Golden Retriever - strange behaviour

[TheTecknician]

Can anyone explain this? This afternoon I saw a young GR - maybe just a few months old - with its owner/walker. It was on a lead on the pavement but it refused to walk. Absolutely would not budge. O/W tried to get it moving by slackening the lead and walking just a few steps but GR wasn't having it. Stayed sitting then eventually just lay down on the pavement! It was happy to stand up and make a considerable fuss of a passing woman who paid it a lot of attention but once that was over the sit-in/lie-in continued.

I was watching this from my home over the road. I looked out again after a few minutes and GR and O/W were gone but I don't know how! I've never seen any dog act like this. Did I witness an animal with behavioural problems or was it just being an awkward bugger?

My dog does that sometimes when he'd prefer to go a different way, or it's raining/hot/windy and he wants to go home.

It's all overwhelming when you are young puppy.

Also, GR can be stubborn buggers. So, all perfectly normal.

My lab does this if she’s decided her walk hasn’t been long enough!

Its the Goldie sploot.
They can be bloody stubborn and cannot be moved if they are determined not to.
Ours just decided he was only doing half of a regular circular walk one day on the canal and DH had to jog back for the car while me and DDOG sat on the towpath. Some people who had passed us passed us on the way back as well and we had a nice chat

That’s normal Goldie behaviour, mine is so stubborn and will refuse to budge if she doesn’t want to do something. She stops dead at the end of walks as she doesn’t want to go home

My Goldie does this if he wants to go a particular route and I don't. Or if he doesn't want to go home yet. Or if my mum walks him because he knows she'll give him a treat.

Clever, stubborn dogs.

Did I witness an animal with behavioural problems or was it just being an awkward bugger?

Honestly you might be personifying animals too much. It’s a dog, not a child. It doesn’t have behavioural issues like a naughty child and it isn’t being awkward or stubborn in that sense. It could be as simple as the dog has a sore paw and doesn’t want to put pressure on it, or feels tired and wants to sit. The dog isn’t going to literally know what the owner wants it to do, or what the preferred route/direction the owner wants is, it can’t read minds. It might be able to infer better in time but you mention it was a young dog so presumably still in training and learning?

We had a GR who used to do exactly that as a puppy! We realised that it was because he obviously couldn't use his eyes and his legs at the same time, so he needed to stop just to observe the world in all its amazing newness.

Everything inspired the same level of wonder. "Wow, a leaf!", "Wow, a car!, "Wow, a flock of geese!" etc. Adorable.

Mine does this occasionally when tired. And then I have to carry her home. Currently only 10kg, so that’s possible, but not for long!

Actually, they do.

They have behavioural issues just as children do. They also have the intelligence levels of your average 2yo old. Not just GR's, most dogs' behaviour is a lot more evolved that the "Oh, it's just a sore paw" oversimplification.

Thankyou all. The consensus appears to be normal behaviour!

I suspect that the GR was frozen to the spot, thinking, "There is someone staring at me from their house, over the road. I'm scared and I'm not moving until they go away."

Yes, that will be it.

My goldie does this when he wants to go a different way from the way I would like to go. He adopts his Eeyore look and won't budge.

At the same age our dog refused to walk away from where i was, so would have done this. In the end DH had to carry the dog away from the house and then walk back.

I can confirm completely normal for a Goldie - mine is so stubborn at times, ie wants to call the shots on which route we take, and I can imagine someone like you watching and tutting at me yanking him down the road when he absolutely refuses to move!!

There’s loads of videos on Instagram of goldies just deciding they’ve had enough and lying down wherever they stand. Their owner either has to cajole them with a treat or pick them up. They are the very definition of’ no thoughts, just vibes’.

My Labrador does this and she’s 10. She usually does it if she doesn’t want to go a certain way or if someone’s walking behind us, which she hates so if she spots them before me and I haven’t had time to move her over, I’ve got no chance

Not a GR but my friend’s Bernese does this and he’s too heavy to lift now. Current record is just over an hour of trying to cajole him to get up and move! Who’d have dogs ey?

Typical of goldies, especially when young like that. Nothing moves them unless they want to move. They also do it when older when they figure out they can have a choice of direction, when they want to watch the world or have a little rest.
Like a PP earlier, I suspect a low count of brain cells is to blame.

This is totally typical of a goldie. They don’t call them “diva retrievers” for nothing.

Mine pins herself down to the pavement when she is in this mood facing the direction she feels she should be going - usually towards home. It’s very difficult to persuade her to carry on as she is 35 kg of 9 year old stubborn dog. Totally frustrating!

The GR I saw was definitely offered some culinary inducement but to no avail! Perhaps a Labrador might have been more easily persuaded.

Totally disagree with this. Of course a dog is capable of remembering the route of a walk! My ancient golden used to manage a sit-in at the end of her walk until her final week because she knew there was an extra loop we sometimes went on. Your patronising response shows a complete lack of understanding of these clever, intuitive dogs.

I saw one splot on the middle of the road on a pedestrian crossing. Refuse to move. Her owner had to scoop her up in a fireman’s lift 🤣

@ChangingWeight
My dog turns left independently from the house if I tell him we’re going to the park, right for the woods and heads backwards to the driveway if I tell him ‘car’.
He 100% knows what I’m asking him and where we’re going.

He understands if he should get the toy or food reward from in front or behind him, when both options are available, depending on what I tell him.
He will cross the road without me yet changing direction if I say ‘cross over’ and These are just the basic, everyday things.

he's not yet 4 years old so has years of learning ahead of him.