dee lee

That could be the difference, mine is an older style gold and not at all fluffy (except his tummy). Mine is the "pretty pretty pale fluffy bear type" (cute ) and whilst I regularly lament the attraction to mud, once she has dried, its gone. Well, dropped off onto the floor anyway... ;) Shedding though? bloody hell. If the golden ones shed less I'll get one of those next time!!

I have resigned myself to the fact that its just my problem and I have to make sure she is toiletted regularly. She shows no reliable signs and is not a barker. I am also not all that talented at training. :D Oh well... Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

Ugh. Owner guilt. Its a tough one. Truthfully you are probably more bothered by it than the dogs. They will get used to it. Only thing I can suggest is instead of going to the gym, jog with your dogs. For me going to the gym would eat into my "home" time and I cant justify that. The dog needs exercise and so do I, so I jog with my dog.

I agree with all you are saying Serket, but I just want to point out that most puppies, not just GRs, are like that. I didnt have Honey as a pup its true, but a close friend did and seeing that pup and having experienced my dog, and having met other GRs, I would have to say that temperament wise Goldies are a lot "softer" than many breeds- even if they may be boisterous at times. I think any breed with no effort put in will be a pain. I had to laugh at your description about Gypsy's bark- this morning I was walking with Honey and OH and we heard a dog bark as we walked past a house. I commented on the scary bark- must be a BIG dog, then Honey barked back and it sounded identical!! She is a great watch dog too.

I feel like a broken record- Goldies!! We adopted our 3 year old girl last year from Golden Retriever Rescue and she is an absolute joy!!!! I have 2 young daughters (6 and 7) and the eldest was nervous of dogs - she absolutely adores Honey. Goldies were on my wish list because of their reputation as being sweet and gentle. Honey has not disappointed. The kids walk her to school every morning (with me close enough to grab the lead ) and when we get there she has a fan club of children that clamour for a pat or a cuddle. She happily laps it up. ;) With training, while she is not as quick as my past dogs, she is enthusiastic, soft in temperament and eager to please me. We did get a very calm adult Goldie (exactly what we wanted) but she can also be very playful, bouncy and is very fit. Aside from the copious amount of fur she sheds at times (but I hear GSDs are as bad?) she is the perfect dog. Well for our family anyway. As a neighbour who is on her 2nd Goldie says- "they are just so... trustworthy".

We have one dog and I work fulltime. OH works shift work and some weeks will be around in the day (paying virtually no attention to the dog), others not at all. I make sure Honey is with us outside of my work hours as much as I can. I'd love another dog to keep her company but, aside from OH not being keen, I dont think we'd have the room. Honey is inside while we are out and there is not much open space for playing.

Erny, that all made perfect sense. She does get fidgetty when she needs to go, I need to be more aware of the subtle signs- mostly I haven't figured it out til it's too late Like you say, I have been concerned that each time she has an accident it reduces her desire to go out to do it. I'm fanatical about avoiding it, Im working on training my OH too- he can be bloody lax about it. Fortunately it hasn't ever happened when she is left home alone inside.

Then they will try to get the dog and remove the tag. After being broken into twice through a very small dog door (I have mini schnauzers) I wouldn't recommend getting one - and I live in a nice area! Additionally we have metal security grilles outside the doors so a dog door won't work with them. The house is pretty secure, just not busting-dog-friendly.

No can do. We live in a high risk area for burglaries, any size dog door a GR can get through, a junkie can too.

The main problem is that she doesn't sit and wait so I would have trouble marking the behaviour. Most of the time I take her when its time- ie first thing when we go for a walk, after the school pick up etc. When we first adopted her she wouldnt even use our paved yard to toilet, she held on for days before we twigged that she needed to be offlead and on grass. She has gotten better at that but I still need to let her out multiple times just in case- She rarely shows signs of needing to go. ETA: She never has accidents at night or when she is inside when we are at work.

I agree. Honey was obviously not well socialised as a pup- she gets slightly nervous around other dogs and generally does not like playing with them. She is a rescue so there is not much I can do about it. She is not reactive so I'm fine with it. She is happy enough not being social and I dont mind that it is just the two of us most of the time at the park. We have a lovely time, and it sounds like Charlie does too. Tell your friend to bugger off- he doesn't know everything, us Dolers do.

Honey is toilet trained but never asks to go. We let her out or take her out for toiletting and this works ok for the most part. BUT there has been the occasional time (generally when I am not home ) when the back door is shut and the poor love just has to go. Luckily we have tiles near the back door and that is always where she goes, but I would much rather find a way to teach her to let us know when she is busting. Any suggestions???

She is bewdiful!!! I really have to move to a bigger house- I swear everyday on DOL I see another dog I'd love to join our family.

Same here. For the most part Honey comes back when she feels the lead pull but I hate it getting to that point. She is not a puller as such but I would prefer that she was always next to me and we are working on that. Kids arent much help either- they will run ahead and thats where she wants to be, I love that she loves them so much so perhaps I am being a wee bit too lenient. At least she is receptive to training so we will get there.

Its awful, my last dog was a DA staffy cross. I never let her offlead and only walked her on the street because she was DA. I felt it was the only responsible thing to do, sadly my experience was that there are many other knobs who dont feel they need to be responsible and have their dogs OFFlead on an urban street. Many was the time I had to take a long detour to avoid them. One time was particularly memorable, I was at an inner city cafe with my family and our dog and an offlead lab came around the corner. It didnt even have a collar on and it decided to rush my dog. The rest is a bit of a blur- I ended up on the ground, with my dog held by the collar going nuts, kicking at this lab that was trying to have a go at her and the owner couldn't even grab his dog by the collar. ;) In the end he managed to get it away amid me screaming at him to put a lead on his dog (which he didnt ) . Its no wonder my poor daughter ended up being scared of dogs. ;)

I agree. Though I must say, I didnt find that asking about price was met with any hostility when I was looking. But that wasn't my first question of course. If I was a breeder, I'd be offended too if all I got was "How much?" . For the record in my enquiries, I found that Finnish Lapphunds were $1500 and Golden Retrievers $1200 for upcoming litters. Not unreasonable.

With my last dog I couldn't have walked her without a martingale. Fantastic tool. With Honey I can correct her for pulling on just a flat collar as she is a fairly "soft" dog. However, occasionally I swap it for a martingale if she needs some reminding of where she shld be.

My rescue GR was so distressed the first time I went to leave her outside while I went to work that I decided to leave her inside and gradually work on it. Many months later she still is left inside. If the dog isnt destructive then is it necessary that he is left outside?

Same here ! And here and I have a Golden Retriever!! My dog gets an hours intense exercise session in the mornings, then she is walked to school with the kids, to coffee with me, home again via a pitstop in a little park and I go off to work for the day and she is inside alone til the kids get home from school. She very rarely goes into our TINY yard (its a courtyard really) other than when we are all home and she needs to go to the toilet. My last dog was more destructive so she was left outside instead but still would sleep most of the day. You just have to make sure they get enough exercise.

Oh he is delicious!!!!! You lucky devil!

You think it's a good idea for someone who is not on board getting a dog to end up taking care of it, do you? Its not always so bad- My OH did not want a dog, does not like dogs, and yet spends more time at home in the day with our dog. He sees the joy I get from my dog and because of that, because he loves me, is happy to help me by taking care of any needs she may have in that time. When I am at home I take care of all her training and exercising etc. The kids also pitch in hen they are home. When our last dog was a pup my OH did the same. 9 times out of 10 I am the one who is super sensitive to any chewing or whatever, he just shrugs and says "it was only a credit card/couch/shoe" etc. Though the 4 pairs of thongs he went through tested him a little. Taking care of a pup/dog at home during the day is not that hard, Im sure the OP's wife will cope and will probably end up enjoying the wonderful company. Big deal if she doesnt- when the OP gets home he can give the dog lots of attention.

Was bucketing all night, seemed clear this morning, got up to go jogging with the dog and half way started bucketing again. NOT NICE!!!! Bring on the sunshine!!!!!!!!!!

I hate walking in the rain. I walk Honey at 6am and when that alarm goes off if I hear rain I rollover and go back to sleep. I do go though, just a bit later- I wait for a break in the weather and we for a ball throw instead of a big walk or jog. Honey gets so wet and muddy and it takes ages to dry her off- which I have to or her skin gets yukky. It feels like Sydney has been raining for a month with only the occasional clear day. I am SOOOO over it.

I know Indigirl, I was noticing that this thread has spent a lot of time addressing the negatives of several breeds, I just wanted to balance it out. I completely agree that its much easier getting an older dog with known temperament- I'm not sure I'd ever have a pup again! I think the most important thing for the OP to realise is that whilst breed description is an indication of what a dog will be like, personality plays a big part. There will always be extremes of temperament in any breed. That's why you need to be clear and uncompromising about what you are after in a dog/pup when talking to breeders/rescue orgs.

I get the paw heavily pressed onto my leg. You take it off and up it comes again, often followed by the leg, shoulder and rest of her. Easier to just pat her. Another thing that makes me laugh is when I get down on the ground for a cuddle (which I love doing at the park), she will lie her whole body on me and wont let me get up. Its not very dignified laughing and falling all over the place tryingto get up. ;) Reading these, she sounds like a passive aggressive PITA, but that's as bad as it gets so I dont mind the odd full contact cuddle and absent minded patting. In fact I love it. :D