According to this blog post, the golden retriever is now the Number 4 biter in Canada. This should make anyone who has ever had a golden retriever extremely angry.
This blog seems to think that it’s upbringing that creates biters. That is true to a certain extent.
With goldens, though, it’s breeding.
Goldens are not historically biters. They just aren’t known for it. None of my dogs has bitten me, except out of play behavior as puppies. My last adult golden used to share her bones with the new puppy. The two dogs chewed opposite ends of the bone.
This breed should not be anywhere near the top biter list at all, and I blame bad breeding practices for it.
I blame most of this on breeding calmness in golden retrievers. Well, wait, how can breeding for calmness lead to aggression? Temple Grandin argues that breeding for calmness in goldens has made them more likely to develop seizure issues, because the fundamental brain chemistry of the dog is messed up. (Read about it here.) Grandin points out how hard it is to breed a dog that is both unafraid of people and unlikely to bite. Both of these temperament issues are a balancing act. If something gets out of sync, you’ll have a biting golden retriever on your hands.
My advice to prospective is simple. The behavior of goldens is not calm. It’s working gun dog that can be calm in the house, but it has a need for mental and physical exercise. If you won’t give the dog what it needs in those regards, don’t buy it. And stay away from any breeder who is selling you a “mellow” or “calm” dog. Those are the dogs that are going to attack someone. And I’ve never seen a field-type golden with anything like aggression problems.
Bruce Fogle mentions a European study of German long-hair lines in The Dog’s Mind. This is a breed that does not have a wide variation in appearance between field and working lines. It’s very uncommon outside of Germany, although its black and white relative, the Large Münsterländer, is somewhat better known outside of its homeland.
The study found that working long-hairs were far less likely to bite than those bred for show. (I’m quite shocked, considering how similar show and field long-hairs in appearance.) The authors of the study found that breeding for high trainability, which in old German dog training includes physical correction, and for low aggression with other dogs had actually resulted in better dogs as companions.
I wonder if some of these factors might be involved in turning the golden retriever into a savage beast.
If the golden gets a reputation as a biter, its days of super-popularity are over, but I don’t see this reputation appearing in popular dog culture. The American cocker has this reputation, and it’s now no longer a top registrations breed with the AKC.
And losing popularity wouldn’t be such a bad thing. I’m seriously not doing this in hopes of sabotaging the golden’s popularity. It just angers me that now this breed that I love so much now has aggression issues– the one issue that it never had before.
My friend just had to give a Golden away it bit four kids including his son for no reason. At times the most loving dog in the world , then something would set it off. Almost like he was jealous of the kids.
It’s a type of epilepsy. Or else allowing kids to manhandle the dog past it’s tolerance limit because warning signs were ignored repeatedly (which is the cause of most bites to children).
That dog who is ‘so patient with the kids’ has a fuse that will wear out eventually. People don’t realize this and don’t respect the dog’s feelings nor recognize the stress signals they give off. And then we have kids and dogs suffering because of it. There is no dog who will tolerate harassment forever.
I have one Golden that I have to watch around children as I can see the signs. As long as the kids dont get in his face he loves the kids. While I have another Golden that a kid could sit on her face and she would’nt do a thing. On the other hand the one that the kid could sit on her face tends to be much more aggressive on our walks and thinks she owns everything so I dont put it past her to nip someone. While the other one on a walk could careless about anything. So I know my dogs personalties and what triggers them so I just watch for the signs they show me and I know what to do. Some people just dont really know their dogs. They all have their own personalties just as we do. So I say to just give up your dog because of something you should have noticed and taken care of is pure laziness.
I’d just like to add that, if you got your dog when it was older, especially if it came from an unknown or negligent background, it is much harder to notice its triggers and correct its problematic behavior. I’ve been working with a variety of professionals for over 5 years to understand my sweet girl’s reactive behavior, which is complicated by her health issues. I have only lately had some success in helping her overcome her “baggage”. I think the key is to work on developing a strong bond with your dog, no matter what her age or background, so that she will look to you for directions before acting on impulse. Finding the right aids also helps; I’ve found the Gentle Leader Deluxe to be very useful.
I think that working any dog reduces aggression. you see a lot of pit bull attacks where the dog is chained or locked in the house all the time and they just go mad from it. I have owned many different breeds of dogs and never had one be aggressive but all my dogs got 2 or 3 hours of hard physical exercise everyday. however my parents had a pit bull that was tied up and very aggressive and after I started walking it everyday the aggression went away almost immediately.
Daisy
I had a 101/2 month old golden retriever. She was bred for field. I bought her for a family pet. I also have a papillon, JRT and a lab/boxer cross. This golden had jumped on top of both my pap and JRT. Finally she jumped on my JRTx2 dislocating his hips requiring surgery and also ruptured his ACL’s. I gave her back to the breeder vs euthanasia. Breeder states she is fine. They are currently giving behaviour training with some success and trialling her for hunting. You still see the anxiety in her . How can these breeders stay in business. Kennel clubs need to do some kennel searches.
Any dog can be shitty if its owners are shitty. I’ve owned 4 goldens in my life. Best dogs I can think of, period. My dogs wouldn’t bite anyone yo save their own lives
It’s not always the owner’s fault. I’ve see footage of very young golden retrievers, which haven’t been abused or have had time to learn much, attacking people who come too near their food. It’s clearly something genetic, and something that has been inadvertently selected for.
I’ve never had an aggressive one though. (Knock on wood).
Well with all the inbreeding and line breeding going on in dog breeds, this probably come from a popular sire/s that had genes for higher aggression
Now that breeders can buy frozen sperm from dogs that died decades ago, this and similar cases will not end any time soon.