– Golden Retrievers are a breed of large dogs, with males averaging 22 – 24″ at the shoulders and 65 – 75 lbs. in weight, and females 20 – 22.5″ and 60 – 70 lbs. On average, their lifespan is between 10 and 12 years.
As their name suggests, a Golden’s coat is typically a golden color; they can range from being a light, almost white, cream to a darker reddish color.
Goldens are loyal, kind, and friendly by nature, generally gentle, trusting, and friendly to anyone they meet, making them perfect for families, especially those with children. They are intelligent and easy to train (generally ranked as the fourth-most), stemming from a strong eagerness to please their master, and are thus best-suited for a multitude of services, such as guides for the impaired and search-and-rescue. They have a natural affinity for water.
Golden Retrievers were originally bred in Scotland as duck-hunting dogs, some time during the 1860’s. During that time, improvements in guns increased their range, meaning that it was becoming increasingly difficult to predict where the shot duck would fall. Because of this, there was a need for a breed that could retrieve from both land and water (as current retrieving dogs could only retrieve from one or the other), and so water spaniels (dogs that retrieve from the water) were paired with regular retrievers, ultimately resulting in the Golden Retriever, a loyal, patient, and easy-to-train dog with a gentle, kind temperament.
These dogs have a soft mouth, which means they don’t bite as hard but have a good grip; this is perfect for retrieving waterfowl, as it doesn’t ruin the bird’s body too much.
– Part 2: This article stems from my ‘sensory experience’ of petting one of my Aunt’s dogs, clearly a Golden Retriever. What is left out, you may ask?
EVERYTHING.
While I give you a fairly-detailed description of the breed, I leave out a lot of information: I don’t tell you when this encounter took place, where this was, both mine and the dog’s age, or even the dog’s name! To remain within the parameters of this assignment, I had to purposely neglect these facts, in order to remain as secular and disconnected as possible.
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