The Golden Retriever wants to please his master.

The Golden Retriever was bred to be an obedient and easy to handle dog that could be used as a retriever when hunting in any terrain.

Since it had to track and retrieve prey even from great distances, absolute obedience was necessary in the Golden Retriever character.

Therefore, it is sometimes said, due to its original purpose, that the Golden Retriever is particularly easy to train, because of its “will to please” towards its master. This means that he likes to please his owner and is very devoted.

Now it is indeed the case that Golden Retrievers are very intelligent and capable of learning, however, no dog is born perfectly educated and trained.

Therefore, it would be wrong to assume that education will be much easier than with other dog breeds. You as the owner are still responsible for a good socialization and proper behavior of your four-legged friend.

However, due to its docility and strong fixation on “its human”, the Golden Retriever usually learns quite quickly and subordinates itself. A visit to the dog school is, however, also the Golden owners very much to recommend.

Nature and character of the Golden Retriever at a glance

intelligent
friendly
water-loving
gentle
joyful to move and to run
willing to work
will-to-please
loyal
easy to train
fond of children
suitable as family dog
suitable for beginners
affectionate
have hunting instinct
not suitable as a guard dog
friendly and open-minded towards strangers
no protection instinct
high irritation threshold
usually gets along well with other dogs

The ideal dog for active families

It is true, however, that the Golden Retriever is very friendly towards people and even with strangers is sometimes wagged vigorously with the tail.

Therefore, he is of course not particularly useful as a guard dog and also his protective instinct is only little or not at all pronounced.

However, he is excellent as a family dog, whether with large or small children in the household. The prerequisite, however, is early socialization and habituation, because a Golden is not automatically the perfect family dog from birth.

Bad experiences can even imprint the dog very negatively on people or children. As a responsible owner, you should never leave the Golden Retriever (just like any other dog) alone in a room with smaller children.

It does not matter how sweet or obedient the dog is. It is also important to show children how to handle the dog properly and to point out possible mistakes.

Please also consider the Golden Retriever size of sometimes up to over 60 cm. Children can hardly tame such a dog if it has not been properly trained and even the best trained dog can get frightened, pull on the leash or otherwise behave undesirably.

However, a well-behaved and well-used Golden Retriever will become a very sociable, loving and calm contemporary and a sporty family is exactly the right thing for him.

For all the calmness and composure of the Golden Retriever’s nature, this breed is not a cozy house dog, but needs exercise and wants to be challenged.

In addition to extended walks and daily play and learning sessions, a dog sport is therefore ideal for the Golden Retriever.

Try dogdance or obedience and really power your dog. Or recreate his previous work in hunting with dummy training and let him search for the dummy and bring it back to you.

After such an exhausting and exciting “working day” even the very active Golden gets a little lazy and lays comfortably in the corner.

Source reference: https://www.goldenr.de/golden-retriever-wesen-und-charakter/