Retriever”, “English Background Golden Retriever”, “Golden Retriever of English type”, and “Golden Retriever of English breeding” among others.

In actuality, there is only one Golden Retriever breed type of dog. It is just that there are different breed standards for the Golden Retriever: the American breed standard and the British breed standard. (There are also those who differentiate the American from the Canadian breed standard.)

While the names “American Golden Retriever” and “English Golden Retriever” make it sound as if they are two completely different dogs, the names are only pertaining to the different appearances of this dog breed. Both the American and the English appearance types have further subcategories of the various looks of the Golden Retriever.

The English Golden Retriever is easy to distinguish from its American counterpart. For one, they are well-known and well-loved for their darkly pigmented nose and black eyes that brightly stand out against its cream or golden coat. The coat of the English Golden Retriever is also shorter than the American Golden Retriever. The coat typically lies flat against its body and may be straight or somewhat wavy. English Golden Retrievers, including the English cream golden retriever, also have shorter legs, squarer skulls, and flatter muzzles. Their body is built much stockier and they are bigger-boned. Their shoulders are wider and their hind quarters are more muscular than the American Golden Retriever.

The English Golden Retrievers can have two main shades, cream or golden, and the dogs are accordingly referred to as English cream golden retrievers and English golden retrievers. Other light coat shades have names such as ultra blonde, platinum blonde, and ultra light. Any color that is darker, such as sand, tan, fox red, and mahogany, is not considered an appropriate color for the distinctively light-shaded English Golden Retriever according to the official breed standard.

The coat colors for the English cream Golden Retriever may have many names, but the proper color name one should use to describe its light tint is cream. There are some dog breeders who wrongfully refer to this cream color as white. Some even claim that the so-called White Golden Retriever or White Retriever is a separate and rare dog breed. Buyers should be vigilant when encountering such breeders because they tend to jack up the selling prices for Golden Retriever puppies that have much lighter colors compared to the rest of the litter. It is naturally perfectly okay for a breeder to ask a higher price for a dog with a desirable coat color, but it is not okay to mislead prospective buyers into thinking that they are getting a certain breed when they are in fact getting a Golden Retriever with a pale coat. And because such breeders know that “white” Golden Retrievers can fetch much higher prices, some even completely forget about the proper breed type of the dogs just to achieve the lightest color possible. Lighter colored Golden Retrievers such as the English cream Golden Retriever might be the fad now, but the appearance of the dog must never be prioritized over fine health, correct temperament, good conformation, and other important characteristics. There are many dog breeds out there where appearance have been emphasized over everything else tells, and such breeds tells us important lessons about what that kind of breeding can lead to.