DakotaJ

In an obedience class being told my GR "must be a dream to train" -yes that is why I, and my OH, have spent 1/2 hour, at least, virtually every night at the local park practising, practising, practising, and why in a year I have only missed 3 nights of training ( 2 of which for a holiday ). A dream ...yes .... But certainly not without some hard work and persistence. GR 's do not come out trained

I will be following this thread because I need all the advice I can get with this one too. My GR also has this "problem" . I have seen it referred to as "excessive greeting disorder" in another Golden blog - and I think a lot of Goldens suffer from it. We have tried to be as consistent as we can with making her sit and greet politely but usually the excitement overwhelms her and she goes nuts, wiggling, wagging and trying to jump up. She is 18 months now, and neutered, and she is finally beginning to settle. We do obedience training and for the first time in the past 2 weeks she has finally managed to "stand for inspection" without doing the complete - "wow it's a human coming for a pat" thing.

Ducks - they are so funny - and if they are bonded to you they follow you everywhere, quacking

Sorry to go off the point but I think it is hilarious that they named their dog "Tater Tot "!

What a great video, so interesting. It seems like a big win- win, the dogs doing what they are bred for, the ranchers sustaining their livelihood and the wild predators being discouraged without being killed. Great publicity tool for LGD breeders

We are an allsorts type of neighbourhood. We have lots of little yappy crosses, a beagle, lots of bull breed crosses of various sizes, a Lab ( who unfortunately never leaves his yard), GSD crosses, a corgi and 3 Golden Retrievers ( one of them mine). It is very rare to see a dog running loose, and it is really nice to be in an area where owners are so responsible with their dogs.

The police report on their Facebook page says the larger dog was being walked along Pyrmont Bridge Road, and was leashed. The smaller dog was running in a park off-leash. Neither breed was identified. Sounds to me like the off-leash dog ran up to the on-leash dog. There is no way to tell if the off-leash dog was being friendly or aggressive from the report. (don't need to tell readers here that small dogs can be just as aggressive as any big breed). It happened at 7:00 am Do not want to be judgemental, but IMO, I don't care about the breed of the leashed dog, or the age of the owner, this all would have been prevented if the smaller dog had been leashed or if it's recall had been better. I have been reading a thread on regarding recall and most of the posters in that thread have said they would not have their dogs off leash unless they had absolutely reliable recall, especially because of the possibility of these circumstances arising. Pyrmont is a busy area, not a country paddock. Terrible for both owners, and I hope there were no repercussions for the larger dog, and it's owner.

If you listen to the narration he repeatedly says that there is open water behind the dogs so that they can turn and swim back to the bank. The dogs aren't in any danger while he is filming

My dog is a Golden Retriever and has her dew claws. I was originally concerned about that because I was "old school" and thought they were usually removed because they could get caught etc. She has never had a problem with them. But what I loved was watching those amazing dogs so intent on retrieving that bird that they would swim through freezing water, clamber onto ice, go straight to their retrieve, turn and look so proud and happy when they successfully completed their task. What fabulous dogs, so good to see them doing what they were bred for, thanks for putting the video up

I like the idea of speaking to the neighbours and getting them on side first, even if it is just to buy time to investigate the problem. The first night we got our puppy she cried during the night, even though we were trying to comfort her. We had only just moved to the area and didn't know the neighbours well but the next morning we went to the neighbours and explained the situation and apologised if we'd disturbed them, and asked them o let us know if she barked when we were out etc.Tthey were all great about it and have all taken a neighbourly interest in her growing up. You may even find one of them may say "oh no it's not your dog barking, it's some one else's"

Done

Meeka and I have been going to obedience training for 8 months now and have progressed up to the fourth level, she does well with all her commands, stays and recalls but she has trouble sitting in line while others are weaving, doing recalls or anything which requires sitting still for extended periods She shifts around, which is manageable but the other night she started whining, kept it up of and on for almost 15 mins. I don't know how to handle this. I don't know if she is bored, anxious, in some kind of distress or just attention seeking. And what I can do stop it. Some background, She is 12 months old, a Golden Retriever and she appears to love going to obedience training. She is calm when we are moving. She is also very food reactive, i.e. once she knows treats are available she hops around, sits sideways, checks my hand constantly and generally cares about nothing but the possibility that treats are available. Therefore I treat her sparingly, I do treat her occasionally in class but not constantly as some others do ( and it works well for them). I am worried that if I treat her when she whines it will encourage her to do it more. She does not whine every class, though it does seem to be when she sits for long periods Can anyone give me an idea of why she whines, and how to deal with it.

I ordered a treat pouch from Clean Run this week and shipping for that item was free- it meant a big saving. I don't know if it is always free but I checked out a few leashes etc and the shipping costs for those added a lot to the price so if you are thinking of buying a treat pouch from this supplier now might be a good time to do it

So happy to read your last post - a victory for the little guy !

I imagine you already have plenty of requests, and not enough time, but I would love a sketch done of Meeka.

I felt very proud, and relieved, in obedience class last week when the instructor asked us to tell our dog to stay, drop the lead then walk around the person next to us, then around our dog. Never did I think Meeka would stay there. I walked away with my back to her and you can't imagine how proud I was hen I came around and saw her still sitting there looking at me . She has come a long way from the puppy who would lunge to play with every passing dog

Different breeds were bred for different purposes. I am making general comments here so keep that in mind. for example, Border Collies and Kelpies were bred as herding animals and they will try to "herd" everything. Golden retrievers were bred to retrieve, and they will retrieve anything, and are notoriously "mouthy", but they rarely bite down. Cavaliers were bred as lap dogs, and that's where they want to be, on your lap. When you choose a purebred dog it is because you like a dog with that type of personality. All dogs, and people, are affected by their environment, they can be trained and mistreated and this will effect their actions. However Bull Terriers are known to be bred as fighting dogs, and when they bite they lock on. People who buy them know that, it is not a secret. Some owners choose them for that reason. I have seen many BT owners at obedience classes and their dogs are wonderful, unfortunately they are not all owned by responsible owners. In the case of this attack on that poor man the breeding and the lack of responsibility on the part of the owner became a perfect storm with terrible consequences.

I had a similar, but not nearly as bad, thing happen to me yesterday morning. I was walking my Golden at the local park when two women arrived with, and I am not Staffy bashing, but it was a Staffy cross. I have encountered this dog before and I know they don't have control of him so I was heading home when the dog came charging towards me. I don't know how he got off the lead. The approx 18 yr old girl was running after him calling him, but at no time did he pay any attention to her. I made my dog sit and told her to stay, as she loves other dogs and is inclined to leap all over them. The other dog was running round and round us but my dog stayed calm, finally the girl ran up and said he only wanted to play, but she still couldn't catch him. I positively hissed at her "you really should have him on a leash" , then playing dog started to growl. I then hissed " you really are putting my dog in a bad position" because my dog was starting to circle around because the dog was coming up behind her. The girl kept saying sorry and finally managed to chase her dog away, she never managed to catch him. I know this doesn't really constitute an attack but why can't people with dogs they can't control just keep them on a leash !

I use Petplan. We got 12 weeks free when we purchased our Golden Retriever from the breeder. She had health issues before the free plan finished so we continued it. We were very glad we did as she had to have some very expensive tests carried out before we found a way to tread her problem ( incontinence) . Petplan paid all but the $100 excess on a bill which was almost $2,000.00. We pay approx $48 per month for our plan. I think it is worth it as it would have been very difficult for us to have raised that amount of money at short notice. However I have had many dogs in the past which I did not have insurance for and they never required expensive vet care - it is a bit of a lottery. As far as keeping the dog confined to certain areas the baby gates work well for us. I don't have cats but my daughter does and the cats can get through the gate to their food, or litter box , and the dog can't - perfect.

Thanks for this great thread. I have a 12 month Golden Retriever. She is doing obedience now but is still a bit too "friendly" to visit frail people however II definitely would like to do this with her in the future. Until this thread I had no idea there were organisations, like Delta, which coordinate this service. I've bookmarked the site, and it is now a goal for our training. She is such a kind affectionate dog, with the most beautiful eyes. I know she would bring a lot of joy to people whose lives are limited by health and other issues. Looking forward to giving back

Our 11 months Golden Retriever has had a pretty complicated medical history over her lifetime. She has been incontinent since we brought her home but not consistently . She had several UTI's and we took her three vets to get to find out how to deal with the problem. She was x-rayed for ectopic ureter and was cleared. It shorten the story, she has been prescribed Propalin syrup. This has cleared up the problem, thank goodness, but I would like to know if any one has had experience with their dog being on Propalin long term, or have taken their dog off the medication and having them "cured" I have read it can make dogs restless and sometimes aggressive. She has not become aggressive in any way but I think she may be more restless. She is such a young dog I do worry about her being on any medication for the rest of her life.

Meeka likes me to play tug of war with her rope toys. If I am not responding she bangs at my hand with the toy until I respond. She is super insistent. I can sit watching TV for an hour while playing a never ending game of tug of war, and I dare not stop pulling. If I am on the iPad she will put her paw right on it til I am forced to put it down

Since my dog is a Golden Retriever most people will already know what I am going to say. They are notoriously friendly dogs. However Meeka will bark if someone opens the gate to the front yard. She does have a very deep bark and people who can't see her are often intimidated. If someone entered the house I am sure she would bark because she was frightened, whether a thief was frightened by that is hard to say. If we were at home that would at least alert us. I don't know how she would react if we were personally in danger but there is a similar thread running in a GR forum I subscribe to and many GR owners in that thread have said that even though their dogs are very placid normally, if they are threatened their dogs have reacted aggressively and protected them. The general feeling is that they will protect "their people" . We chose a GR knowing they were pretty useless guard dogs but saying that she is a big dog and I still feel safer having her along on a walk in the dark than I ever would have felt without her

We are with Petplan. We started with free puppy cover, fortunately ( or not) her issues started when she was covered with this plan so we carried on the coverage. It is the basic plan with $100 excess. Her issues involved incontinence and UTI's. We saw 3 vets and were eventually referred to the Animal Referral Hospital to investigate the possibility of an ectopic ureter. Turned out to be a vaginal stenosis plus sphincter problems which is now being treated with propalin.. Long story short there were lots of tests, an operation, follow- up which also involved lots of money. Pet plan paid all but the $100 excess. Payment did take about 6 weeks but was more than we expected to get - it has certainly been worth it for us. We are also grateful that her issues started before the end of the puppy insurance because I have had lots of dogs but none of those had ever had the health issues this one has had. She is a Golden Retriever who we bought from a reputable breeder and has the loveliest temperament but boy has she put us through the wringer. I would not be without pet insurance now, if something does go wrong it can be very very expensive - I do recommend Pet plan

Just want to share two experiences . Two times in the last two months I have had dogs being walked on retractable leashes lunge and break the leashes and run over to my dog, not to attack but to play. Still this happened at a busy park (same place both times). Once the dog was a Border Collie, the second was a small sized cross breed. We were not close to these dogs and ours was well under control. The young lady walking the BC completely panicked so we had to hold our dog still and help her catch hers. Then she had a great deal of trouble getting him away without a lead. The other was with a man who grabbed him and picked him up - after chasing him round in circles. My lesson from that is never use retractable leads, these were small dogs and it didn't take much effort for them to snap the leads. Luckily the dogs weren't aggressive. I would not want to have had the same experience if the dogs were aggressive as once the lead is broken all possibility of control is lost. Has anyone else has this sort of experience with dogs on retractable leads - personally I think they are a menace and should be banned