# Adopting a Golden Retriever – how to adopt and what to expect



## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Adopting a Golden Retriever can become one of the best decisions in your life – these playful and affectionate dogs are so loveable and boast many great traits. Of course, we all know them for their caring disposition and those goofy antics. These dogs are very careful around children and even babies and are super friendly around other dogs as well. So, if your personalities match and you want a pet dog with these traits, a Golden Retriever is the right choice. But how to adopt one?

**** Be aware though that in order to get a golden retriever who has all of those traits + the look, etc.... that may not be found in shelters or rescues. Because these traits take both a very careful effort by both the breeder and the new owner. Dogs end up being thrown away - through no fault of their own, but the faults of both the breeders and prior owners.

Sometimes there's different circumstances involved - including a combination of stray dogs and local shelters capitalizing on a short hold time and some other maneuvers to rehome dogs who were truly loved by their owners.

But generally speaking, if you adopt a dog from a rescue or shelter, do not just pick a dog by looks and assumptions based on breed. The rescue and fosters should have evaluated the dog and done a little extra to ensure that what mistakes led to this dog ending up in a rescue or shelter, will not happen again.

This unfortunately means that homes with young children or babies may not be approved to adopt a golden retriever with an unknown or unspecified history.

This also means that new owners need to have fences and willingness to train the dogs. Or in some cases, they have the ability to take care of dogs with special needs.

A breeder is very responsible for the traits a dog has. That is the look, style, temperament - that is present in a pup and what the pup grows up to be. That is literally producing a very beautiful dog who lives his entire life without ever raising his lips or growling or looking mean at anything. These dogs do exist, but they come from breeders who selectively bred for that temperament. Among other things. Those same breeders should be doing more to place pups very carefully into good homes and having those new owners back if things go bad and the owners can't keep the pup anymore. 

Along those lines, I hope that new owners with a baby puppy understand how much responsibility they have when it comes to raising a dog that is everything that a golden retriever should be. Some things the dogs are just born with. Some things are there because the owners are very good owners and worked their butts off to raise that dog right.

One thing that a breeder told me many years ago and it stuck - it was handing me a puppy and telling me that this pup was a blank slate and he knew no fear. And that it was up to me as an owner to train him and raise him so by the time he was an adult dog - he could be fearless and outgoing, and a very nice dog that owns their owners entire heart.


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