# Do goldens fight back?



## Vhuynh2 (Feb 13, 2012)

I know a golden with proper temperament would not attack another dog, but would they fight back if another dog attacked them? I was always under the impression that goldens don't fight with other dogs, but I have been wondering lately if that's true..

To be clear, I would prefer a dog that does not fight back.


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## Thalie (Jan 20, 2008)

If you consider that there are three possible reactions to aggression, freeze, flight, or fight, I see no reason why a Golden would not fight back if, at that moment, under those circumstances, he/she considered it the one viable option; it would also depend on the particular Golden and on a lot of other factors pre-dating the fight situation.


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

I was told by several old trainers many many years ago that"a good Golden won't start a fight but he sure as heck will finish it!"

I've seen this in a couple of my dogs who were attacked by other dogs, including a Rottweiler who was animal aggressive. My dogs were okay but the other dogs (shorter coated) had several bites.

A real dog fight is terrifying and I hope to never see another.


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## Vhuynh2 (Feb 13, 2012)

I guess I understand if a golden felt like it was truly in danger, it would fight back.

I guess my real question is, what if it was attacked by another dog that did not necessarily mean to do damage, like warning snaps (is there such a thing?)? Would a golden back off from that?

Molly had been snapped at, completely unprovoked. She did not seem to react, but she was on leash and I was able to remove her ASAP.


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

I think a Golden who is well versed in "doggy speak" would understand and react appropriately in the case of warning growls, etc. Often, what we see as unprovoked actually has a trigger that we can't see or interpret but our dogs usually can.


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## ashleylp (Jul 23, 2011)

There is so much that goes into dog body language besides just the mouth. I have seen Remy take a warning snap seriously and stop doing what he was doing, respectfully, and I have also seen him react negatively to a seemingly respectful warning snap. I would consider myself well versed on dog behavior but I am not a dog, so I'm sure that a subtle difference between two corrections could change his reaction completely.

That being said, I find that most goldens are even tempered and more avoidant than aggressive. In my opinion, they'd more likely try to escape the situation than escalate it.

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## Thalie (Jan 20, 2008)

I agree with Linda & Ashley. One other thing to take into consideration is the level of arousal of the dog prior to the warning snap or growl. 

Spip the Lab has one thing that makes her go berserk, hot air balloons. I cannot train this out of her because we only have a couple of them flying over in any given year and they do not give much prior warning except fo the hiss of the air. She might very well react way differently in that high arousal state than if she had been dandy and relaxed. It would not be a good idea for any of the two other girls (or for any other dog) to try anything around her while she is in her zone. 

That kind of arousal can take several hours to completely dissipate in the body so an out of character reaction (like a fight back to a warning snap) can be the consequence of something that happened a little while ago or of several little things that put together, just put the dog in a heightened state of active defense.


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## Maggies mom (Jan 6, 2006)

My girls will fight back and have... My boys wont.


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## Colie CVT (Sep 15, 2013)

I agree with what has been said already. 

My boy is generally very responsive to dogs who tell him to back off for various reasons. He will usually try to avoid another dog who is being pushy/aggressive, or perhaps give them a warning growl back. He is also very patient. He will freeze and wait for an opportunity to walk away. In general he is a very friendly, non-threatening dude, so even dogs who can be dog aggressive seem to just pass him over.

However, if you really, REALLY hurt him, he will turn around and tell you exactly what he thinks of that. I can count probably two times that he has gotten into it with other dogs, both of which we live with. Banshee, the GSD female, likes to make Myles into her personal chewtoy/herding toy. She will stalk him and rush up, usually nipping him somewhere in the process. Generally unless he really gets hurt, he just twists his body about to avoid her teeth or tells her to back off. One time I think she caught one of his elbows (he has mild ED) and he hauled off on her. Mostly noises/posturing, but he made it very clear that wasn't okay.

The other was more recently with Zulu, the afghan. Zulu likes to chase other dogs, and is rather nippy with them. I saw him nip at Myles's side before he turned and again pretty much went off on him. I don't think Zulu was hurt, but Myles had a bald spot from where a large portion of hair was pulled from his side and a puncture on his metacarpal. He truly can hold his own if he must, but generally he prefers not to. He is a very tough and stoic boy too with a lot of patience. 

I would always rather that they avoid or say, hey go away! rather than engage, but if they truly do need to defend themselves, I would hope that they do. And there is always the chance that my GSD will go rushing in to help him too. She does often get protective of her "puppy".


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## Gwen_Dandridge (Jul 14, 2012)

Maddie is pretty good now but she still doesn't like being approached by too many new dogs at one time (reasonable) and don't try to take her stick/frisbee/whatever she is holding that she is proud of. She will argue about it. Not sure if you consider that fighting or not. 

Our last golden, Amber, would never fight.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Tito has been attacked three times. He did not provoke it at any time. I'm honestly pretty good at reading dog body language (have to be to do what I do for a living), and I am positive he did not provoke it.
Twice was at dog shows. He was on leash, we were walking past other dogs who were also on leash. Both times the other dog went after him and came up with a mouthful of Tito's butt feathers, which makes it pretty clear to me that Tito was not the aggressor in any way. Both times Tito dove under the nearest chair. So to answer your question, yes, there are dogs who do not fight back.
Now if he had been cornered with no escape, would he have fought back? I don't know, but I highly suspect he would. He would prefer flight, but would fight if necessary. 
The third time a dog (big lab) jumped out of a car about 10 yards away from us and ran over to Tito, clearly trying to provoke a fight. Tito didn't really react at all, he was sniffing out a potty spot, just lifted his head, looked at the other dog, and went back to sniffing. It was almost funny, because the other dog wasn't really sure WHAT to do when Tito wouldn't go back at him. He was growling and barking and generally profiling, but Tito was very unimpressed. (You could just read Tito's mind..."Seriously dude??" ) The other dog's owner was there immediately, and there was no real problem.
My Toby would never start a fight, but he wouldn't back down, either. Tiny would back down right away.


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

When Penny was "assaulted" by an overly friendly GSD, she sat and gave "croc chops". Then she'd scoot back a step. The GSD kept coming so another chop and scoot back. After about 3 of those, I took her away from the dog.

The following morning, DH was walking her and the same GSD with her clueless Dad came at her to play AGAIN. Dan said she attacked the GSD. No contact, just a lot of noise and the threat: Back off and don't come near me again.

She generally didn't stand up for herself and I was careful to not let her get over-faced.


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## CharlieBear80 (Oct 13, 2013)

My dog-aggressive GSD (who has since passed away) only ever met one other dog besides my other GSD that he got along with, and it was a Golden. The trainer that I used to assist had a Golden and she spent time working with me and Charlie in private lessons to get some control over his issues, and she one day suggested I let Charlie out of his crate into the open space of the training room so he could meet her Golden. She explained that he (her Golden) was a really great "neutral dog" and she felt that, after getting to know Charlie well, it would be fine. And she was right, I let Charlie out and he came charging toward her dog ready to fight, and her dog just stood there and yawned. As soon as Charlie got face-to-face with her dog, he dropped his aggressive posture and just walked around sniffing Kai. It was really interesting to watch. I was terrified that fur would fly, but nope, Kai handled it all with ease. That was the dog that really turned me on to Goldens. 

I realize this is only one experience but I figured I'd share anyway.


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

_CharlieBear80_, in my view that story and the one above by _Hotel4dogs_, demonstrate what I think of as the best of the Golden temperament.

Zoe seemed to be able to send calming signals to and disarm just about any dog. Sadly the only one that she couldn't was a beautiful female Golden who grabbed her in the dog park for no apparent reason. I never saw any sign that Zoe would actively defend herself let alone start a fight.

Zeke was somewhat different but I never saw any sign of him being aggressive with other dogs. I do remember once when we we walking, two large dogs, a husky and a rottweiler with no owners in sight, started to approach us in a rather threatening manner. Zeke let out a couple of warning barks that were so fierce I could hardly believe it but they seemed to send the right message and the 2 dogs turned away. I was really quite impressed with how he dealt with it.

As an aside, the trainer at Gracie's puppy class said recently that she's working more on teaching the pups to trade high value items since she's seeing more problems with resource guarding with the dogs coming for training. When I asked if that was a breed related problem she mentioned that lately she's been seeing a few fairly aggressive Goldens. When I asked what sort of breeding they came from she said show breedings. Her thought was that some breeders were looking for an edgier personality so the dogs would show better. It reminded me again of the question of whether breeders work as actively to preserve the Golden temperament as they do preserve and develop the other aspects of the breed standard.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Totally agreed - I have seen with my goldens that while a golden will not start a fight, they will surely finish it, especially if their owner is at risk.



Tahnee GR said:


> I was told by several old trainers many many years ago that"a good Golden won't start a fight but he sure as heck will finish it!"
> 
> I've seen this in a couple of my dogs who were attacked by other dogs, including a Rottweiler who was animal aggressive. My dogs were okay but the other dogs (shorter coated) had several bites.
> 
> A real dog fight is terrifying and I hope to never see another.


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## Ninde'Gold (Oct 21, 2006)

My dog's been attacked several times.

He froze up when a lab (female) attacked him.

He tried to run off every time our Pit Bull (female) went at him.

When a Golden Retriever (male) tried to attack him he fought back.

When a Golden Retriever (male) tried to hump him he snapped at him.

I guess it all depends on the situation.


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## Bentleysmom (Aug 11, 2012)

I've never had a Golden in a fight but I had this happen a few years back with my Golden, Buddy.
We were walking in the park in winter so the park was empty. We had a great walk until out of nowhere we spotted 5 teenagers in long black coats walking toward us. My intention was to turn to the right and bypass them because they looked like they were up to no good. Buddy had other plans. He was the most laid back dog but not that day. He went after them so hard that he snapped the leash. (it wasn't a strong leash because he NEVER pulled). He chased them about 500 ft where they jumped in their car and took off. To this day that incident puzzles me because it was so out of character for Buddy but there was something about them that he didn't like and he wasn't having it!


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## olliversmom (Mar 13, 2013)

My Golden Homer was a 98 pound laid back, belly up pacifist.
He let all sorts of dogs, big and small, go after him, and just took it.
'Cept for when a 5 pound white fluffy dog charged him and bit me instead.
Then sweety pie, aged 9, finally went for the throat.
Luckily I had him on lead.
You could mess all u wanted with the HomeBoy.
But never, never lay a tooth near to his Mama Love.

Ollie still too young to tell. He plays rough and tunble, but not aggressively. He's been manhandled a few times by bigger dogs at dog parks and backs down. When he is afraid of something he shakes all over. Yet he will stand his ground for a bit when he feels threatened. Curious to see how he turns out.


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## cgriffin (Nov 30, 2011)

My second golden was attacked several times by pit bulls and Rottweilers, he learned to fight back, he had to but he never started a fight.


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## Titan1 (Jan 19, 2010)

Titan would never even think of it.. In all the times Mighty has pestered him grabbed a bone out of his mouth, bit him while playing tug instead of the tug toy.. there has only been one time he growled back.. Another time he was peeing and another dog(sheltie) came up to him and starting growling and snapping.. he put his leg down and walked another 5 feet and went on peeing.. he is a lover not a fighter... Now Mighty on the other hand.. great with other dogs BUT.... I believe if another dog started something he would finish it and he is great when we go out at the motel at night to potty the last time... he watches out and will growl under his breath if someone is threatening.. I still think he would run if pushed..teehee...


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## Brave (Oct 26, 2012)

Bear was in a scuffle this week with an older mixed breed, who is generally VERY VERY lienent and allows for quite a bit of rude behavior. Well, Bear must have been REALLY RUDE because she went after him. No damage, but Bear definitely learned his lesson. He is now much more respectful of her and her need for space. He also listens to warnings better than before. 

When the incident went down, Bear responded w/ FLIGHT. However, I have seen times when we've been accosted by dogs where Bear can be Neutral *yawn* (like when the Chihuahua went after him on a walk), and other times he can be Assertive (like when the doberman came onto our driveway and lunged at Bear.)

Bear is especially on guard when *I* am in any sense (or perceived sense) of danger.


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## Chaya (Aug 18, 2012)

When Chaya's scared, she will growl and bark and then hide behind me. However, if another dog is being rude (humping, body slamming her), she will growl and show them her ugly face.

Laika is another scardy cat. She's gotten told off by a few dogs, so now if she senses a dog is less than friendly, she just avoids them.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Charmy was our "edgiest" golden... and the worst bred one, of course. He was dominant and would posture at other dogs so they left him alone. 

And I could never imagine him fighting with other dogs. 

That doesn't mean it wouldn't have happened if we put him into the position constantly where he could develop more issues with other dogs. But I just don't think so.

I think for a dog to be a real "fight" threat, you would have to have some form of dog aggression going on. 

I've encountered dog aggressive dogs through classes and elsewhere - and without a doubt, I've never owned a dog like that.


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

Reilly got in a fight last winter over a bird. We were field training and he was returning to the line with a duck. Another golden broke his honor and ran up to Reilly and tried to snatch the duck. Reilly stopped, dropped the duck, and tore into that other golden. The other golden ran away back to his owner. Reilly went back to his duck and calmly returned to the line wagging his tail. That is the only fight Reilly has been in, in 6 years. He is the calmest sweetest boy, but don't mess with his duck!


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Bernie is fear-reactive so he always makes himself look big and threatening when he meets new dogs. He'll bark and growl. Once he meets the dog and realizes they're not a threat he's fine. Usually he's only okay with other very confident dogs or neutral dogs. For instance, once we went to a dog park and a few German Shepherds showed up. They all sniffed each other and that was that. All interacted fine. One tried to mount Bernie a few times. Bernie gave him warning snaps, the dog backed off, and they kept interacting fine. Because he's reactive he doesn't get many opportunities to interact with dogs we don't know. He's been in a few scuffles. Once a dog attacked him in our hunting class. Apparently this dog is known to be an instigator. Well...Bernie cornered him under a table. The other day Bernie and my mother's cat got into a fight. The cat hates dogs and Bernie was investigating. The cat was hissing and scratching at Bernie's nose. Bernie was SO scared, but he refused to back down. Growling and barking making sure he didn't get too close to the cat. I had to give him a little tug on the collar to get him to leave the cat alone because he just refuses to give in. If he was a human I'd say he's too proud. He's never once made contact with another dog - I also know that he never intentionally starts a fight. I can definitely see why other dogs would find his behavior threatening, so he is at fault there. So he's probably the reason for the fight and he doesn't back down. Not the typical golden temperament that's for sure.. He's a great dog and I love him to death, but I will NEVER EVER go to a BYB again. Its just cruel that Bernie has to live his life so afraid of everything and on guard all the time.

His "brother" Oliver, who is from a responsible breeder, is pretty neutral. Dogs have growled and snapped at him and he just turns away. He would definitely fight back if he felt threatened though. When Bernie's been attacked it took all my strength to hold Oliver back from rescuing his brother. 

I do hope the next Golden I get has a similar temperament to what Barb and CharlieBear80 described.


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## Vhuynh2 (Feb 13, 2012)

Thank you for all the replies. It looks like the responses are mixed. I, too, hope to have a neutral dog.


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## Brave (Oct 26, 2012)

Vhuynh2 said:


> Thank you for all the replies. It looks like the responses are mixed. I, too, hope to have a neutral dog.


Has Molly ever gotten into a fight or a scuffle? 

It's interesting, Coaraujo, regarding the cats. Bear is very inquisitive about our cats b/c he wants to love on them. But he hasn't even been scratched on the nose over it. The cats have hissed, and swatted and he'll go into a play bow and bark at them once. At which point, either cat will dart for "safety" which they have plenty of. Bear thinks it's a really fun game, but he's waiting for the level when he gets to cuddle with the kitties.


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## Vhuynh2 (Feb 13, 2012)

She has not gotten into any fights, but has gotten into a minor scuffle. All noise and the other dog started it, but I was very surprised that Molly didn't just back off. She used to roll over on her back at the slightest growl. 


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## rugersmom (Oct 28, 2013)

Ruger has been in two incidents, both at the dog park... One was with a great dane :bowl: I didn't see it start, it happened right at the entrance to the park when the other dog walked in but my friend who was watching said the other dog was the aggressor. Ruger however did fight back and me and the girl who owned the great dane had to separate them, it was truly terrifying! Both dogs were okay but the great dane owner did get bit on the leg by her dog. I have heard that this dog has been in fights before which is scary because he is all of 175 pounds compared to Ruger's 68 pounds. The other was with a beagle who definitely started it and Ruger fought back until called off by me. The beagle is a "punk" though and has it out for Ruger, I normally leave the park when he shows up. Other than those two he has never even batted an eyelash at another dog.


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## Ruby13 (Dec 28, 2013)

Oh, thank goodness they do!

Ruby was a rescue that followed 2 other rescues - and the first two have what I refer to as 'little dog syndrome'. Both need attitude adjustments! Needless to say, the Chihuahua and the Cairn terrier did not take too kindly to sharing the house with a very large Golden. Both exhibited fake aggression towards Ruby over the first couple of days she was with us...I say 'fake' because neither had any intentions of biting - they are both very bright, but they try to come across as terrorist to get the bluff in on anything larger than they are.

I have a 90 lb yellow lab who is terrified of them, but Ruby didn't cut them any slack because they are little. Everytime they snarled at her, she snarled right back, towering over them and looking down. She even mouthed the little Cairn terrier (my terrorist) around the neck and put him down on the floor, very gently. 

If she had walked into our house showing fear, we would not have been able to keep her. 

Now, they run through the house playing together and it's dangerous for us humans to try to get from one room to the other. 

The yellow lab is a pup, believe it or not. He's a year old, and unless it's cold, he prefers to be in our fenced yard, outside. He plays hard, and he plays rough. Ruby put him in his place right off the bat, too. In her own way, she said "NO", and she said it loud and clear. He doesn't listen to anyone other than Ruby! :uhoh:

She is the most gentle soul in the world, but she doesn't take anything off of anyone!


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## jennretz (Jul 24, 2013)

Duke has had 2 incidents - both while on walks. The first was a pit bull and it was my fault for not noticing he was off leash on his property and no supervision. He was protecting his turf but it scared me more than anything. He had Duke down on the ground so fast. Duke's trainer assured me that if he had been intent on hurting Duke I would have never gotten him off Duke. I felt so helpless because that pitbull was very powerful and Duke was yelping. I was screaming at the top of my lungs and the owner of the pitbull ran out of his house and got his dog away. The second time was with a 4 year old golden who was on leash. His owner wanted to introduce him, but he snarled and snapped at Duke. Duke responded by rolling on his back and peeing into the face of the other Golden! Has anybody ever experienced that. The other Goldens' owner said he had never seen that happen before.


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

Vhuynh2 said:


> I know a golden with proper temperament would not attack another dog, but would they fight back if another dog attacked them? I was always under the impression that goldens don't fight with other dogs, but I have been wondering lately if that's true..
> 
> To be clear, I would prefer a dog that does not fight back.


Most Goldens of sound temperament will not go out of their way to pick a fight with another dog. Keep in mind that just because they won't start it doesn't mean that a Golden will shy away from a fight. If another dog comes after it, a Golden is a powerful force to be reckoned with. They're VERY quick, agile and possess respectable jaw strength.


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