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?

I will not be obtaining a Golden Retriever any time soon. Nor shall I be walking anybody else's!

This reminded me of our beautiful golden retriever. She did this all the time. It was very embarrassing but when she had decided not to walk, that was it she wouldn’t budge and would lay on the floor and enjoy the attention of passers by!

Goldies are notoriously stubborn (never knew that until we got ours!) I’ve seen loads of funny videos of goldies refusing to move but they’re only funny because they’re not mine!

Absolutely classic Goldie behaviour. They move when they want to and only when they want to.

I feel like you could be my neighbour 🙈

My 18 month goldie does this every night with me. He wants to go to the park but it’s too late and not safe for me so we do our other walk. He likes to lie down right in front of our house to lodge his protest! We do go to the park just during the day!

In contrast to yesterday's hero, this morning I have seen a Flat Coated Retriever (different breed, I know) walking beautifully and briskly on a lead. An excellent example to all the rebel GRs!

Another Goldie owner here & I can confirm this is very typical behaviour! My boy is 40kg & likes to call the shots. Sometimes I just let him decide where he wants to walk as it's so much easier!

They can all do this - if they choose to.

Friend’s St Bernard would do that. “You want me to do what?” Lies down. 80kg of him. Looks at Dad. “Make me”.

I've seen the same FCR twice this morning, trotting along merrily. I can't see it being a stubborn non-walker!

Ah yes sigh
I’ve been owned by goldens for decades and this is completely normal. They’re the definition of “I’m cute af and I WILL DECIDE”

I have to say, in forty years of owning or living with Goldies (and being heavily involved in breeding, showing and rescusing), I have never experienced this.

And the only people I know of who have...haven't trained their dogs very well - their dogs trained them.

Absolutely.

There are some perfect GRs and then there's the other 99.9% of them.

Yes - normal behaviour - either tired or wants to stay there to see something. They will move eventually but only when they are ready!

They’re the best dogs, but they are stubborn buggers

This is completely normal for a golden retriever. I’ve had them all my life. They have all done that from time to time.

Mine did it the other day. I couldn’t be arsed with her jumping in the stream we pass as I didn’t want to dry her, I had to go out.

She protested by stopping at the end of my road and not moving, just staring forlornly at the stream. I had to call dh who came to us in the car and had to pick her up and shove her in the boot.

My mongrel dog went through a phase of doing this. I tried the trick of suddenly running, which is supposed to surprise them into following you. He just bit my leg. Eventually worked out that he'd previously been spooked by something, as became clear later when he refused to go past a lorry being loaded by men gleefully chucking things in and making loud bangs.

I saw a Newfoundland sploot at the entrance to m&s a few weekends ago. There was no budging her.

my lab does the same. There’s a cross roads on our walk - one way leads to the forest, the other way to a footpath. He likes both but he has opinions on what he likes best on a particular day, and don’t we know it 😂😂

In all seriousness, what is a blind person to do if their GR guide dog decides to invoke their willful bolshiness when it's not convenient? I'd hope potential guide dogs with a stubborn streak get weeded out early on.

I’m sure they do. It was clear by 5/6 months old that mine was an absolute dickhead. She would have made a disaster of a guide dog and would have made it very far.

I've never seen a GR as a guide dog. Come to think of it, I wonder why Labradors are the breed of choice?

I've had both breeds as pets and, speaking from personal experience only, the Labradors were like well oiled machines, bomb proof, dependable but also great as family dogs. The Goldies impeccably well behaved but more like shadows than independent thinkers, they just followed everywhere looking gorgeous and not getting into any trouble.

One of my labradors does this when she realises we are in sight of the car park.

I can tempt her along by telling her it’s nearly tea time but she pretends to limp back to the van like she’s very frail and old.

She’s an absolute madam.

Give how guide dogs treat their dogs, probably just kick them into submission.

Nothing that organisation does would surprise me.

We’ve had Goldie’s for years, but only the latest does this.
We call it the flop and drop. Walked far enough? Asked to walk in the wrong direction? Don’t want to go home? Flop and drop.
She’s impossible to pick up- imagine a floppy 32kg bag of flour. We got a harness with a handle which helps. None of our other retrievers have done this, we got them as puppies and this one is a retired breeding bitch we got at 6yrs, so the behaviour came as a bit of a shock!