Golden Retrievers are known for their gentle temperament and happy disposition, so it seems like training them should be a piece of cake. Not exactly. The gentle, obedient, and friendly Retriever you’ve recently encountered is that way partly because of the way it’s been genetically wired, but largely because it’s been properly trained.
Training Golden Retrievers starts when they’re still young puppies. Golden Retrievers are active, and somewhat boisterous by nature, and they need to learn obedience before they become too large. Like many young animals, puppies will tend to nip, partly through play, and partly to establish their place in the pecking order. You’ll need to “nip” this pattern in the bud, and one of the first training rules is to train yourself to be the leader of the pack, the Alpha dog!
When training Golden Retrievers, you need to address three principal areas. RESPECT, first respect for you, then respect for everyone else, dogs and people alike, HOUSE TRAINING, including Housebreaking and Rules of the Road or Routines, and SOCIALIZING, teaching your dog not only respect, but how to comfortably get along with other dogs, people, and the pet cat.
Once your pet has learned to respect you, has become housebroken, and learned the rules for what is acceptable and what is not, when living with the family, and learned to socialize with people and animals, you can start working on tricks. You can teach it the joy of fetching newspapers and slippers (fetching, not chewing), and even learning to “stand for show” if you’re planning to go in that direction.
Respect means not only don’t nip, but also “Come” and “Sit”. It also means “don’t ignore”. Golden Retrievers generally will not ignore you, something that Beagles, as an example, are very good at. Retrievers are usually happy to see you, happy to be with you, and very happy when they know they are doing what you want them to do. Still, if they ignore you, or choose not to mind, they have to learn that is unacceptable behavior.
In housebreaking a puppy, and teaching it the rules of the household in general, you’ll obviously have to have some patience, and not get upset when mistakes are made, as will be the case at first. Take a page from people who train horses. You get a horse to do things by making the right thing easy to do, and the wrong thing difficult to do. Make it easy for your puppy to learn where to go, by taking him to the spot, and difficult to go wherever it wants to (by confinement). It will soon learn that it’s easier to go on a newspaper or outside, than to be confined because it’s not yet allowed the run of the house.
Attending formal dog obedience classes is often the best way to teach your Golden Retriever puppy how best to socialize with other dogs. In fact obedience school is the best and most efficient method for training Golden Retrievers. Put your pet into the hands of someone who can quickly get it doing the right things (by making it easy) and avoiding the wrong things (by making it difficult). You’ll soon have a Golden Retriever just like the one you envisioned when you first visited the pet store – a loyal, obedient, and intelligent companion, who is an absolute joy to be with.
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