Why does my golden retriever have short hair ?

I know my 6 year old golden retriever is a pure bred golden. I got him as a puppy and paid full price for a pure bred golden retriever! My vet proved that he was pure bred, too. I am so unsure as to why he has short hair !It's kind of long on his shoulders and his hair is also kind of long on his tail but for some reason not on his stomach and rest of his body like other goldens do have. Do I have a short haired golden ?

It may just be your dog's hair folicles, not all dogs of one breed has the same length hair, your dog just may have shorter than average length hair for his breed.

what danny said.

Did you shave your dog? Some Golden Retrievers are bred with shorter coats. Dogs with short coats are bred to other dogs with short coats and the coats generally get shorter and shorter until they look almost like a Labrador Retriever. It's all genetics. Some Golden Retrievers just have short hair. They definitely exist, but aren't common. It's more of a genetic mutation within the breed.

their genes

based on any creatures genes they will express different traits. it appears as though you golden has a co-dominate Expression( both the Dominate and ressive traits are shown) of the length of hair triat and this is possible if the parents had the allelesRr and RR or Rr and Rr or RR and rr or Rr and rryour dog must have the Rr genome for long hair

There is no short haired golden, the breed is as is. The coat is determined by breeding, did you see the parents? I have seen hundreds of Golden's as they go into the show ring just before my breed goes in so you can't help but watch them, some have longer hair than others, I guess it's something that breeders that show have to look for when they purchase a puppy, it may be a genuine fault.Unless you are showing your dog, don't stress too much, no dog is perfect, each has it's faults, just love him for what he is.

I have a friend that has a pure bred golden retriever. One time I mentioned to him that his golden looked very different from any I had ever seen. I mean, he is a beautiful dog and all, but he just didn't have the retriever look that I was used to seeing! My friend's explaination was: there are two primary types of Goldens. The show dog type that is light colored, poofy and teddy bear like. And the other is more for hunting and sports (THIS is like my friend's dog!!) this type has shorter hair, not fluffy at all and has a darker golden color then the show dog. This may explain why your golden has a different coat than you would expect. Just a thought!

There is no such thing as a short furred Golden Retriever.Just because you paid for a purebred doesn't mean you recieved a purebred dog. People lie to get a quick dollar all the time and even mixed breeds can look purebred. Vets also have no way to prove the dog is purebred either. They can take an educated guess but many vets may not know specific breeds and do not know standards and can't tell a well bred dog from a poorly bred one (no fault to them, it's just not their area of expertise- heck I can look at an Australian Shepherd or American Pit Bull Terrier and have a good idea of the confirmation because those are the breeds I deal with. Put a Great Dane in front of me and I'm clueless). Some vets will recommend the new breed testing kits they have but those are not reliable and have been proven as such. Unless you have papers from a reputable kennel club such as the American Kennel Club or the Golden Retriever Club of America there is nothing to prove the dog is purebred. There are also clubs out there that are not at all reputable such as the Continental Kennel Club which will give you papers but that aren't worth the paper they are printed on considering they will register a rock as a Poodle if you're willing to give them the money  (My pet rat was registered as a Chihuahua for proof of such when doing a project, I just regret that I gave them a dime, but it proved a point). Assuming the dog is actually purebred it could be that the dog was not well bred. There are tons and tons and tons of registered purebred dogs out there that don't fit the standard because of backyard breeders and puppy mills. Just because a dog is purebred doesn't mean it should be bred. The dog may just not fit the standard and have a strange coat.There are also working line Golden Retrievers that tend to not have quite as fluffy coats as the show dogs so they do not get tangled in brush. However these dogs are still long furred and individuals breeding working dogs are not generally willing to sell to pet homes. 

Even in a pure breed there can be some genetic variation, like in a father and a son. If your 100% sure he's a purebred then it's just a little change.