Golden Retriever question

cyclonenation10 said:
Hunted golden's my whole life. I am definitely the minority, however. Seems to be primarily pointers and labs!
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I'll second Cyclone's comment - just bought my 6th Golden; 7 month's old, with Top Brass and Brass-fire in her background. First female! MN Golden dogs are getting very expensive - might be the reason one doesn't see many? And they work very well for me and for those that hunt with me.
 
Wind River said:
GB, Buckshot Retrievers, Minocqua, WI Two belong to one son and one to my other son. I also have a house muppet springer that has zero prey drive, but a good shadow for my wife. The girls are 43#-47# and have plenty of prey drive for extended out of state trips. I got my first FB golden in 1979 and my current girl is #6. They work well for me.
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That's where Roxy is from too. Here she rolled in something really stinky so we took a break from hunting so she could swim it off at a public duck pond!20231104_120214.jpg
 
Why can't they roll in roses?? The worst was my friend's dog Sandy trying to walk on a liquid manure pit at ground level, too thick too swim and too thin to walk on. I stretched a ways to pull my friends dog out. Almost a fatal accident. That golden reeked for weeks. Each bath only helped 2%. I am glad we took my friend's truck. Was time to trade that truck anyway.
 
My latest MN Golden is from Thunderstruck. Very athletic and lots of prey drive. As luck would have it I didn't get the brainiac of the litter but she's a pretty good hunter and a sweet girl.
 
I will say, I am just as bias as anybody, but at 2 years 9 months my golden has had over 700 wild roosters shot over him (probably retrieved 90% of them). I hunt with a lot of different guys and their dogs (musterlanders, GSPs, Labs, etc.). My golden is hands down the best retriever of the bunch, but a lot of that probably has to do with the fact that he's had so many more birds shot over him that most the dogs I hunt with. Everybody is amazed as just how quick he is on a downed bird, even from a long ways away if hunting with multiple people. As far as finding/flushing, he tends to run past more birds than I'd like, and if I didn't "beep" him every now and again, he would definitely range further than I'd like, but he is getting better at that for sure with age. I would say on any given day he flushes and "flash points" as many birds as anyone else's pointers/flushers I am with, and definitely retrieves the majority of birds we shoot. I haven't hunted with a great retrieving lab yet (mostly young inexperienced labs), but I would have to venture to guess he is as good as most good labs in that category.

The main reason I have goldens is the demeanor. Great on/off switch, great with my 7month old baby, and zero aggression. He can stay home all day without a kennel since he was 6 months and won't chew or touch a thing, and I couldn't get him to growl or bite me or the baby no matter what I did (outside of the playful growling/gnawing). Zero aggression, great in the house, and absolutely no concerns about him biting an neighbor kid or anything like that. And outside of some retrieving work, I would venture to guess a well-bred Golden is about as easy of a dog to train for pheasants as any.. just get them on birds frequently and they figure out the rest.

This of course is with no bias at all.. LOL.
 
Jawilor said:
I don't see many around here, but I also try and avoid the crowds when hunting. I watched a couple of episodes of the Wentz (Carson) Brothers hunting show this weekend and one of them has a golden retriever. In the episodes I watched they were duck hunting and the dog was making some solid retrieves.
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I saw that episode too. I couldn’t stop looking at the dog the whole time. I was pretty impressed. This thread is also kinda making me want a golden ha.
 
cyclonenation10 said:
I will say, I am just as bias as anybody, but at 2 years 9 months my golden has had over 700 wild roosters shot over him (probably retrieved 90% of them). I hunt with a lot of different guys and their dogs (musterlanders, GSPs, Labs, etc.). My golden is hands down the best retriever of the bunch, but a lot of that probably has to do with the fact that he's had so many more birds shot over him that most the dogs I hunt with. Everybody is amazed as just how quick he is on a downed bird, even from a long ways away if hunting with multiple people. As far as finding/flushing, he tends to run past more birds than I'd like, and if I didn't "beep" him every now and again, he would definitely range further than I'd like, but he is getting better at that for sure with age. I would say on any given day he flushes and "flash points" as many birds as anyone else's pointers/flushers I am with, and definitely retrieves the majority of birds we shoot. I haven't hunted with a great retrieving lab yet (mostly young inexperienced labs), but I would have to venture to guess he is as good as most good labs in that category.

The main reason I have goldens is the demeanor. Great on/off switch, great with my 7month old baby, and zero aggression. He can stay home all day without a kennel since he was 6 months and won't chew or touch a thing, and I couldn't get him to growl or bite me or the baby no matter what I did (outside of the playful growling/gnawing). Zero aggression, great in the house, and absolutely no concerns about him biting an neighbor kid or anything like that. And outside of some retrieving work, I would venture to guess a well-bred Golden is about as easy of a dog to train for pheasants as any.. just get them on birds frequently and they figure out the rest.

This of course is with no bias at all.. LOL.
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Sounds like an awesome dog. And wish I could say the same about my springers temperament. I kinda got the opposite of that
 
Jawilor said:
I don't see many around here, but I also try and avoid the crowds when hunting. I watched a couple of episodes of the Wentz (Carson) Brothers hunting show this weekend and one of them has a golden retriever. In the episodes I watched they were duck hunting and the dog was making some solid retrieves.
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If its the dog I am thinking of it was trained by Dynamic Retrievers and came from Thunderstruck.
 
cyclonenation10 said:
I will say, I am just as bias as anybody, but at 2 years 9 months my golden has had over 700 wild roosters shot over him (probably retrieved 90% of them). I hunt with a lot of different guys and their dogs (musterlanders, GSPs, Labs, etc.). My golden is hands down the best retriever of the bunch, but a lot of that probably has to do with the fact that he's had so many more birds shot over him that most the dogs I hunt with. Everybody is amazed as just how quick he is on a downed bird, even from a long ways away if hunting with multiple people. As far as finding/flushing, he tends to run past more birds than I'd like, and if I didn't "beep" him every now and again, he would definitely range further than I'd like, but he is getting better at that for sure with age. I would say on any given day he flushes and "flash points" as many birds as anyone else's pointers/flushers I am with, and definitely retrieves the majority of birds we shoot. I haven't hunted with a great retrieving lab yet (mostly young inexperienced labs), but I would have to venture to guess he is as good as most good labs in that category.

The main reason I have goldens is the demeanor. Great on/off switch, great with my 7month old baby, and zero aggression. He can stay home all day without a kennel since he was 6 months and won't chew or touch a thing, and I couldn't get him to growl or bite me or the baby no matter what I did (outside of the playful growling/gnawing). Zero aggression, great in the house, and absolutely no concerns about him biting an neighbor kid or anything like that. And outside of some retrieving work, I would venture to guess a well-bred Golden is about as easy of a dog to train for pheasants as any.. just get them on birds frequently and they figure out the rest.

This of course is with no bias at all.. LOL.
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I would add: Golden's have an amazing nose and are dynamite on cripples. No bias here either!
 
I sure wish my new GSP had a bit of the Goldens' retrieving skills. He brings back anything I throw in the yard, but not a dead pheasant in the field. Hoping we can change this.
 
remy3424 said:
I sure wish my new GSP had a bit of the Goldens' retrieving skills. He brings back anything I throw in the yard, but not a dead pheasant in the field. Hoping we can change this.
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The GSPs I have hunted with have been very hit or miss on retrieving. Some have been quite good, some not so much. All over the board really. What the GSPs might lack in retrieving they seem to make up for in other places alot of times. I haven't seen many GSPs run past a bird holding tight.
 
remy3424 said:
I sure wish my new GSP had a bit of the Goldens' retrieving skills. He brings back anything I throw in the yard, but not a dead pheasant in the field. Hoping we can change this.
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He probably has an aversion to blood.My lab got over that when he was about a year old.
 
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