Lab or golden retriever i

[jodesxx]

We are thinking about getting a puppy and it's between lab or golden retriever. We have decided on a female.

Our situation is we have a 14 month son, large garden but relatively small hosue. We are saving to build an extension though.

No more than 2 days a week the dog would be left for about 4/.4.5 hours. Some times it would be no leaving depends on partners shifts.

I'm just not sure which one is going to be more suited to us or if there is much difference

In a more recent study the Lab was 3rd (ahead of border collies!) and the Goldie pushed down to 5th in the intelligence ranking

Goldies drool. A LOT. That would put me off.

My sister's goldie is a real pain. Always hot and panting and drooling if it's remotely hot and it's fur goes everywhere.

If you want a fun dog get a lab. If you want an easily trainable dog get a retriever. But I wouldn't do it now. I spent three years training my dog before having kids.

Either are brilliant family dogs.

neither are for you if you are house proud or sedentary.

both actually need quite a lot of training contrary to popular opinion.

and both will come with hefty insurance premiums.

anecdotally (and according to my guide dog sources) labs are considered more biddable and less highly strung but it is very relative. All retrievers are made for families.

i cannot stress enough two things though:

• they bite as puppies, a lot. It is not the polite euphemism of “mouthing”. They are likely to break yours and your child’s skin.
• the hair. With Golden retrievers it is particularly immense. Last weekend I brushed ours and filled a carrier bag full of hairballs. ‘Normal’ levels of shedding require hoovering furniture daily if you let yours on the sofa.

please make sure you get one with both hip and elbow scores (based on x rays, not The risk index) and also both parents tested for eye disease including gonioscopy, plus ICT-A in goldens.

Despite all the negativity on this thread we got a retriever (not golden) with an 18 month old and a 3 year old and it has been fine!

They get on fine and as the dog has grown larger the kids learnt to not get in her way and she has learnt to be gentle with the kids.

They're always supervised when together and I have no regrets on getting a puppy with young kids!

The HAIR EVERYWHERE however, has me hoovering twice a day!

I agree with pp that neither of these dogs is great at the minute. Both have a LOT of energy. Can you walk them enough to ensure they will not be bored and act up?

My 7 year old really wants a lab, or a golden doodle, but there will be no combination of doodles, or labs, or golden retrievers here. They are lovely, lively dogs, but too much upkeep for me alongside small children.

@PuppyMonkey “let’s pretend to attack the human” has got me in fits

We’re looking into a retriever and I just can’t decide. We lost our old dog 6 months ago and are used to a dog with low energy needs. She was also non moulting and drooling so I’m not sure if I want to trade that in for hair and drool everywhere. Kids are 12 and 15 and really keen to have a goldie as we know others who do. Also they are sooooo big. Just not sure.

I would wait, until the family are older tbh. Toddler and a pup, is very hard work.

The hair is something else, buy an excellent pet hair vacuum.

I’ve only ever had one dog and that’s our current 16month old GR who doesn’t dig, wasn’t a land shark, self cleans and just bloody wonderful - we do put the robot hoover on every day though

I too though waited until my kids were bigger, my GR isn’t even that huge but he has no idea his size at all so I’d wait or get a more specially aware dog with a toddler

We have a goldie lab cross and she is amazing. Definitely the best of both worlds. She has a lovely chilled out personality, is incredibly loving but is also very fit and active and incredibly intelligent. She sheds like a demon but is magically self cleaning so mud tends to drop off her in the car and she is miraculously clean-ish by the time we are home. She does golden things like sitting in puddles and randomly lying down and refusing to budge. She has a sixth sense for water and will take off and fling herself in a river or pond completely hidden from human view. She is very respectful of our cats and would love to cuddle up with them but they are not having it. She was very bitey as a puppy but I think that is just a puppy thing.

I do notice that round us labs are always off lead and goldens are sometimes off and sometimes on lead. I know owners with both and I see the lab off and the golden on lead so my guess is their recall is worse. They do have a reputation for stuborness which I see a bit in our dog but sometimes I wonder if it is because she lives with two cats and maybe takes on some of their characteristics.

Both gorgeous dogs. Do think about the timing though with a small child.

Neither, get a cocker or spocker instead, spaniels are the best dogs ever 😍

Our lab puppy was quite bitey and my then 8 year old (tall, able-bodied) couldn’t quite manage him on the lead when he hit adolescence.