# Mean Golden Retriever



## Hutch001b (Sep 16, 2003)

There's some folks here who know a lot about dogs I think so I'll post this question here. We have a purebred Golden Retriever. Got him at 8 weeks and he's now 16 months. The problem is that he has an aggressive streak in him. Anytime he gets something he knows he's not supposed to have he will attack us if we try to get it away from him. He had one of the cat's little mouse toys this morning and I lured him a little bit away from it with a bag of treats but when I bent down to pick it up he came after me and bit me on the arm. Actually broke the skin in 3 places. Then he picked up the toy and swallowed it. If he's chewing on his normal bone I can reach down and take it away with no problem. Same with his tennis balls, no problem. The other thing is his toenails-Have to muzzle him to clip his nails. I've been studying a little bit on the 'net about the problem and it seems a lot of breeders and trainers are seeing aggression in Goldens when they never saw it before. Some think the whole breed is ruined. I don't know if this can be trained out of him or if it's bred in and will always be there. My wife and I have always had critters but admittedly don't know much about formal training. What scares me is what if a little kid came up and picked up that cat toy. I'm big enough to fight the dog off but a kid wouldn't be. Advice appreciated, Hutch


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## bontai Joe (Sep 16, 2003)

A 12 ga. usually cures a dog of biting it's owner. It is something I won't tolerate.


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## guest (Sep 16, 2003)

wow thats some agressive behaviour... 


I go to a site.. my best friends 


http://65.205.160.196/idealbb/default.asp?sessionID={69F846BF-BF7F-46DB-8A67-461E2174DCAF}

they have a vet and lots of folks who may offer some advise...


For my dogs nails.. i use a dremel.. much less traumatic than the clipper in my opinion..



id also definetly do a search and find a good golden retriever forum.. many owners who may offer some guidence..


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## Hutch001b (Sep 16, 2003)

It's not just trimming the nails, it's touching the paws at all. He got in the mud the other day and he came after me when I was trying to clean his feet. Hutch


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## guest (Sep 16, 2003)

heres one from google search

http://www.topgoldenretrieversites.net/forums/index.php


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## guest (Sep 16, 2003)

thats wierd.. youve had him since he was a pup.. so was not abnused.. 
you have other animals? where e could have learned the behaviour??


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## Durwood (Sep 16, 2003)

> _Originally posted by bontai Joe _
> *A 12 ga. usually cures a dog of biting it's owner. It is something I won't tolerate. *


I have to agree with Joe on this one. God forbid if he attacked a child before you could stop him. That is a risk i wouldn't be willing to take.


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## Greg (Sep 16, 2003)

Hutch,

I had a problem with my first German Shephard/Golden mix. Would growl and nip at my wife when feeding. Talked to a training instructor and she said put pebbles in a can, seal it and keep it behind your back. If you approach him and he starts to growl or other aggressive behavior, swing the can out and shake it making as much noise as possible. This should take his mind off what he was thinking and scare him a bit. 

The second thing, and the one I use, is lemon juice. Get a small plastic bottle of Realemon juice. When the dog gets aggressive, I yell "NO" and he gets a good shot of lemon juice in the mouth. (watch out for the eyes). I usually grab the snout after the first squirt and give another good squirt in the mouth. It doesn't take long for him to learn aggressiveness is not a good idea!!

You've had him during an important time in his life and invested time and feelings in his growth. It is too early, IMO, to write him off. Take the advice you get here and on sites, but I would also seek some local professional help if you really want to keep the dog. If you don't feel like you want to go further with him, try to find a good home with someone that will work on the dogs problem.

Good luck to you and your "kid".


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## guest (Sep 16, 2003)

some suggestions from another site...


There's a book called "Mine!" by Jean Donaldson that they may find helpful. This behavior is called resource guarding, so a web search on that should bring up some information as well. 
Here's one article: 
http://www.ahimsadogtraining.com/handouts/resource-guarding.html 

It also sounds like some training/relationship-building needs to be done. Some articles on relationships/leadership are: 
http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/archives/dance.txt 
http://www.flyingdogpress.com/leadership.html 
http://www.flyingdogpress.com/relationshipbased.html 

The Nothing In Life Is Free (NILIF) program might be an option, as well, if the above aren't quite enough. The dog is at the height of adolescence, testing his boundaries, and now is the time to clearly establish the humans as the people who make the rules. 
http://www.ahimsadogtraining.com/handouts/say-please.html 
http://www.goof.com/~pmurphy/NILIF.html


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## ducati996 (Dec 27, 2003)

Strange indeed because Goldens are not known to be aggressive at all. They are known as one of the most trusting family pet...

I have used the Remote collar with the shock probes. You can find them in cabellas sport goods or on-line. I used it for behavior modifcation and commands. It Straightens some of the most untrainable dogs (like Husky's , Samoyeds, etc) 
Just dont over do it, and when the dog's act up, you just have to show them the collar and they behave....When company is over and I do not want the dog or dogs jumping on people I place the collar on them (not turned on). They are the most well behaved and sweetest dogs in the world after that...

Good luck....Its tough to put in that much time with a dog and get results like that...

Ducati


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## Hutch001b (Sep 16, 2003)

We got him from a local breeder, both parents on site. We have one other dog, a Toy Yorkie 10 years old. Cosmo the Yorkie and Sonny the Golden were about the same size when we got Sonny. They get along fine. Also have 3 cats, one of which is a stray kitten my wife brought home. The kitten loves Sonny and curls up next to him all the time. One cat is skittish and will run when Sonny chases her. The other cat is old and grouchy and will slap the crap out of Sonny if he messes with him so he leaves him alone. No way any of our animals are abused. Spoiled and babied is more like it. My wife is on the board of directors of the local no-kill shelter and if it wasn't for me we'd have a regular zoo at home. I'll go to the sites mentioned here and my wife is going to call a trainer she knows. I'm not quite ready to give up on him but it can't be allowed to go on. Hutch


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## bigl22 (Sep 16, 2003)

golden retreivers males roam and can be aggressive sometimes up to about their 3rd year-- castrated males are easier to control -- but -- the collar buzzer works well as long as you are always attentive to it's use and then reinforce it later when needed --


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## bontai Joe (Sep 16, 2003)

I'm sorry if my 12 ga. answer offended you, now that I know your wife volunteers at a no kill shelter, I realize it is probably not an option. When I was a little kid (about 4) my dad had a pet raccoon that bit everyone but him. He used to laugh at us about it when we complained or cried, until the day it bit him. Probably explains my low tolerance for animals that act aggressive to their owners. 

The above posts contain several good points about intensive training and if the dog is reasonably bright, he can change, but you must be absolutely consistant in training him. A sometimes this, sometimes that training method will confuse a dog and not produce the desired results. And that consistancy applies to all family members in your household. The dog must see the same result from you, your wife, children (if any) every time he acts aggressive. Golden retrievers are wonderful dogs when they behave and I wish you good results with yours. But until you can trust him, I'd be real careful letting him have any acces to visitors in your house. You can have the most wonderful of intentions in training him, but one incident can put you in court looking at REALLY LARGE payments of money in lawsuits.


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## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

I have to agree with Joe on this one. If that dog is showing aggression towards you, it's just a matter of time before an incident will happen where he will bite your child. Goldens have large jaws so he may be able to get the whole head in there...Give him to a farmer for an outside dog or have him put down before it's to late.


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## gwill (Jan 1, 2004)

I was really amazed at the Golden in another recent thread that was shot for chasing horses. This one amazes me even more!

Our Golden, Reba, will soon have her 11th birthday. She's the second Golden to share her home with us. I can't imagine a more gentle or easier to train dog than these were. I cant imagine any circumstances under which she could be aggressive.

The only fault I've seen with any of the Goldens I've met is their unreasonable fear of thunder or gunfire. It seems to be universal.

<img src=http://members.toast.net/gwill/album/Family/Reba.jpg>


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## MowHoward2210 (Nov 2, 2003)

> _Originally posted by gwill _
> 
> <img src=http://members.toast.net/gwill/album/Family/Reba.jpg>


That is a beautiful dog your have there, George.


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## Deerehunter (May 28, 2004)

> _Originally posted by ducati996 _
> *Strange indeed because Goldens are not known to be aggressive at all. They are known as one of the most trusting family pet...*


Indeed, I heard a genleman make a comment in which he said, "There has never been an incident of biting in the history of their breed." Kind of makes you wonder about purity of the parents or as stated in another post, the breed is going down hill. Real shame.


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## guest2 (Dec 27, 2003)

Hutch
Was he aggressive from a puppy? Chow chows are a much nastier breed than goldens. One of the pups now 3yrs old took after his father as far as aggression was concerned. He started at 6 weeks! Good with the family but went after the vet. We did some dominance drills with him for a few months and broke him of the habit. The other 3 pups are great watch dogs but luckily took after their mom. She was the sweetest dog I've ever owned!

His father is another story. We found him as an adult abused chow running the streets. After working with him for the last 6 years, he's at the point that we can trust him with those he's familiar with. 

As a breed the chow is highly dog aggressive and they will go for any other dog or animal they see. We don't take them outside of the fenced in yard. The father just recently climbed about 3-4 feet up a tree and pulled out a raccoon and killed it.

You really need to get forceful with this dog and let him know that you're the boss. The dominance drills involved rolling him on his back and holding him down tight by his front legs pressed against his chest while straddling him. It made him furious the first few times but soon enough he got the idea.


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## ducati996 (Dec 27, 2003)

The more I think of it I would bring it to a vet and get some blood work done. I think something might be effecting its behavior (genetic?)
Last weekend I was walking with my neighbor who has two goldens as beautiful as Gwill's(nice picture Gwill!). They are the most delicate, beautiful and friendly, even more so then my Lab...

I'm guessing of course what the cause is but I'm sure it is not because of you or your family or anything you did wrong....

Keep us posted


Ducati


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## guest2 (Dec 27, 2003)

Duc

The aggression in any breed is more from the blood lines than how you raise them. I've seen other chows standing on street corners surrounded by people and other dogs and they show no aggression whatsoever. I've even seen them walking off the leash and being petted by strangers. These are the ones that have been bred correctly. Mine were a "mistake". We knew how aggressive the father was and had no intentions of mating him. At a time when both my elderly parents were hospitalized, the female went into heat. We had kept them seperated before during the cycles. This time the male was a little smarter than us. He showed no signs of being interested in her and she wasn't spotting. Turns out he was cleaning her and any spots before we could see them. Just waiting for the day!


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## ducati996 (Dec 27, 2003)

This is an amazing story overall and there is more detail (other papers) regarding the size of the dog being 130 lbs and the lady
who strangled it weighing around the same.....

Its certainly something I would not want to be in
and as emotional as it is, it came down to the animal you love
and cheerish, or your own physical being and to protect your family
I see where this lady was coming from.....she got summoned regardless...ugly outcome for both party's

Amazing and scary



==============================================

Woman strangles Rottweiler to save her Yorkie

Fri Dec 10, 3:57 PM ET U.S. National - AFP 

MIAMI, United States (AFP) - Police are mulling charges against a woman who strangled her neighbor's Rottweiler, which she said had attacked her Yorkshire terrier, local press reported. 


Robin Bush, was inside her home Wednesday when the Rottweiler, Rox, slipped away from his owner and attacked the Yorkie, Candy, who was outside with Bush's 10-year-old son, the Port St. Lucie News, reported, citing police. 


When Bush heard her son scream, she ran out of the house, threw a beer bottle at the dog, kicked it, grabbed it by the collar and strangled it, while banging its head against the wall, the newspaper said Friday. 


The owner of the Rottweiler, Rebecca Hartley, screamed for help, while an enraged Bush screamed that she would kill the animal. Several minutes later, the dog was asphixiated. 


Bush told police that she was afraid to let go of the animal for fear it would bite her. 


A local prosecutor considered whether to bring charges against Bush for cruelty to the late Rottweiler, the newspaper said. 


Candy, the Yorkie's owner said, was slightly injured and "traumatized" by the attack.


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## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

WoW...what a tragedy...

It sounds like the Rot made an unprovoked attack which is natural for them to do as they're very territorial...problem was that it was in an urban setting. The lady had a child and herself to protect. It sounds that it was justified, but then "she threw a beer bottle at the dog" and while the owner of the dog screamed for help, the enraged woman "screamed that she would kill the animal" and that's exactly what she did. Maybe her and the dog were both unstable.


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## Hutch001b (Sep 16, 2003)

Joe, you didn't offend me. You're way is one way of handling the problem, just not my way. I am afraid Sonny may have to be put down and I can have that done, I just couldn't take him out and shoot him.
We had a Golden for years that we rescued and you couldn't have asked for a gentler dog. I've been around lots of Goldens and never saw one like this. As I said, the vast majority of the time he is just as loving as you'd think he should be. There are rarely any children at the house but when we take him to the park he loves kids and the attention he gets. 
One thing about what he does is that there's no preliminary growling he just comes right after you. Hutch


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## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

_Originally posted by Hutch001b_*
One thing about what he does is that there's no preliminary growling he just comes right after you. Hutch*

Dam Hutch, your between the proverbial rock and the hard spot.

You certainly don't want to be out in a park somewhere and have that happen to an unsuspecting child. But then again Sonny has other attributes that make him endearing and lovable. Tough decision brother.:truth:


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## ducati996 (Dec 27, 2003)

> _Originally posted by sixchows _
> *Duc
> 
> The aggression in any breed is more from the blood lines than how you raise them. I've seen other chows standing on street corners surrounded by people and other dogs and they show no aggression whatsoever. I've even seen them walking off the leash and being petted by strangers. These are the ones that have been bred correctly. Mine were a "mistake". We knew how aggressive the father was and had no intentions of mating him. At a time when both my elderly parents were hospitalized, the female went into heat. We had kept them seperated before during the cycles. This time the male was a little smarter than us. He showed no signs of being interested in her and she wasn't spotting. Turns out he was cleaning her and any spots before we could see them. Just waiting for the day! *


Chows are just plain fiesty critters, and you have both gentle and savage (Raccon killer)...
With the "puppy mills" pushing out breeds with unkown genetic makup or history. Dispositons of the Dogs can change without much warning. Alot of it can be genetic defects or it could be diasease. All hope is not lost of course (as long as the dog is yourn enough), have the vet do some tests...

I have a mastiff which was an rescue and he was maybe a year old when I got him. He know weighs about 225lbs (as much as me)....he had some bad habits which took a lot of work to correct, and a lot of socializing around other people and dogs. The neutering is the best start, took the aggression out of him.
The Dog is incredibly strong, when I first got him I was concerned
that I would not be able to handle him if he got excited, I'm not a light weight either mind you. Its working out very well overall its been a few years already. I still dont trust him 100% (never will) not like my lab....I fenced in my yard just before I took him home.
He is strong enough to break my fence but he hasnt tried...

Ducati


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## Michael (Sep 16, 2003)

I recently had to kil a golden that had attack a sheep and killed the sheep and was in my pasture tormenting and chasing the horses that I pasture for a neighbor. I am thinking that some dogs just end up bad, I dearly love dogs, but protection of livestock was the most important consideration when I killed the dog. It was really sad but if the dog kills a sheep and attempts to harm a horse it could easily attack children or even adults. The dog I killed had no known reason (mentally or physically to attack but he did. I would highly reccommend that you get the dog to the vet and then see the specialist the vet reccommends. 

http://www.tractorforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6343


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## bontai Joe (Sep 16, 2003)

My last 2 dogs were of the "free to a good home" variety. The last one was a Beagle who was a great pet and I had him for about 10 years, The one before that was an abused Irish Setter, that loved everyone. He tried to always be the best dog so as not to be ignored like his previous owner did to him. When we got him he was tied with a 3 foot piece of chain attached to the side of a house and covered in mud. As far as my experience with Golden retrievers goes, I was recently at my moms place working on a tractor after dark in the garage. The door was open, and I was sitting on the floor. I turned my head to get a wrench to see the nieghbor's Golden's face about 6" away from mine. I gretted him/her with my usual gretting, "Hi dog." and got my face licked. So I gave the dog a nice rub on the head and he left with his tail wagging. My previous encounters with the breed have always been similar.

I used to have neighbors with a pair of Rottweilers, and I would often carry a 9mm when in my own yard. Most dogs don't scare me (I'm 6'-3" and 300 pounds) but they do. I'm astonished that a 130 pound woman could strangle one. Must have been a big adrenilin rush involved!


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## sweelmaestro (Jul 8, 2020)

Sorry for chiming in to this thread so late, but I just had to share this in case it helps someone out. I wish I had gotten this advice years ago.

*Training your dog really is the only long-term solution, OP.*

I love my dog so much but it constantly did the things that irked me most. It would chew on things that it shouldn’t or jump up and down out of the blue.

Whenever I put on the leash, it would pull on it. Whenever it was out of the house, it would continue digging on the ground - I wish I could tell what it was looking for down there. The same goes for all the nasty urine.

All the things it did left me feeling depressed as if I failed it monumentally.

But since I discovered _Brain Training 4 Dogs_ and applied the system offered, it now behaves the way a beautiful dog I always expect of. I highly recommend it. 

Here's a link to their site. Good luck!


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## Bob Driver (Nov 1, 2017)

Two MS ******** were sitting on the front porch drinking beer when their **** hound started to lick his crotch. One said "I've always wished I could do that".... The other replied "You might want to pet him first, he's kinda mean"


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