How to Take Care of Golden Retrievers
However, before you decide to take the plunge and bring your new friend home – from a breeder or the pound, whichever suits your fancy – you need to make sure you’re going to be a good pet parent.
Golden Retrievers
Unfortunately, even though golden retrievers are such amazing pets, they’re not the easiest to deal with. They shed all the time, they require a lot of exercise, they can’t be left home alone for too long, and they become very large dogs.
You have to weigh their needs with your abilities. You’ll have to ask yourself if you’ll have the time that’s required to keep your dog healthy and safe. Will you be able to walk it for hours on end every day? Will you have the space to let your dog roam free when it’s two feet long and 70 pounds?
And this is not even getting into the amount of care and energy a young puppy requires!
Necessities
Puppy Training
As with most dog breeds, the things that you teach your golden retriever when they’re a puppy will follow them throughout their entire adult dog life.
However, training isn’t the only way to take care of your golden retriever – it’s the way that most benefits you, rather than your furry friend.
When your golden retriever is a puppy, expect to spend uncountable hours with them: training them to go to the bathroom, to follow commands, to eat, to learn how to walk without tripping over their gangly legs, etc.
Your golden retriever will be curious and will want to explore everything, and it also will not have any sort of concept of boundaries at this point. It can be very difficult to instill all the elements of a “good” dog into your golden retriever, and it can be downright impossible to do so once they get too old.
Unless you have the time and energy to work with your puppy when they are still a puppy, the golden retriever breed might not be a good idea for you.
Constant Exercise
This is likely the most important one on this list. When it comes to your dog friend, they will need increasingly large amounts of exercise.
Golden retrievers are extremely energetic and playful dogs. They’re great for running around with children and other dogs – so long as you have the space for it – and they can eat up hours just running around.
It’s one of the reasons they make such good hunting dogs, should you need them to perform that role.
However, you may find that your golden retriever requires more time and energy than you thought, and you may not be able to take them for hours on end to the nearby dog park or go for daily runs with them.
Unless you find a way to tire them out inside your house or in your local neighborhood, you might do more harm than good when it comes to your golden retriever. Getting a dog is a big responsibility, and when that dog is a golden retriever, there are more things to consider, as well.
They Don’t Like Being Left Alone!
Golden retrievers are very loyal. They will imprint on you and serve you as a faithful companion until their dying day – so long as you treat them well, of course. However, because of how important their people are to them, you may find that your golden retriever is also somewhat . . . clingy.
This can manifest in several ways, but the biggest and most common one tends to show itself in such a way that most golden retriever owners quickly learn that they cannot leave their golden retriever alone for too many hours at a time.
(We have a lovely article here that has more information if you must leave your dog alone.)
This can be a hard pill to swallow if you work 8+ hour days, especially if you’re doing so outside of your house. Your dog can gain anxiety and other mental issues if you leave them alone for too long.
They Do Better with Lots of Space
Similar to the earlier point about exercise, golden retrievers tend to need a lot of space. Although you can train them to be obedient and to not destroy all your things – whether you’re in the house or not – they do better and end up being healthier when they have a lot of space to roam around in and consider their territory.
Takeaway
Golden retrievers are great dogs, and they’re lovely to have. However, they are also considered a high-maintenance pet and depending on the individual temperament of your animal, it might be more effort than it’s worth to care for them the way they deserve to be cared for.