Those of you who have Golden Retrievers or know people who do, is it true that these dogs are extremely placid in nature?

I don’t own a Golden. I am generally a little afraid of dogs, but I don’t fear Goldens. I have never seen one be aggressive They are always friendly. They tend to be playful, but also docile.

Golden Retrievers are known for their calm temperament and agreeability. As are Labradors, by the way.

However, they can and do get aggressive, just like any other dog. A neighbour’s Golden terrorized the family’s other dog for years. He also bit his owners several times. My grandma’s Golden spent a lot of her time growling at children who refused to share their food.

While these two cases are extreme, a dog that never growls is not even something one should be looking for. Growling is a dog’s way of saying, “Stop it.” He might be scared, or even in pain. We tend to take it as the dog challenging our authority. We would do well to remember how often we tell someone else what we do and do not want. It’s healthy to do so, and part of our social contract. The alternative to a politely growling dog is one who lunges and causes serious damage without warning.

I realize that’s not what you were asking, but it’s a bit of a trigger for me ;)

@longgone thanks actually I appreciate what you say about growling. My dog was actually growling earlier thinking I was going to take her food away. I was just pushing the bowl out of the way with my foot and the dog got aggressive(not a golden retriever btw).

If you’d like some more unsolicited advice: We just managed to cure my sister’s resource-guarding dog of defending her squeaky toy. We handed her the toy, and were ready with a bowl of cheese slivers. While she was busy with the toy, we tossed cheese toward her. Very soon, we were able to come close with her wagging her tail at the thought of cheese. It took two weeks of training about twice a day, for literally two minutes.

I did the same with my own dog when she was a puppy, by dropping delicious treats into her bowl of boring kibble. The trick, if your dog is already growling, is to stay far away and toss the treats at first. Watch for her to get tense – that’s the sign which usually precedes growling.

My dog is now happy to let every human being take the juiciest bone right out of her mouth. Forget about dominance. Make it fun.

Interesting fact I learned about recently: Even in a pack of wolves, the cubs and young wolves may growl at adults when they have something precious in their mouths. This is accepted and expected, because having hold of an item makes it unequivocally that wolf’s. It is not a challenge – it’s their social rules at work. Take that, Cesar Millan.

I had a rescue Golden when my children were little. She was very much as you describe, and I only heard her growl if she didn’t want someone near the kids. I trusted her judgement and was grateful that she would do that.

I can’t speak for all of them, but they are by nature placid, compliant and sweet, but not stupid.

Relevant article on resource guarding.

Goldens are goofy, and (for lack of a better term) laid-back. However, they are generally not very bright :/

Every golden I’ve run across has been lovable, occasionally played a bit rough, but never initiated aggression. And most have been about as smart as a box of hammers, but that’s just part of their charm.

^ I know many smart Goldens. They are trained as guiding dogs for the blind, around here.

They are very gentle. good with children. Their coat takes a lot of maintenance (long and tangly). They can be energetic when they are puppies so they need exercise, but they are very trainable.

Ok, so here’s the thing – when someone describes any breed characteristic, it’s a generalization. Sure, most goldens are gentle and calm most of the time, but you have to take each dog as an individual.

They’re extremely rare, but aggressive goldens are probably the scariest thing I’ve ever met in veterinary medicine – it’s like they’ve gone completely insane and turned into killers.

My own golden was extraordinarily hyper until he died at 13.

@longgone I’ve seen a few of those, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Guess it just shows how experiences differ from one person to another.

@syz geez, I can’t imagine seeing one of those golden angels going wild!

Any breed of dog can be aggressive. It had a lot to do with how they’re treated.

My mutt growls a lot – during play and even while giving love and kisses. She’s never been aggressive with us, though. It’s just how she is. So, growling is not always a sign of aggression.

One off topic comment about Goldens. Many of them have hip trouble because of bad breeders. If you are considering a Golden Retriever you might want to research who you arevgetting thebdig from and ask for references of people who bought dogs from him.

^ Good point.

@jerv Though I shared my personal experience, it is not what my belief that Goldens are among the more intelligent * dogs is based on. Rather, it’s one of the things my pet obedience school teaches its trainers. If what you say is true (and it might be), it is a new belief. Could be due to the selective breeding of recent years, which, in Goldens, may be employed to filter for temperament rather than intelligence. Do you have any data on this? All data I found during my brief googling just now supports my claim, but most of the sources seemed questionable.

* I’m defining “intelligence” as “trainability” for the purposes of this discussion.

My in laws had a golden and he was extremely laid back. She actually never once heard him even bark. He did, however, chase squirrels and she refused to let go of the leash so, according to her stories when she was in her eighties, she allowed him to drag her , on her stomach, on walks as he ran down the streets of the Chicago suburbs. . I didn’t really buy it until after she passed away. And there on all her shoes the toes were badly scraped. She and her husband should not have gotten a 75 lb dog when they were tiny people.

Labradors are NOT calm @longgone! We had two of them. They ate everything. They ate our back yard. They ate the swing we had out there. They were always on the move.

My Mom had dementia and we often had her here over the weekends.She would sit on the couch and just look so worried and afraid. Interestingly enough, the smaller of the two dogs would jump up on the couch, and lay her head in her lap, while my Mom (who was afraid of dogs) would pet her. He would stay there for hours, not moving, if need be. It was really fascinating given her hyper nature otherwise.

^ Calm as in unflappable, cool, laid-back, easy-going. Not necessarily calm as in “quiet”.

Well, they were nice. Just destructive.

Growing up my brother had a golden retriever. He was very laid back, kind of the stoner of the dog kingdom, but he lived up to his name, Trouble. He was always figuring out ways to escape from the yard, find things inappropriate to chew and generally be a nuisance but he always had a smile on his face.
I did hear him grown however. He and my dog, a big hulking, German Shepard of close to 9 lbs, used to fight quite often. Never drew blood but always snarling and battling. Mom used to open the kitchen window and yell “HEY! You two stop that right now!” and they would immediately stop, hang their heads and look like little kids who had just got caught with their hands in the cookie jar, then meekly go stand by the back door wanting both in and forgiveness.

”...the stoner of the dog kingdom” LOL!

I had two Goldens, that had been abandoned. Or I guess they had me. One was sharp, but shy, the other was brash but not too bright. But don’t ever assume you can trust an animal till you know them well. My brother’s young, but big Golden tried to kick my ass when I went into his pen. We fought for about 20 minutes, me thinking I couldn’t back down to him. But I wasn’t sure at all which way it was going to go. My arms were completely black and blue and scratched.

Pen? No wonder he attacked you!

@Dutchess_III I agree, Labs are full of energy and pretty hyperactive until they get old and fat. My dog was half Lab, and the only time I heard her growl in anger was when another dog tried to steal her stick. And yet, she would let a human, any human, take anything off her. A child could have taken a bone from right out of her mouth and she wouldn’t even bat an eyelid. But another dog, that wasn’t allowed.

@Dutchess_III What’s wrong with a dog being in a dog pen?

Man, was I drunk or what when I wrote that? I meant I have heard him “growl” and my shepherd was about 90 lbs, not 9lbs.

If they are put there occasionally, it’s fine. But too many dogs get put in pens and pretty much forgotten about. Those dogs become very anti-social. And crazy.

@Dutchess_III Agreed, but we can’t assume the dog in question was kept in a pen and forgotten about. There are plenty of other reasons the dog may have attacked @Adirondackwannabe.

@Dutchess_III My brother lives on a state road, in a passing zone. People drive 60 to 65 mph. It’s a dangerous road. He can’t be loose. And it’s a big pen. The dog was in a pen that day because of a small child’s birthday party. He was a bit rough, so he was put in there while there were lots of small children around. The dog was also messed up, his mother drowned when he was a puppy. He came at me because he had issues. We went at it, I eventually prevailed, and he has mellowed out so much since then. The pen had nothing to do with it. I went on his turf, he was threatened. I’m guessing he had to fight as a puppy, he saw me the same way. We get along fine now.

Coincidentally, I just read today that Golden Retrievers are the most popular dog here in NZ.

My apologies, I misread the article, upon checking again I discovered that it is actually Labrador Retrievers that are the most popular breed of dog in NZ.

Most of the goldies I have met have been sweet and goofy but I also once heard a vet say exactly what @syz said.

@longgone Great advice about resource guarding. I get so sick of hearing my customers say to me that they take their dog’s food away from them to show them who’s “the dominant one”. I would growl at someone if they gave me food and took it away two seconds later for goodness sake!!!

^ Exactly. Are you a trainer?

EDIT: Oh, it’s you…hi! :)

Yes, it’s me. I changed my name :)

Thanks for clarifying @Adirondackwannabe. Just up the alley is a dog who is in a small, 6 X 6 pen all day, every day. His dog house takes up half the space. He just sits on his dog house and barks at people. I feel so sorry for him.

freaking out over @OpryLeigh with 24, 261 points!

I have a golden. He is the sweetest guy on the planet. He can be aggressive (growls at strangers or other dogs) if he’s being protective of me or my girlfriend, but he’s VERY gentle. I really don’t know if he’d attack someone trying to hurt us or not (he would certainly bark and put on a good show though), but he’s really wonderful around children, who will tug on his ears, tail etc and he will just tolerate it.

As for intelligence, I’ve always thought goldens were on the higher end of the curve. I’ve trained my dog to sniff out hidden treats (and he’s pretty good at catching me when I try to trick him), I know they’re used regularly as service animals, and they love to retrieve (obviously).

If you can put up with the shedding (which is significant) I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a better breed. They are just so lovable, sweet, loyal, and driven to please.