What lines do you consider are the best for temperament. Looking for calm, sweet, eager to please, trainable, retrieving probably in that particular order if I have to choose.

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You should look for working titles (obedience, rally, agility, tracking, therapy, hunt test, etc) in pedigrees to demonstrate most of the qualities you have asked about. Then you talk to the owners and breeders. These multi generational multi titled dogs are out there. Many of them are also beautiful champions.

Titles don't always tell the story, though, at least not entirely. Look for a breeder whose puppies are sought after by service dog organizations - they can't afford to train puppies that aren't trainable, calm, smart, etc..., so figure out very quickly whose puppies they want to work with over the long run.

Thanks for your recommendations. Never thought about Service dogs as what I want, but it is pretty much it.

Some service dog orgs have a breeding program. They can not always run on a big litter. They have to budget for the entire 2-year training, so may have more pups in a breeding than they can fit into the program. As a result, they may have pet pups available occasionally. Also, you might check on offering your services as a litter raiser in exchange for keeping a pup of your own from the litter. Most service dog groups need all the volunteers they can get to keep everything running smoothly

Thanks. I show/breed my dogs, so pets won't work for me. I was wondering, among the established show lines, which were known for having great temperaments. It is easy to get answers from friends when it is about conformation, but in general people don't pay so much attention to temperament.

I think that you are wrong to say that people who breed for conformation don't pay attention to temperament. What would make you say that?

I was going to reply to the post when someone suggested working - titled dogs. I think that the driven field and agility dogs are not the calmest type .

I don't think there is going to be a list of the "best temperament" lines to go to. Each time you do a breeding you may see something other than what is in the sire or dam. You may be able to say that , "in general", this sire produces an easy going dog, but every dog is different, every breeding is different and some breeders don't have all the same temperament in every dog they breed.

I would talk to people and listen to what they say in regards to what you are looking for - what their dogs can bring you. It's on a "puppy by puppy" basis and the breeder should be able to pick out what you want.

Temperament is just as, if not more, important than anything else for me. I personally love going to the specialties and seeing who has their boys in xpens together. If stud dogs can hang out with eachother with all the excitement (and plenty of girls in season around) you can be assured they've got pretty great temperaments. As far as working ability, go to some training days or hunt tests and see who's producing nice running dogs (or agility trials, obedience, etc). The total packages are definitely out there :)