Biting Aggression in Golden Retrievers

So what’s the deal ?

Are Golden Retrievers becoming more aggressive towards their human counterparts ?

Is there some sort of aberrant behavior thing going on due too inferior breeding practices ?

Have Golden’s finally lost their minds ?

Or is it something much more simpler ?

Here’s the scoop, poop or whatever else you like to call it. Golden Retrievers just like every other breed of dog, depend on and need adequate mental and physical stimulation. Along with somebody to spend quality happy time with that animal. Lets not forget a dogs whole life is dependent on us for everything, love, affection, food, health care, mental stimulation which is directly tied to physical activity and playing.

Let me repeat that part, ” a dogs whole life is dependent on us for everything.”

Back to this Golden biting aggression thing, there is a certain segment of the population that will blame any and every type of unwanted behavior on poor breeding or some other type of genetic defect. Well hell, actually most folks in the dog world will explain away behaviors in this manner.

The truth of the matter is, biting is a normal behavior. There are a couple main reasons why this is brought about. Some people the first time their little puppy or dog growls at them will just totally freak out and start spending less time with the animal, this in effect will exacerbate the problem.

Too often dogs are yelled at or disciplined for play behaviors that are not understood, effectively confusing the shit out of the dog. Dogs growl and bite when they play. Another related problem to misunderstanding the dogs mind is when our dog becomes scared at something and he starts growling or barking, we again will yell at the dog to stop it.

Another potential problem ; People with small kids that never really had a dog usually wind up getting a Golden retriever or Labrador retriever. Especially since a lot of people advocate the retrieving breeds as family pets to the less experienced dog families. By doing so, those individuals are unfortunately showing their lack of knowledge when it comes to dogs and people.

Remember if you have a dog that growls and / or barks seemingly ferociously or aggressively at things, he is afraid of that thing. So instead of yelling at him we must know how to make the dog more comfortable through our body language and voice.

Regardless of how much experience we think we may have with dogs if they are displaying any behavior we do not know how to rectify, we do not have as much experience as we think we do.

The Spirit Dog

Copyright © 2009 A.S.Papszycki

Filed under: The Mind Of a Dog Tagged: | aggressive dogs, alpha dogs, dog aggression, Dogs, dogs that bite, dominant dogs, fear aggression, golden retrievers