Got a golden retriever

Beautiful dog and absolutely amazing temperament for children (has never growled, let’s the kids climb all over her) but she was a bit of a pain for the first 18 months (not her fault - we have three young kids so fairly hyper household and couldn’t devote as much time to her training as I should have) but has now calmed down a lot.

It’s still a comittment though. Needs walking twice a day (can get away with once if it’s a really long one) which is quite a lot to factor into a busy day and you also need to make sure you have someone who can look after them or walk/let them out if you go away as you can’t realky leave them for longer than 5-6 hours. In hindsight, was a Bridge too far at the time we got her (with kids of baby, 2 year old and 6 year old) but obviously now we wouldn’t be without her and she’s part of the family. Although I love retrievers, If I had my time again though I might have gone for a slightly smaller dog which needs a bit less exercise/doesn’t fill the whole boot of the car just while the kids were young. If you have an outdoorsy lifestyle/job though then it may be different.

Posted By: Jim, Jan 7, 11:14:36