Goldies Behaviour When Husband Comes Home?

[Kirislin]

Our first dog used to grab our hands and cart us round the yard too. He was a big GSD and I was only 3 or 4 so my whole hand would go in his mouth. I didn't like it because he'd give me back a very slimy slobbery hand but if I tried to resist he would just grip a bit tighter. It didn't frighten me, he was a lovely dog but it was messy. Now though, almost 50 years later I look back with fondness.

Edited April 9, 2010 by Kirislin

[Monah]

She's a gundog, pretty normal and yes very cute.

My dogs are the same, however due to the hysteria over any dog mouthing etc. and others not being in the know, we have several toys all over the house :D and in moments of excitement ours pick up a toy to carry.

As soon as you know someone is coming, hear it etc. just say, get your toy, and they learn to meet and greet with a toy. Much safer and also prevents excited barking /woooo wooo ing (well sometimes, they seem to be able to make noise even with their mouths stuffed full of fluffy bunny!)

Your goldie will love a soft toy or several :D ;) many of us on here are toy addicts xxxx

[newfsie]

My newfs tend to do this, but luckily only ever to people they adore..........Only one friend gets the privilege......Newfs also use this in the water to retrieve people. It is a very gentle hold and never seems to cause andy damage/bruising. I can see where you are coming from, with all the dog bite neurosis problem. But I am sure your dog will only do it to people she loves

[LizT]

Our German Shepherd started doing it at about 7 months and our Obedience Trainer thought it was delightful!? He is so gentle and at 4 years old still does it. Takes you by the wrist and leads you where you are going?? Bit slobbery though! LOL

[LizT]

She's a gundog, pretty normal and yes very cute.

My dogs are the same, however due to the hysteria over any dog mouthing etc. and others not being in the know, we have several toys all over the house :D and in moments of excitement ours pick up a toy to carry.

As soon as you know someone is coming, hear it etc. just say, get your toy, and they learn to meet and greet with a toy. Much safer and also prevents excited barking /woooo wooo ing (well sometimes, they seem to be able to make noise even with their mouths stuffed full of fluffy bunny!)

Your goldie will love a soft toy or several ;) many of us on here are toy addicts xxxx

Gosh I can't give "soft toys" to ANY of my dogs, Cavaliers or German Shepherd. They all end up with me picking up pieces of stuffing!! :D

[Serket]

When OH or I come home the first thing Gypsy does is roll over for a belly rub but she must also hold a hand or wrist in her mouth at the same time. She;s done it ever since she was a tiny puppy. Her default greeting behaviour is lie down, roll over, and grab a wrist/hand - she just holds it, doesn't even lick it, but she MUST do it She doesn't do it to other people though (she jumps on them ) so it's her special greeting in some way.

[Poodle Mum]

Hi Serket .....How's Gypsy doing? She must be a big Goldie now

[Greytmate]

My old greyhound Sam used to do this. He would grab your hand and gently try to take you to his bed for a pat. It was the most gorgeous thing ever. The only problem was, when he got very excited the grabbing was a little more grabby.

I discourage Woody now from doing the same thing, as he is an easily excitable dog, and he needs to know to grab toys and not people.

A dog used to grabbing adults by the hand may grab the little kiddies by the upper arm, and that isn't fun for anyone.

[Monah]

That's true Greytmate :D Whilst my dogs have extremely soft mouths, in fact the spin has caught birdies and thye have flown away out of her mouth perfectly intact , there is the possibility that one day a person will see little Johnnie grabbed ont eh hand by this big dog and not understand.

This is why they must learn the toy thing, for their own sake, I don't want my dog to be labelled dangerous, PTS. etc because of an endearing action (to us!) that is misread by someone else.

LizT, I can relate!! this is why we have LOTS of toys and a toy hospital ;) :D :D and, you can get toys without stuffing we have foxy loxy and they love him!!!!!

[Parkeyre]

...we must remember that we can't sing "ba ba black sheep" anymore.

Are you kidding? Is that the latest "ban" ???

So ..... "Baa Baa visual-impression-experienced-when-no-visible-light-reaches-the-eye sheep, have you any wool? ...... ".

It's actually baa baa rainbow sheep now.

Just another urban myth trotted out by those who constantly decry political correctness ...

It's not an urban myth ;) I have three kids and this is what they started singing at daycare. I was singing baa baa black sheep and my son said they don't sing it that way it's baa baa rainbow sheep. Who knows if they are being politically correct or they just like to sing it differently. :D To us it's still just a song.

Young kids in my town of almost 30,000 have never heard of black sheep.

Only rainbow sheep. My nephew's kindy has a rainbow sheep cutout on the wall also.

[Serket]

Hi Serket .....How's Gypsy doing? She must be a big Goldie now ;)

She's 9 months old now and of course much bigger (photos scattered around in the retrievers thread), but she's quite petite and lean for her age.

Back on topic...Gypsy will sometimes bring her current favourite toy to the door as well (although she usually drops it in favour of an arm) but just having something in her mouth makes her happy, so it would be easy enough to just use the toy and discourage the hand holding I think, like others have said

[Loving my Oldies]

Our old Staffy used to do something similar!!! ;)

She would wait for me to come home from school, when she heard me at the gate she would be really excited :D Once I got inside the gate she would get the end of my shirt (it was long/past the knees/school shirt) and walk me inside.. If I pulled it out of her mouth she would just put it back in there and lead me inside the house. Usually she would lead me into the room Nanna was in and look really happy with herself :D She would then follow me into my room and wait while I got dressed etc

I always thought it was a loving gesture

I agree and they can't exactly hold our hands can they .

It does sound delightful frankly, but the toy subsitute sounds safer.

As KatDogs says about thin skin. Although I am not exactly ancient, I do have dry papery skin and even in play, I end up with those dark red blotches and half the time I don't even know how I get them.

[Aidan]

Now I feel like my dog doesn't love me because he won't hold my hand

[Loving my Oldies]

Now I feel like my dog doesn't love me because he won't hold my hand

I feel the same - I just get jumped on and end up scratched and cross

[Serket]

Well there are loving gestures that are cute, but then you have extremes like Gypsy, who demonstrates her love for OH by "cleaning" him compulsively - if we're not careful her morning greeting is jumping on the bed and licking his face thoroughly to wake him up - her ears go right back and she's quite dedicated and thorough about it (I watch and laugh, aren't I mean).

We had to move her crate to the other side of the bed to block her access to his face from the ground or she'd do it every morning - let out of the crate, toilet, breakfast, mad dash back to the bedroom and lick his face She NEVER does it to me, and I'm quite happy to be unloved in this instance. So, be careful what you wish for

[Amika]

One of our male bullterriers was 12mths older than my youngest daughter(now 21) once she started walking he started doing exactly what you have described your goldie doing, only it wasn't when she arrived home from work . First time I saw it I was a little worried of course, but I watched him and he just would ever so gently pick up her hand in his mouth and walk with her and he only ever did it with her. He's been gone 10yrs now.