I suspect a lot of problems we see with various breeds is a geographic/regional type of thing. What happens is that people start breeding dogs in an area and if there is a problem, it remains a problem because they don't go to another line somewhere else to eliminate the problem. There is a tremendous amount of "backyard" breeding that goes on. For every litter bred by someone who is experienced and knowledgeable, there are 50 litters (I have no idea how many....I just tossed out a number there) that are created by people who don't have a clue what they're doing. I can look in the newspaper any day of the week and find a litter of Labs for sale. In the spring I would estimate there are 4 or 5 litters for sale every week. Prices range from $200 to $500 per pup from what I've seen. If you go to a Retriever magazine and look at pups from the breeders who are serious and know what they are doing, they'll be selling for $600 and up and many will be $1,000 or more. It takes money to breed quality dogs.... OFA, CERF exams, Stud Fees for top quality dogs, etc. are not cheap. You just cannot afford to produce a quality litter of pups these days and sell them for $200, but that's what's happening and that's why we see so many health problems, temperament problems, etc.

I've used Labs here for illustration purposes.....I'm not picking on Labs. They're great dogs. I've seen the same thing happen with Goldens and to a lesser extent Chessies and probably only because there just aren't that many Chessies around compared to labs and Goldens.

The bottom line is (getting back to the original question in this post), regardless of whether you get a Lab or a Chessie, do your research and go with a breeder who knows what he's doing. If you do that, you'll have very good odds of getting a nice pup regardless of what breed you go with.