From sharriman2
I mean does anyone see that this is NOT what this breed is supposed to be!
This dog has real issues.
And they want to ban pit bulls?
Yes, that will take care of all the biting dogs in the country.
And if you believe that I’ve got some ocean front property just outside of Pheonix for you.
And there’s a Nigerian bulldog puppy waiting for you!
A good way to reduce dog bites is to breed supposedly “safe” breeds to have the absolute best temperaments possible.
These “safe” breeds often don’t get the training and socialization they need, and if you have a inbred tendency to get a little nasty that just starts to appear in these dog, you can have a nasty dog on your hands.
The golden retriever is one of the top breeds for biting in North America. And this is a real shame.
This breed has severe health problems.
So many lines have lost their biddability and “intelligence.”
But the one thing they had going for them was their wonderful temperament.
That’s why I keep saying that this breed must lose popularity. Only then can it be rehabilitated into the almost universally wonderful dogs that they once were.
I say this as someone who deeply loves the golden retriever, who would never be without at least one, and who cherishes these dog for what they are.
I dunno about this specific dog.
Tormented long enough by an idiot, almost any dog can become defensive.
Hey Prince — pull my finger!
You can tell by the look in this dog’s eyes that it’s serious about this. Somebody’s gonna get bitten.
After having watched these three clips, I think my brain has turned to jello at the sheer stupidity of people.
What Jean said.
Off to rinse my brain in a bleach solution.
Well, sad as it may sound, the damage will probably get worse before it gets better. When it becomes common to see ‘mean’ Goldens, demand will go down, and perhaps then the smaller population of ethical breeders can work on preserving what’s left.
I don’t know… Forced to live with these people, I may snap too…
I have a neighbor that taught a puppy to snarl and snap when it heard the rival football team’s name yelled in her face; cute, right? Uh, yeah. The next fall, she’s a year-old 90-pound dog. He wonders if she remembers the old trick. He yells the team’s name in her face–he gets bit on the lip. At least he was bright enough to blame himself.
Hard to say what idiocy some of these dogs have gone through.
Are retriever temperaments required to be outstandingly mild in the face of every taunt and indignity piled on over the years?
Maybe the answer is yes. But still…
Bad temperament? Possibly. Stupid owners? Definitely. Who on earth thinks that this is ‘cute’, other than morons?
Any dog of mine ever snarled at me when I tried to take something for it, and we’d be having a discussion about boundaries.
We are getting a lot of new cases of aggression goldens, so it’s probably a case of both. These dogs are losing their “angelic” temperaments.
Well maybe retrieverman but it could just be stupidity run rampant.
I have a 3 year old Golden who is wonderful, exhibiting ALL the best qualities of the breed – except, when another dog approaches his food bowl he goes into the red zone and will attack anopther dog big or small with the intention of serious bodily harm. Now is this atypical of the breed or just the wolf coming out in a perfectly normal way?
The dogs I had before shared recreational bones, so it is a deviation from their original temperament. And it’s a real deviation from their working temperament, because I’d hate to have to fight a dog off something he was supposed to retrieve.
Is he aggressive with people if they come too near his bowl?
Never, just other dogs.
Well, I’d tolerated it if it was just toward other dogs. He’s probably just the top dog teaching the others that he’s a benevolent leader but he has his limits. A lot of lead dog male goldens are like that. They are very good at being nice and benevolent, but they have to keep order some way.
Follow up:
Cody lives with an older Flat Coat Mix female that he shares bones and toys with – never any aggression. Also the female can approach him around the dinner bowl with no aggression but she’s always sending a submissive signal with head and tail down as she “quickly” moves past him and his bowl. She knows.
That’s probably it. Cody is a big boy (92lbs) and very athletic. We were visiting my Dad in Florida this past month and Dad’s little toy Doberman got too close to the bowl and Cody almost took his head off. My fault really.
BTW: My first visit to your site and I like what I see here. Plan to come back often. I have a Golden Site and Forum I’m working on (GRDog.net) but not sure I can compete with what you have here.
Well, contact me when it’s set up, and I’ll gladly link to you.
Minpins are interesting dogs. They are often challenging larger dogs. It’s actually a much older breed than the Doberman, but they both descend from the German pinscher, which is midway in size between the two.
I’m reading your article on Flat Coats right now.
…I’ll be back…
My 3-year-old Golden has one specific resource-guarding issue, but it’s not food — it’s toys. Anyone can take his food away, we have since he was a puppy, and he shares with the cat, even. But he will not share toys or chew-bones with the other 2 dogs who live here. He wants all the bones. So I take the bones away, and he doesn’t care. Thus, the dog behaviorist will be consulting. I feel like a fool about this.
Watson can differentiate between the cat, who preceded him, friends’ dogs who even spend days and nights here, and the 2 dogs who came to live here, a neutered male Lab mix & a setter/pointer mix spayed bitch. He wrestles & runs with them — it’s strictly a toy/chew-bone guarding thing. His dog-friends can play with toys & bones together with him — the double chewing thing. If I could anthropomorphize, I’d say he is an only child who resents these interlopers. He tolerates the puppy better than the male Lab.
The very first thing I taught him was “Drop it.” Then “Give.” So he basically spits anything out for me & other people. I don’t have to trade or anything like that. But sometimes I’d like them all to quietly chew on a nylabone, if you know what I mean. Oh time-outs didn’t work, either.
There’s a lot of stuff written in Donaldsen, Dunbar, etc. about food-guarding.
Basically you make the dog wait politely for his food, take his bowl away & then give it back when he is patient with better stuff in it like hamburger, etc. I’m always careful about feeding dogs together if they aren’t used to each other. I just put them is separate rooms or crates. My uncle’s Irish Setter killed his wife’s toy poodle over supper a long time ago.
Uh, Watson just trotted up proudly carrying the dustpan…..
I use those methods. I would also make him work food, toys, and attention.
Now because he’s in intact, he may simply be asserting himself as the top dog in your family.
Yes, we’re NILIF’g him, but he really knows how to work that Golden expression. It’s weird that he’s so specific about which dogs he guards from — and that it’s mainly inside the house, not outside. Well, it has been said that dogs don’t generalize well.
I really don’t care if he’s top dog for now, since he’s the oldest. But not if it causes trouble in my pack. But I don’t know whether to feed him last or first or what (back him up or put him down,) I think eventually the puppy (bitch) will run things around here. The weird thing that this Golden is a great dog other than this — he’s really well socialized to all kinds of people, children, dogs, boats, elevators, etc. He shares well with his other dog friends. He’s let kids drag him around by the tail & pull him on the ears (when I got distracted).