This is Part 1 of a two-part series. At least I think it will be two parts. This part deals with Golden Retrievers and people. A future installment will cover socialization with other dogs.
Imagine a world where you can walk your Golden Retriever for an hour without one person asking you if they can greet your dog: People walking by without even looking at your dog. Kids who are out in their yard decide to play with their toy trucks instead of asking you if they can pet Fido. OK, now that we are out of a fantasy world, you may be wondering exactly what the right approach is when a stranger wishes to approach your big bundle of blonde fur.
Golden Retrievers are a social breed. Most of them will be just as driven to greet a stranger as the stranger is to greet them. A few months ago, I was walking JJ and Tucker around town when a girl, no older than 14 and probably younger, was out riding her bike. I went into instant “fear” mode when I saw her approaching us. Was this because I thought one of my dogs would bite her? No. The odds are greatly against that. Rather, I was in a situation where I was walking two young males who just met (this was not long after we adopted Tucker) and I was afraid that they would fight amongst each other to gain the attention of the girl approaching us. I was not in a great position to walk away, so I managed the situation. How did it go? I got lucky. The teenager not only owned dogs – she helped train her dogs. She knew how the game was played and it worked out fine. But what if she didn’t know how the game was played? What if she charged at my dogs, arms wide open, without any regard with how they were reacting to her exuberance? The answer is to not be afraid to tell the child that your dog is not feeling well or just went to the vet – or whatever excuse you can come up at that moment. You need to protect both the child and your dog. Some dogs don’t care if a kid is being inappropriate – it is always up to you to read the situation.
There is a point to all this: If you don’t feel comfortable about a situation involving your dog, feel free to walk away. There is never a need to force something when you feel uncomfortable. Remember that if anything happens, no matter how inappropriate the person may be towards your dog, it is likely your dog who will take the blame.
What if I want my Golden Retrievers to greet people?
Training can go a long way in making sure everyone (including the dog) is appropriate in “meet and greet” situations. My trainer has emphasized “sit to be petted” with all my Goldens through the years. If you want your Golden to be the neighborhood social butterfly, learn this rather simple behavior to teach. It may require some patience from the person who is approaching you – asking them to not touch your dog until the dog sits and waits for the person to come in and greet them.
The key is making everyone comfortable. Strangers on the street may have no idea when a dog is giving a signal that they don’t want to be bothered. Dogs don’t always do this with a growl or a snarl. They will look away. They will lick their chops. Since you can’t assume that “random person on the street” knows this, it is up to you to see this and stop the greeting from going any further. By the way, if your dog barks at an approaching person, this doesn’t equate to aggression. “Alanis” barks at people and pulls me to the point where she has scared a person or two. Little do they know that she is doing this because she has a high drive to greet people, not a high drive to attack people.
To show you how different each Golden can be:
“Josh” was a social butterfly. If a person said “Hi” to me as we were walking by, he took that as “This person wants to pet me!” He was gentle and sweet. The kids in the neighborhood loved him.
“Jeter” was more reserved. While Josh didn’t care if a person invaded his space, Jeter was cautious. He would often back up when someone came towards us. I was never afraid of a bite – but I had to tell a few people along the way to let me approach them with Jeter. He was more comfortable doing it this way.
“Alanis”, as explained above, is nuts. She wants to pull my shoulder out of my socket to say hi to everyone. But once she is next to you, she is the perfect greeting dog. She will sit by you and accept all the love you want to give her.
“JJ” has a lot of Josh in him. The gentle giant who just wants everyone to love him. He has a cute little “bounce” he does when he sees someone he wants to greet. I say it is a little bounce, but it isn’t. I am 6’0″ and people have commented to me that he bounces over my head.
“Tucker” is a ball of affectionate love. He will stand or sit there and take it all in. He doesn’t pull on me like Alanis, but his excitement level in meeting new people is rather high. I am working on trying to settle him down.
So, the question posed at the beginning was: How social does your Golden Retriever need to be with people? The correct answer is rather simple: As social as he or she wants to be.