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New - Is this the right breed for us?

2K views 12 replies 13 participants last post by  Pilgrim123 
#1 ·
Hello everyone!

While doing research into dog breeds I stumbled upon this forum. I'm looking to add a new member to my family this coming fall or next spring and thought this might be the place to find out whether a Golden Retriever would be a good option for us. The other option I'm considering at the moment is a Poodle. If this is not the right place to post this please let me know where would be most appropriate.

Currently I have a five year old of the two legged variety that likes to call me Mom (usually repeatedly in a five minute span), and have recently been adopted by an eight month old and six week old of the four legged floofy meowing variety.
I'll be living in a single family home with a fenced back yard and my daughter and I like to take long walks around town when it's not a torrential downpour.
I have been around dogs my whole life and have owned them in the past.
While I work 9 - 5 weekdays my office is 4 blocks from my house, and I am easily able to leave for fifteen minute breaks mid morning and mid afternoon in addition to an hour for lunch.

I need a dog that is cat and kid friendly. I'm looking for a companion that is smart, well tempered, and easy going. I'm willing to put in the time and effort for basic obedience and have access to obedience classes if needed. I'm willing to look into more extensive training as well. My daughter is generally good around animals, but is still learning to be careful around them. Obviously she wouldn't be unsupervised but some minor tugging may happen in play.

Would a Golden Retriever be right for us? Any comments, questions, concerns/etc are welcome.
Thanks in advance!
 
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#2 ·
Great that you are doing your research beforehand. A golden retriever would fit in with your family, but be aware that any puppy needs a lot of time and training that first year or more. In the morning before you go to work and when you come home at night, that dog will be ready and rearing to go....no matter what the weather.

Not trying to discourage you by any means, but it will be like having another child.
 
#3 ·
Goldens (and many other breeds) go through a mouthy phase in their development. During this time, from about 10 weeks or so until about 6 months or so, your daughter may experience nips and scratches that are not meant to harm but are a normal part of play for this breed. It is sometimes not fun for a child who may have a harder time being closer to the ground and lacking a size advantage.

That said, golden retrievers can be great companions to a family.

Poodles can also be good, especially standard sized. They also shed very little fur, but do require a different sort of grooming.

Supervision and training of both child and dog may be required. Look for a breeder that can help match a puppy with a temperament to match your needs.
 
#4 ·
we have had 5 goldens over the years and also have always had 1 or 2 indoor cats. Each of the goldens has been EXCELLENT with the cats - they play together (sometimes), snuggle together (sometimes) and tolerate/respect one another (always!) We also have feral cats that come to our yard and the goldens are wonderful with them as well. Don't have kids, but the 'mouthy' period does require a lot of supervision, training and patience. There are tons of good threads on this throughout the forum. The fact that you're looking toward next Fall or Spring will help you in terms of the time it will take to find a reputable breeder, etc. I have no experience with Poodles so cannot help with that.
Best of luck!
 
#5 ·
I would say it's a very easy "yes"... :)

I think a golden retriever would be a better choice than a poodle. But it's up to you.

Poodles - you have to pay to have them clipped every once in a while and professionally groomed.

Goldens - you groom yourself. Does not take a grooming degree to know how to keep a golden well groomed.

There might be one issue with your baby girl being only 5 - but it mainly comes down to the breeders gauging how well-behaved and obedient your kids are around dogs. A lot of them really want their dogs raised with kids - because golden retrievers worship kids.

I think the only breed that loves kids more and would be quite a bit more gentle (aside from excited nipping when their herding/chase instincts are engaged) would be rough collies.
 
#6 ·
Both Goldens and Poodles are very smart, so training wouldn't be too hard as long as you're willing to put in the effort not only to go to a class but also training everyday at home as well.

Our pup is almost 6 months old and although the mouthing has slowed down, he still bits my arm like it's a chew stick.... both my arms and my husbands are covered with scratch and scars so you must be aware that will happen if you end up getting a golden.

i don't have either cats or kids to comment on, but my breeder has 2 young daughters (i'm guessing between 4-7yo?), and she has 2 cats.. so I don't think that Goldens would be a problem with either as long as you socialize them well and it's easier when they are younger.
 
#7 ·
I'm a professional groomer-don't get a poodle. They are high maintenance to groom -you're looking at $80 or more every six weeks for grooming (and they NEED professional grooming at least that often and you must brush them thoroughly every day between professional grooms). Goldens are pretty easy to learn to groom on your own and you can get by with only brushing once a week (confession: I usually don't even do it that often. oops!). I've groomed some very well-bred poodles from reputable breeders and find them to be extremely hyper, not very intelligent, and in some cases aggressive toward other animals or even nippy with people. And the poodles from non-reputable breeders? Absolute NIGHTMARES! I suppose some of this could be prevented through proper socialization and training from the time a poodle is a puppy, but still, I find well-bred goldens to have a much more stable disposition. That said, I've also groomed a golden or two from poor breeders who would have been happy to bite my arm off over a snag or a toenail trim. However, I find the majority of even poorly bred goldens to be of a more stable temperament, than other breeds poorly bred. Although, I do feel the most common temperament flaw in a poorly bred golden is excessive hyper-ness. Fyi, ALL puppies go through hyper, nippy, testy stages and a good obedience trainer can help you work through that: goldens are retrievers and HAVE to have something in their mouths, so lots of chew toys are good! So my best advice is whichever breed you choose, do your research and get one from a reputable breeder who follows their breed's code of ethics. You can contact your local breed club and ask for their recommendations for ethical breeders.
Also, a little disclaimer: I just plain don't like poodles as you can tell from this post, so that makes me much more apt to find fault with them. And Goldens are my favorite so that makes me more apt to not see their faults. So my opinions may be prejudiced just a wee bit. :)
 
#8 ·
Like Goldens & Friesians, I groom and am not a big fan of poodles but my doubts about them come less from grooming and more from observing them at our dog park. They really do have a personality that is quite different than a retriever and a big part of that is that they are not as people focused. A Golden or a Lab will want to make friends with every person they see, everyone is a potential best friend and the dog with the most friends wins. I have also found that retrievers like to play interactive games with their people which is why the are so easy to train. Poodles don't seem to care about making friends. I have known some poodles for years and they still wont give me the time of day. Even with their humans there seems to be far less connection.

Like Kate (Megora), I think a Rough Collie is also a good choice for a family dog and they do have the benefit of being less mouthy when they are growing up. The downside (besides ALL that hair) is they are more protective and may decide to guard your children from their friends.
 
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#9 ·
My first dog was a poodle and now many years later we have two Goldies (along with 2 young kids). Both the poodle and Goldie are beautiful dogs. Apart from the grooming, I would say that the biggest difference is that a poodle will bond with one person and will protect that person. A Golden Retriever will bond with everyone in the family. A Golden Retriever is the perfect family dog.
 
#10 ·
We had a miniature poodle for 18 yrs. She was a great loyal little dog, but not interested in the kids when they came along and as she got older became a bit cranky.
Jess , our golden, loves everybody. We have three cats, and he's very good with all of them, he still brings them toys and tries to get them to play. The only thing with goldens is they do need a fair amount of exercise. If you're an active family, it's a great fit.
 
#11 ·
I really think the golden retriever is the perfect breed, especially in a family with other pets. My three goldens love my cats - except my cats do not like one of my goldens, because she chases them, but they have learned to avoid her. My dogs are not allowed on the second level of my house, because that is my cats' "safe spot".

One thing I caution about is that not all golden puppies are equal. My first golden puppy, my children were 4, 8 & 9, was a bad "land shark". Used his teeth to play, so my kids hands were all bit up and clothes ripped. I took him to class and tried everything to stop him. Had to keep him leashed to me, controlled him with crates and baby gates. Many golden puppies are given up early on because of this. When he was about 7 months old, he calmed right down and has been the most perfect dog - so much that we have gotten two more, and puppy sit quite often for my breeder, bringing home many puppies. I am told every litter is different, some are more calm than others, some lines are more calm than others, a reputable breeder will pick the right dog for you and be able to tell what her puppies usually are like. The breeder for my first puppy, did not sell to people who had children under four, and people who have never had a puppy before. My breeder that I now co-own with, has now problem selling to a young family, but the puppies I know from her are not mouthy with their teeth.

I would also recommend a book called "Golden Retrievers for Dummies". I am so glad I read that book, it is very honest about how hard some puppies can be, so I was no shocked with Brady. It almost scared me away from the breed, but hard months were so worth it.

I found that my goldens were all very easy to potty train, easier than any breed I have ever owned. They love cuddles, they love to learn, and everybody is there friend.
 
#12 ·
I own both a toy poodle and a golden retriever.

If you're considering a smaller (toy) poodle, I'd say it would not be a good choice for a household with a very young child. They are scarily smart and highly trainable, but have their own agenda and consider themselves to be the kings of the castle. Our poodle is my daughter's agility dog. He came to us when my daughter was 9, and she has been solely responsible for training and raising him. In the early days he needed frequent "attitude adjustments" because he viewed my daughter more as his property than as his owner. Now, age 5, he's a lot better, but my daughter is older and he knows he has to listen to her. He can be impatient and territorial with visiting children; we don't generally allow them to interact with him. As others have said, the grooming is also a major financial commitment (or time commitment if you learn to do it yourself: several hours a week). We love our poodle and he's an incredible agility dog - lightning fast (beats border collie times), learns quickly, and is very accurate (he and my daughter are the reigning Canadian junior agility champions) - but he's probably the most complex dog we've ever owned.

We got our first golden retriever when our daughter was the same age as yours, and it was fine. The one we got wasn't particularly mouthy and quickly learned not to put her teeth on humans. The two became good friends and spent a lot of time together. We already had another dog (an elderly labrador), so my daughter knew how to be gentle and how to interact with animals. In the years that followed, she was often knocked down in an excess of golden enthusiasm, and we always watched carefully in potentially dangerous situations (e.g. on stairs, near sharp ledges or table corners).

Having a young child and a puppy can be exhausting and is always time-consuming. You'll need a system to separate them - a crate was a "must" for us. And formal training for the dog is also essential, so the dog will easily and quickly obey the basic commands (sit, stay, leave it, go to your bed, spit it out, etc.). We took obedience classes every week for a year, and it wasn't overkill by any means. It was very reassuring to know that the dog would spit out small objects (Barbie accessories and Lego pieces come to mind) instead of swallowing them, and that we could send her to her basket when things got out of hand.

Good luck, you'll have a blast!
 

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#13 ·
I also was a housekeeper for a poodle years ago. I still think it was like living with a genius child who never learned to do things just because I said so. There was no malice in him, but you could see his brain working out what was in it for him every time you wanted something. He had no desire to please anybody but himself. For what it's worth, I'd rather have a goldie any day.
 
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