# people think goldens bite?



## Eowyn (Aug 29, 2013)

The vast majority of well bred goldens would never bite anyone unless under _extremely_ extenuating/unusual circumstances. I think sometimes they get on those charts because they are so popular (and there are a lot of bad breeders) and people do so many really stupid things thinking a golden would never bite them. I also thing the "landshark" stage gets misinterpreted.


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## cubbysan (Mar 13, 2007)

As puppies some of them can be very mouthy and little land sharks. They do break skin, my Brady was awful until he reached about 8 months old. It was never an aggressive bite or a fearful bite, just playing with very sharp teeth. My kids hands looked like hamburg. That is probably where the numbers come from.

It is not in their temperament to bite aggressively.


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## ArchersMom (May 22, 2013)

There's also the problem with people getting a golden because they think they're perfect family dogs. So they don't carefully observe them playing with children. I doubt there's many goldens that would aggressively bite a stranger out of nowhere. I've certainly never met one.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Eowyn said:


> The vast majority of well bred goldens would never bite anyone unless under _extremely_ extenuating/unusual circumstances. I think sometimes they get on those charts because they are so popular (and there are a lot of bad breeders) and people do so many really stupid things thinking a golden would never bite them. I also thing the "landshark" stage gets misinterpreted.


I think also people do not train their dogs properly.... even if they go to dog classes, there may not be follow through at home. And you have dogs resource guarding or reacting to too much rough handling. 

My two I have right now - I don't think they have a mean or reactive bone in their bodies. In fact, I know that Jacks has been out of his mind with fear because of his storm phobias and had to be manhandled a little to drag him out of crazy spots.... and that dog has never growled or raise his lip in his life. And Bertie is young, but he's even softer and sweeter than Jacks. And the dog before them lived about 13 years without ever growling at or biting (not even mouthing) anyone. 

I don't count mouthing in that. Jacks was most definitely our mouthiest puppy and the first two years I went around with bruises on my arms and legs. 

But go back to the dogs before them - bites did happen (ie actually intentional bites resulting in stitches and scarring). And there was a lot of resource guarding issues that got overwhelming because we did not necessarily follow through with training or handling appropriately at home.

I think anyone getting into the breed needs to always remember that these dogs are not total marshmallows all the time regardless of what happens or so on. You may have experiences bring out the worst in these dogs... 

**** That said - the person who told you these dogs run up and bite people without cause? That person was totally way off base.


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## Tayla's Mom (Apr 20, 2012)

I can't see a situation where Lily would bite anything but the sofa cushions, but that's another story. Tayla until she was a year was one of the worst at using her mouth and breaking skin. Not a downward bit, but she was MOUTHLY to the extreme and I was always bleeding. She is also a resource guarder and I have gotten bit trying to take something out of her mouth. It wasn't you I'm going to bite you bit, but more your hand is in my mouth and my mouth is closing bite causing a indentation and bruise.


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## NewfieMom (Sep 8, 2013)

Megora said:


> I think anyone getting into the breed needs to always remember that these dogs are not total marshmallows all the time regardless of what happens or so on.


This is a good insight. While I still ascribe to the "all dogs are animals" theory...well, it's a fact...I have come to trust Newfoundlands around children _almost_ totally. In other words, they will still, always, be supervised by me around children.

Newfoundlands *are* total marshmallows, but they are not human adults and therefore cannot be trusted to behave with the same amount of responsibility towards children with which human adults should behave.

My Golden, though gentle as a lamb most of the time, did "guard our house". She threw herself at our front door when delivery men came, barking ferociously, even though she never bit anyone. And we had her from six weeks!

Our Lab, whom we adopted at two years, bit every stranger who came onto our front porch, although it was only a warning bite, a little nip. So I see a huge difference between Retrievers and Newfoundlands.

Newfiemom


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## CharlieBear80 (Oct 13, 2013)

I think part of it must have something to do with the fact that there are so many Goldens in the US that there are bound to be a larger number of bites reported?

It's so sad, I remember when I worked as a vet tech in college and a family came in to put their elderly & arthritic, but otherwise healthy, Golden to sleep. Why? Because their son's friends were over at the house messing around and aggravated the poor old thing (stepped on her tail or tripped over her, something like that), and she bit one of them. But this dog otherwise had the typical Golden soul.


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## Willsmum (Aug 12, 2014)

I'd be willing to bet it's the popularity too. With so many goldens and almost goldens, and so many people who do stupid things around dogs, people will get nipped or gripped at times. And what are we calling a "bite"? Teeth meeting skin? Drawing blood? Severed appendages? 

Will is an absolute bugger for nipping at the moment. When we're cuddling he'll often nibble my ear, and he loves to take my forearm in his mouth for no apparent reason. He's hardly ever broken skin though, and at thirteen and a half weeks he's wobbling around in furry-crocodile-with-toothache mode most of the time. He used to mouth strangers but he's stopped doing that completely - only ever drew blood once, on an older gentleman who was completely ok with it, and even then it was with a paw, not a tooth. But then we've been very careful to warn anyone who wants to say hello (almost everyone he meets!) that he's teething and might give them a chomp, they either don't go on to greet him up close or they take their chances. I can imagine if someone met a golden and wasn't prepared for that that they might decide to make a fuss when teeth touched them. 

Still, I can't imagine a healthy and mentally stable golden yamming down on a person without a really good reason. The breed is reputed for being gentle, if not made of cotton wool and rainbows. I'm still inclined to think the definition of bite isn't clear.



> their son's friends were over at the house messing around and aggravated the poor old thing (stepped on her tail or tripped over her, something like that), and she bit one of them


This actually shocked me. I can't fathom putting a dog to sleep because it reacted to someone being a moron, unless it was a savage overreaction and the dog did serious damage.


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## AlanK (Jun 28, 2008)

GoldenLover117 said:


> What's with people saying goldens are biters? on dogs 101 tv show said goldens are the 3rd most commen biters and I told my friend i was getting a golden and *he said they just go up to people and bite them what?*


*
*

I think the highlighted statement is a cases of a very misinformed friend. Does this person own a dog?

I have seen that episode and do not remember a statement like that made about Golden Retrievers.

I have never witnessed a family pet of any breed just go and bite someone.
That said, any dog has the potential to bite when protecting something,threatened, sick or just plain wild.


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## thorbreafortuna (Jun 9, 2013)

I'll add that another factor may also be the way "bites" are recorded. A mouthy young golden accidentally breaks skin in play and regardless of how it happens it is filed as a "bite" if you end up needing medical attention EVEN if the dog didn't actually bite but you accidentally made contact with teeth. I've said this before on this forum but the time I accidentally got my lip broken against the back of Thor's head I got asked repeatedly to confirm that it wasn't the teeth I made contact with. One reason was that I guess they had to ask me about his vaccines in that case but they also said that it is recorded differently. Goldens do like to engage their mouths in play until they learn better. I bet this is part of what people are describing as "they just go up to people and bite".


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## Kris L (Mar 2, 2013)

I would not take dogs 101 too seriously. I noticed that they went out of their way to point that out about the golden, but fail to point it out about the two breeds ahead of the golden on the list. They also do not point out breeds at the top of mauling and fatalities stats either, wich you cannot mistake while from what I have seen alot of people consider pretty much any mouth contact a bite. I do love the show but I found this pretty odd.


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## DAMATS (Sep 10, 2014)

cubbysan said:


> As puppies some of them can be very mouthy and little land sharks. They do break skin, my Brady was awful until he reached about 8 months old. It was never an aggressive bite or a fearful bite, just playing with very sharp teeth. My kids hands looked like hamburg. That is probably where the numbers come from.
> 
> It is not in their temperament to bite aggressively.


Good god, I have 6 more months of this mouthy land shark???? :no:

Funny, I paid good money for a well bred golden with champions blood lines and he is obnoxious. My previous golden I practically got for free on a farm had the best temperament I've ever seen on a dog. Even as a puppy, never chewed, or dig up my yard, not nippy, good in crate etc . Makes you wonder.


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## DanaRuns (Sep 29, 2012)

This "third most common biter" thing has always confused me, too. I figure it's either:

1. Land sharkiness being mistaken for biting; or
2. Lots of poorly bred or poorly socialized dogs due to the breed's popularity; or
3. It's a bogus statistic that people with an agenda (e.g. pit bull owners) have latched onto and now offer it as true.

Funny. You hear about vicious pit bull attacks and killings. You never hear about vicious Golden attacks and killings. Or Poodles. Or Bassets. Or Newfies. Or any of a number of other breeds. Goldens ARE marshmallows, in my experience of only a few hundred of them, or so. They are not biters to be feared, by and large. So yeah, I still don't understand that statistic.


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## thorbreafortuna (Jun 9, 2013)

DanaRuns said:


> This "third most common biter" thing has always confused me, too. I figure it's either:
> 
> 1. Land sharkiness being mistaken for biting; or
> 2. Lots of poorly bred or poorly socialized dogs due to the breed's popularity; or
> ...



Even with the many poorly bred Goldens out there I have yet to come across a Golden that wasn't super friendly to me, wagging their entire body for a some attention and love from a complete stranger. I know that reactive or aggressive Goldens who are likely to bite probably exist, but my point is they're probably not as common as to really sway the statistic probability THAT much. So I would guess options 1and 3.


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## Bwilson (Mar 25, 2014)

This statics has to be caused by some bad breeding and poor training and socializing. I have both a golden and a rottweiler and never have either ran up to someone and bite them. They both have meet many people and been socialized. The rottweiler has only showed uncertainty when we first moved to California and had never heard Spanish dialect and was unsure and had to work with him on that. The golden is still young and sometimes mouthy but would take her mouthy stage to when my rottweiler went through it any day. The same thing happened with cocker spaniels when Lady and The Tramp was big and popular and everyone was breeding them and the bite reports increased for them.


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## golfgal (Dec 31, 2013)

I'm not sure about the show you are talking about but I know a vet/canine specialist with guide dogs made a similar comment about golden retrievers. Not that they go up to people and bite them as that's not common. 

However since they are highly intelligent, many people only initially train them and don't remember they are still maturing til about 3, so they quit training and issues like ball or fear aggression don't get addressed. Then these still young dogs bite people or other dogs. Rosco was bitten by a ball aggressive golden who was six.


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