Today’s mild grumble may turn into tomorrow’s nasty growl. Golden Retrievers who get uppity because of their comfortable sleeping arrangements need to be taken down a notch or two, quite literally.

You must also know that if your Golden Retriever is accustomed to sleeping in the bed, then he isn’t going to give it up voluntarily.

Even if you don’t let him up before you go to sleep, he’s going to try to sneak up once you’re asleep. The easiest way to keep him out of your bed is to make his own bed a very comfortable place to be.

Now that you understand your Golden Retriever’s need for control with sleeping in your bed, take notes of the following nuggets of advice:

1. Put his bed next to your bed: Though Golden Retrievers can adapt well to sleeping by themselves, they like to be in the same room with their families at night. It is recommended that you try putting the Golden Retriever’s bed next to yours.

He’ll be able to smell you. He’ll hear you breathing. And he’ll know he’s important enough to share the same general space, if not the bed itself.

2. Make his bed bigger: You can’t expect your Golden to be able to stretch out on a 3-foot round bed and be comfortable. Even though Golden Retrievers sleep curled up most of the night, they need additional room to spread out when they feel like it.

The bed should be as long as your Golden Retriever is when he’s stretched full length. For bigger Golden Retrievers, you may need to put two pillow-type beds side by side.

3. Spend some time in his bed: Golden Retrievers climb into bed with people because it makes them feel important. You can make their beds feel just as special by visiting them yourself. Sit on the floor and pet your Golden Retriever while he’s in his bed. Occasionally stashing a biscuit in his bed is a good incentive, too, as that always helps.

4. Give your Golden Retriever a familiar scent he loves. It’s not really the contact with your body that Golden Retrievers crave at bedtime, but all of the other sensory stimulation that come with the territory, smells especially. Try taking one of your old blankets and putting it on your Golden Retriever’s bed. It’s loaded with your personal scents, and that will probably be enough to keep him happy.

Unlike your Golden Retriever, human feet have about half a million sweat glands, which are always secreting moisture. When feet are tucked into hot, humid shoes, the glands can release a half pint of sweat a day. The perspiration, in turn, is loaded with human scents, and that’s hard for any Golden Retriever to resist.

Adult Golden Retrievers generally understand that just because something smells good doesn’t mean they have to chew it. But when they’re young, Golden Retrievers respond to shoes in the same way they respond to anything that gets their attention – by putting them in their mouths.

Added to this natural attraction is that fact that puppies go through a teething phase. Few things make their gums feel better than working over a nice pair of loafers.

It sometimes seems that Golden Retrievers’ interest in shoes is directly related to the cost: The more expensive the shoes, the more likely Golden Retrievers are to leave them in tatters! But they really don’t have a preference.

They can’t tell which shoes come from Macy’s and which come from K-Mart. All they know is that shoes smell exciting and are worth an exploratory chew or two.

To your Golden Retriever, that personal smell is the next best thing to you. In fact, Golden Retrievers rarely chew up the shoes of people whom they dislike.

If they really hate someone, they might tear their shoes up. But most Golden Retrievers really want to be close to the familiar, pleasant smell of their owners.

More important, shoes are singularly convenient. When people leave home for the day, it’s normal for Golden Retrievers to explore a bit. They’ll sniff around the living room, the bedrooms, and the closets. Sooner or later, they’ll come across a pair of shoes.

They’re right on the floor, they smell great, and they’re just the right size. They may decide that their search is over and commence digging in.

Golden Retrievers Prefer Leather

Some Golden Retrievers will chew rubber galoshes if that’s all they can find. But given the choice, most go for leather shoes. Leather is made from cowhide. Despite all the treatments and tanning and dyes that go into shoe-making, Golden Retrievers still recognize leather as a substance that’s dam close to food.

An added bonus is that leather gets softer and tastier the more Golden Retrievers chew it. Once they’ve started to wear it away, leather massages their gums just like rawhide does.

There’s a good taste, a good smell, and great mouth appeal, too. Leather shoes with tassels are especially popular. To your Golden Retriever they’re like great smelling chew toys with tails and that makes them very hard to resist.

For example, Golden Retrievers who are foot phobic at home sometimes get downright easy-natured when groomers or veterinarians lift their feet. It’s not because experts have a magic touch. It’s because they put Golden Retrievers on tables, which are often made of stainless steel.

The combination of height and a cold, slippery surface makes Golden Retrievers think more about stability than about what’s happening to their feet. A high table is a great tool because owners who put their Golden Retrievers on the washing machine or the dryer to trim their nails have no trouble at all because of the surface.

Another reason that Golden Retrievers are so cooperative at the vet’s is that they’re unsure about the whole situation. Golden Retrievers are big on routine and hierarchy, both of which get confused when they’re away from home.

The resulting uncertainty puts them off-guard, which makes it much easier to trim their nails or check their feet. You can achieve the same result by trimming their nails away from home or even by asking (or bribing) a friend to do the work.

Golden Retrievers are naturally protective of their feet, but they can learn to accept claw clipping and simple exams when their owners regularly handle their feet, preferably starting when they’re young.

You should be touching, rubbing, and holding the feet for a few seconds every day. Gently press your fingers between the toes. Squeeze the pads. Spread the feet and feel around.

Get your Golden Retriever accustomed to the idea that foot touches aren’t a sign of uncomfortable things to come. The more gentle contact he experiences, the more likely he’ll be to accept pedicures and exams as he gets older.

Golden Retrievers get very nervous when there’s uncertainty in their lives, and objects that people take for granted, like nail trimmers, can seem foreign and frightening. A quick solution is to put the clippers somewhere that your Golden Retriever will see them, like on a low table or a shelf in a bookcase.

Don’t merely put them out for a few hours on the day that you’re going to use them. Leave them out all the time. This will give your Golden Retriever a chance to sniff, see, and generally get used to them. He still won’t enjoy having his nails trimmed, but at least he’ll be less nervous about the shiny object that you’re holding in your hand.

As soon as you open the door you hear the high-pitched voice of your wife as she is scolding your ten-year-old son, while his little sister is sobbing because he broke one of her new dolls.

The television is loud and your Mother-in-law is chatting on the phone…

So who is the loving dog meeting you at your front door?

“Sadie” does, your three-year-old Golden Retriever.

She’s wagging and wiggling from her head to the tip of her tail. He dances and jumps into your waiting arms, and, if you allow her, she licks you on the face. She’s glad to see you. Your Golden Retriever has expressed herself in the language she knows you understand.

Your Golden Retriever, like dogs all over the world, use body language and a variety of vocal sounds to communicate with his owner. The Golden Retriever possesses an incredible ability to communicate with their owner: a universal language, telling man of danger, desire, loyalty and love.

Your Golden Retriever talks to tell you how sad she is when she’s scolded. She shouts loud and clear her distress when a stranger or something unusual approaches, and she talks to you about how happy she is to be near you and share your companionship.

Your Golden Retriever talks best with her tail. When you accidentally step on your pet or upbraid her, she will tuck his tail between his legs and cower down, showing his submission. By tucking the tail, the Golden Retriever is hiding her scent and thus hiding herself. This language seems to go back to the ancient wild Golden Retriever when submissiveness and dominance existed in the pack.

Your pet’s ancestors signaled her subservience to the dominant Golden Retriever by dropping that tail. Today, the domesticated Golden Retriever is saying, “I feel terrible about what happened.”

In contrast to the submissive tail movement, there is the happy, excited tail-wagging that states how much your Golden Retriever wants to please you. This short story is an example of her need to please you:

James did his Golden Retriever best to please his young owner while she was preparing for her wedding. James had watched Angelica opening her wedding gifts the week before the ceremony.  One afternoon, the dog proceeded to provide a gift for Angelica…

He yanked a brocade pillow from a neighbor’s clothesline and brought it home. After placing the pillow at Angelica’s feet, he wagged his tail in sheer joy that he was pleasing his owner and sharing her prenuptial pleasures.

As you can see from this wonderfully heartwarming example of this Golden Retriever’s desire to communicate pleasure, Golden Retrievers are also much more intelligent than we give them credit for, especially in the communication department.

It is important to read and understand the ingredients of the food you offer your Golden Retriever.

The first ingredient listed on the label is the largest by volume. For example, if corn is listed first, then corn is the main ingredient, even though the label on the package front shows chicken, beef or lamb.

Also often listed are wheat and wheat middlings. Some commercially processed foods, wet or dry, do not list meat and meat by-products (and not necessarily in this order) until third or as an even later ingredient.

Wolves and feral dogs derive a balanced diet by first eating their prey’s organs, the stomach and upper intestinal contents and the liver before muscle tissues. Dogs inherently are carnivores, so rarely is grain required as a main food source.

Had nature intended dogs to primarily eat grains, their teeth would have evolved differently, with a prevalence of grinding rather than rending surfaces. Most dogs require amino acids, which are derived from a variety of sources, including meat and meat by-products and a foundation of good Golden Retriever nutrition.

Artificial coloring added to food makes it more palatable in appearance to the owner.

Dogs are not particular about the color of their food: as long as it smells good (that all-important first sense), it is good to eat.

Many dogs are sensitive to artificial food coloring, a known cause of many tear-duct inflammations. This condition appears as weepy, drippy, allergy eyes.

The eyes do not appear rheumy, they are clear, but matter often collects on the inner comer and tear stains may run down the muzzle. Debris thus produced by the irritated eyes may partially occlude tear ducts.

Some biscuits and dry foods expand considerably when moistened, increasing five and ten times the size of the original nugget. These brands require soaking before feeding to insure expansion occurs in the bowl and not in a dog’s stomach.

While important to soak this type of food for the normal eater, it becomes especially important to do so for the greedy guzzlers. Baked biscuits normally expand less when moistened; some simply disintegrate into mush.

These latter types have faster gastric emptying times than expanding foods. Biscuits which expand in the stomach must first reach a certain volume of size before they can be broken down by the digestive process. This added time allows the fermentation process to begin and adds to good Golden Retriever nutrition.

Another reason to train young, even for brighter breeds, is that it is easy to correct a Golden Retriever puppy without resorting to harsh measures. One can gently force a puppy into a sit or down position by physically manipulating its legs and body, whereas the same action can take considerable force when dealing with an adult Akita or bull mastiff that weighs over a hundred pounds.

Moreover, harsh force is interpreted by many breeds as aggressiveness; some breeds of dog may respond to it with an aggressive response of their own. Early training, with firmness but no harshness, can avoid the problem. The larger the Golden Retriever will be as an adult, the earlier you should start to train it to obey the basic commands of come, down, and stay.

Be consistent: You should be as consistent as possible, using exactly the same words and signals all of the time. Even using the same tone of voice is helpful. It also helps to train the dog in the same place at about the same time of day until the commands are well set and reliable.

Dogs love predictability. If you have a household where things occur with regularity, where schedules are relatively fixed, you have an environment where most dogs will thrive. Regularity and consistency are particularly helpful to the Golden Retriever who is somewhat less bright and also benefit the dog that is a bit more submissive and timid.

Be explicit: Whenever you are talking to the Golden Retriever, before you give it any command, always start with the dog’s name. This trains the dog to pay attention to you and lets it know that the information coming next will be of relevance to it. Using a voice command and a hand signal together is especially helpful, because it gives the Golden Retriever two chances to pick up the command and to respond.

Begin quietly: Start all training in a quiet setting where there are few distractions. This will help to concentrate the dog’s attention on you. Later on, when the dog has learned the basics, training can be moved to noisier and busier settings.

Begin close: Always stay close enough to your dog so that you can correct it directly. Even after the dog begins to learn the basics, leave it on the leash during training so that you are still in physical contact and can exert direct control. Later on, you can extend your distance from the Golden Retriever and eventually remove the leash.

To live and work well with the not-so-smart Golden Retriever, there are several important things to keep in mind:

Keep training sessions short: For your sake as well as that of the dog, it is best to keep training sessions short. Your Golden Retriever will respond much better to several shorter sessions, with breaks in between them, than to one long session. Some of the more active breeds, such as the hounds, will also benefit from a good run or some other exercise before the actual training session.

Be patient: Patience is extremely important in training a slower dog. Just keep in mind that repetition, practice, and patience do pay off and that in the end you can have a Golden Retriever that is just as reliable and dependable as one of the easier-to-train breeds.

Do not get frustrated if your Golden Retriever does not immediately respond. There is a saying among dog trainers: “The easiest way to make a dog tense is to make its owner tense.” When a trainer gets tense, the dog will start worrying about what is happening to upset its master rather than focusing on what it is trying to learn.

Practice: Practice in the form of refresher lessons may be needed throughout the life of the not-so-smart dog. These do not need to be formal training sessions but reminders when the dog has failed to respond to a command in an everyday situation.

Slip the leash back on the Golden Retriever, give it one or two lessons with lots of praise for good performance and firm but good-tempered corrections if performance is poor, and then slip the leash off, and go about your usual activities. In this way, the basic control commands will become part of the dog’s life and, regardless of its native intellectual capacity, it will respond in a predictable and trustworthy fashion. Refresher lessons with plenty of rewards for good performance also reinforce the notion in the dog’s mind that it has something to gain from complying with your commands.

Be flexible: Take your dog’s conformation into account. A Golden Retriever will never respond as quickly and precisely as a border collie, not because it does not know what it is supposed to do or because it is unwilling to respond, but simply because its particular shape does not allow it to respond more rapidly.

This sounds like a silly way to cope with confusion, but people do similar things. It’s called displacement behavior. Suppose you’re having an internal debate about whether to complain about the service in a restaurant or just to keep the peace and keep eating. While you’re making up your mind, you may rap your fingers on the table or fiddle with the napkin.

The physical activity is a stalling tactic, and it helps dispel some energy at the same time. A Golden Retriever who chases their tail may be doing something similar. Any stressful situation can lead to tail chasing. Dogs aren’t able to say, “Hey, take a break; it’s stressful”. Instead, they turn to a behavior they know, as a way of calming themselves.

A Golden Retriever who chases their tail all the time may have a compulsive personality disorder. One clue is whether they do other odd things as well. For example, dogs who chase their tails also may chase shadows or the moving sunlight on the carpet. Or they’ll groom themselves constantly. Compulsive behaviors can be quite serious, and often need medical treatment.

Your Golden Retriever Is Chasing Their Pain

Dogs do a lot of things that are utterly mystifying to people, but sometimes the underlying reason is the simplest one imaginable. Some dogs chase their tails because they hurt, and they want to give them a lick and bite for relief. Sometimes, a dog gets her tail caught in a door, stepped on, or injured in a fight, and no one even knows it’s wounded until they call their vet because they’re worried about the tail chasing. Once the problem is taken care of, the tail chasing will stop as well.

It’s good entertainment to watch dogs chase their tails, but you don’t want to encourage it. There’s no way to predict if a Golden Retriever will do it for fun and which will become truly obsessed. It can be like turning something on and then not being able to turn it off.

It’s best for your Golden Retriever if you totally ignore her when she starts chasing her tail. Don’t tease dogs with laser light toys or anything similar. These toys can lead to the same type of compulsive activity that tails can. In fact, some dogs have been known to go nearly crazy chasing sunbeams or even moving shadows.

Be observant as to how the different sounds of the city affect your Golden Retriever puppy. If he becomes scared on a loud, busy street, then do him a favor and turn down the nearest corner to get to a quieter street. There is no useful purpose in subjecting your puppy to a bad experience. If you wish to acquaint your puppy with a busy street, walk him late at night or early in the morning when that street is less congested and noisy.

Some owners try to reassure their puppies verbally when they become frightened by different noises. I don’t believe verbal reassurance is successful. Sounds in the city come and go within a second and your puppy is not going to connect your soothing words with the sound that frightened him a few seconds earlier.

If there is a long, sustained noise like a jackhammer on the street and your Golden Retriever puppy is frightened by it, the best action you can take is to walk with a calm controlled movement. Give your Golden Retriever puppy reassurance that you are controlling the environment. While the noise continues, go ahead and coax him along in an upbeat voice by saying, “Come on, boy, let’s go,” in order to get out of the noisy area as calmly as possible.

Street Tip: Watch What Your Golden Retriever Puppy Picks Up!

In the city, it’s common to see discarded food on the street. Alleys are filled with old food around dumpsters and garbage cans. Prevent your puppy from picking up food. He can catch a multitude of diseases. But don’t get too panicky if your puppy does put an object from the street into his mouth. As long as he didn’t ingest something, your puppy will be all right.

Gross as it may seem, your Golden Retriever puppy will also be quickly attracted to other animal’s excrement and it will be in his mouth in no time. Make it a point to navigate your Golden Retriever puppy around such temptations and use the “Leave It” command, or “Drop It” if he happens to pick it up.

A dog is considered to be a senior at the age of seven or eight. Your aging Golden Retriever will sleep more and experience degeneration of his body systems and internal organs. Expect him, as he gets older, to have less tolerance of extremes in heat or cold, decreased immunity to disease and infection, and a decline in his metabolism. Older dogs may lose their vision and hearing.

So as you can clearly see, it takes a lot of attention and care when your family pet reaches his golden years. Below are 9 tips that will help you and your dog adjust to old age:

1. Because the older Golden Retriever is generally less active, he requires fewer calories. If you have children in the house, make certain that they understand that your family dog is elderly and requires more careful and sensitive handling.

2. As your Golden Retriever grows older, have your veterinarian run appropriate tests to detect any illness or degenerative condition early so he can be treated. Pay attention to any changes in your dog’s habits, behavior, or appearance and report them to your veterinarian.

3. Learn the symptoms of some of the more common problems that afflict the older dog, such as diabetes, kidney and thyroid problems, and heart conditions. If you notice any symptoms, contact your veterinarian right away.

4. Discuss with your veterinarian feeding your geriatric dog a diet formulated specifically for the needs of older animals.

5. As your dog ages, look for signs of dental problems. Clean your dog’s teeth regularly and have your veterinarian professionally clean them when necessary.

6. Pets become more creatures of habit as they age. If you are planning any environmental changes, do so gradually and pay special attention to your dog’s needs to minimize any stress he experiences.

7. When you groom your geriatric dog, look for lumps and bumps under the skin and report them to your veterinarian.

8. Engage your older Golden Retriever in moderate play to promote muscle tone, increase circulation, and aid digestion.

9. Have your Golden Retriever leashed when he is outside to keep him safe and help him live longer.