Learning more about Golden Retrievers

Golden Retrievers are a highly intelligent and very versatile breed thus making them outstanding working dogs in areas like Search and Rescue or drug or bomb detection work with law enforcement. Additionally, they are often trained to be service dogs for people with seizures or physical or visual impairments. They are also commonly seen in activities like obedience, hunting and agility. Open any magazine and somewhere you’ll see a picture of a Golden in an advertisement. However, probably the most common and well known job for this wonderful breed is as a family pet and couch potato. Their love of people and especially children and their ability to live in almost any environment has helped to make them the “second most popular dog” according to the American Kennel Club. They are not, however, for everyone and if you are not familiar with all aspects of a Golden Retriever, we would encourage you to research the breed to see if it is right for you.

Two good places to start your research are the Golden Retriever Club of America’s website at www.grca.org and the Evergreen Golden Retriever Club's website at www.egrc.org. Goldens are not perfect for everyone and if you are concerned that you might not be a Golden person, an excellent article about the disadvantages of owning a Golden is on Gaylan’s Goldens website at http://www.gaylans.com/goldens.html. They also have an excellent page on genetic diseases that commonly occur in Goldens.

If you’re uncertain as to if you should choose a male or a female, we would encourage you to be open to either because most of the differences between the sexes that people tell you about are actually old wives tales. Delaware Valley Golden Retriever Rescue has an excellent article about this on their website at www.dvgrr.org under education entitled “Male versus Female – Myth versus Reality”.

We also recommend the following books:
Golden Retrievers for Dummies by Nona Kilgore Bauer
Owning a Golden Retriever by Sally Stewart
Train Your Golden Retriever by Liz Palika

You can purchase these books by going to our Shopping page. A percentage of your purchase will be donated to rescue.