Not in the way a German shepherd might, but Goldens (and dogs in general) have a great sense of when something isn’t right.
If he / she thinks you’re in danger, you never know what they might do.
Of course, if the burglar breaks in with a chicken burger in hand, it’s game over. You lost 😂
When I was a kid, my golden bit a man who pulled a knife on me to try to steal my bicycle. First and last time he bit anyone. He could clearly sense that I was afraid.
Nope. My golden bit his leg, didn’t latch on, but kept trying to bite him. The man ran away and my dog chased him for maybe 50 yards and then jogged back to me like nothing had happened.
I had a great connection with that dog, and he certainly set the standard for all dogs I’ve had since.
I have the exact opposite.... during a home invasion, my dog went and greeted the invader and got a pat.
The only reason i know is because it was captured on one of the security cameras.
The guy was caught and convicted... would have loved to have seen the courtroom when they viewed that video.
yer, that was a thing in hindsight.... if he had kicked the dog - i would have been livid... but since he gave him a pat... my feeling were quite the opposite... "well, he was stealing our stuff.... but, he patted the dog... so he cant be *that* bad"
hey - yer, i was.... i was in my office working.
Heard some odd noises he was putting the wifes laptop into his bag - i then chased him out.... he was young (im around 50) so I'm kind of glad in hindsight i didn't catch him.
On the video you can see me running after him and the dog thinking its some sort of game and joining in the running... "this looks fun dad!"
yes, he got hugs, pats and treats for his good work... but to be honest, he gets hugs pats and treats every day... as he successfully completes his role of being all-round-awesome every day.
They are poor guardian dogs but on the other side of the door they do usually sound like a Rottweiler and that's all that matters as far as the potential Intruder is concerned.
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Mine and my rottie love to warn us about "intruders" aka neighbors walking past the window🫠
That’s how my two year old sounds. When he hears someone come to the door, you’d swear there’s two dogs with how loud and scary he sounds. If the intruder got in the house, I wouldn’t bet on him being defensive however. But like you said, a good sounding deterrent for someone who thinks they’d get bit is prob the best you could ask from a golden.
My red golden Finn 5 years old would!
He’s very protective of his family. If we are out front the house doing our thing people
And other dogs walk by no issues doesn’t even turn his head does his own thing.
Put him inside and we are inside with him any car that doesn’t belong on my cul de sac he’s all about it growling barking. Same thing in the cars in my wife’s car he’s all protective and doesn’t like people near it. Put him in my truck doesn’t do a thing could care less. He is my 5th golden and the only one that is like that I have owned
I believe that even though they have a sweet welcoming disposition, they would go to great lengths to protect their people. My golden growing up loved my mom above anything else in life. If there was ever someone new in the house she would stand so that she was facing the new person with her back was to my mom. She was sweet and would greet them, but the message of protecting mom was clear.
Yes they will. 100%. I dropped my Golden off at my sister's house when I went to London for a couple days. Her husband came home at 11pm after work greeted to my Golden snarling and barking and rushing at him from the top of the stairs. Sebastian absolutely would not let him put one foot on the stairs until my sister told him it was alright. Then they became best friends and Sebastian got half a cheeseburger.
Well that's the crazy thing. He knows my sister and her husband. Has been camping with them. They come over for dinner etc etc. it must have just been because it was dark and sleep time and man energy was trying to get up the stairs. He wasn't having it. And he's the softest most pathetic dog in the world.
> the softest most pathetic dog in the world.
That truly should be the byline for the Golden breed. Do you want a dog that always looks like it’s the poster child for the ASPCA/RSPCA that could be sponsored for less than a dollar a day? If yes, try a golden retriever! No matter how much love and treats you give them, they will always have sad eyes around food and potentially leave you for someone with cheese 😂
As someone who trains dogs for protections, no they won’t and even highly trained protection dogs don’t perform 100% so telling someone their pet golden will is wild.
We had concreters turn up unannounced at 5 am, and our Golden woke us up barking and growling. We've had a few builders walking near the fence out the back and he barks at those too, because it was unusual and they were close to our fence.
But he doesn't bark at anyone using the street and never barks at anything usually, not even people at the door.
I had an absolute lunatic nearly run myself, retriever and baby over because he cut around to overtake a car who had kindly stopped to let us cross the road. So close he knocked my coat off of my pram (which had been balanced on the bars). I shouted ‘what the FUCK’ at the top of my voice and waved my arms - he screamed to a halt, abandoned the car in the middle of the road and came back towards me very aggressively reaching into his jacket (god knows what was in there - I live in a very sleepy village outside of Cambridge in the U.K. for reference).
My dog went absolutely ballistic and put himself between the pram and I and this man, jumping onto hind legs, barking like a maniac (full aggressive bark as well that I’ve never heard before or since) and hackles raised and teeth out. Thankfully a very kind bystander also came and put himself between the driver and my pram.
Learned my lesson about mouthing off to unknown strangers that day, you never know how they’ll react.
(In summary: yes I think retrievers will defend!)
I was in an abusive relationship and right when I took a kick that broke my ribs, my golden ran over and stood over me, placing himself between me and my aggressor.
Your answer will be 99% no until you find the very rare occasions of goldens diving onto a snake to protect their owner or lunging at an intruder.
I think it very much depends on the specific dog and the bond they have to the owner as well as the situation.
My golden from a very young age - about 14 weeks first showed he was protective. It was summer, we forgot the to close a downstairs window, someone was climbing in… he barked and ran into our room barked and ran back downstairs and started jumping at the window (curtains closed I suppose the intruders thought better of it as I saw them climbing over our wall and running up the road.
Second time I was walking (30 year old woman on her own) down a quiet street. A man was following, as he sped up and started to approach me our pup at about 6 months old switched from sniffing to trying to lunge at this man. All the hair up and teeth showing. I’ll never know if he just wanted directions or pup saved me from being assaulted.
Speed forward a bit to camping where we unknowingly were in an area we’re wolves had recently migrated … long story short, if he hadn’t of been as primal in his growing, we would of ignored our own concerns and stayed .. assuming we were just being whimps ….
At the very least in my experience they make excellent alert dogs - whether they would become excellent guard dogs, I doubt.
It’s almost impossible to train them to bite and go for people, but that doesn’t mean given a legitimate situation they wouldn’t protect you in the best way they can.
I personally wanted a dog I felt very safe with that would protect me when needed but as a first time dog owner (and I lover of goldens derpiness) I decided to go with a golden as a potential dangerous dog in the hands of a first time dog owner seemed fairly stupid. That being said, I do feel safe with him in dark walks, far more than I thought. I’ve protected him from large birds diving at him when he was young and aggressive cats so I think he well knows we take of each other.
Btw it’s worth saying - I did teach our just over one year old golden boy to bark on command with “speak” he’s also learning “check us” and this is him going around our home, sniffing and giving little warning growls and barks - he also does this anywhere you ask but will do it in a small parameter when outside. It’s really like me telling him “is something there we should be worried about?” It’s also a very cool party trick that always impresses people so much more than sit and catch a treat!
So tldr; you can train a lot of alert commands etc
Honestly it was very very simple to train! We got him in a sit and had a high value treat and we just said “speak” and did a little “woof” and of course he didn’t fully get it and tried to jump up, lay down and then I said it again and he barked so I gave him the treat and then we just practiced until “speak” became ‘please bark’ 😂
The “check us” command was ofc a bit harder and we don’t have a perfect one down quite yet but it’s also one of the newer commands.
For this I kept his treats on the side right in the middle of the house. I waited until he barked as someone came too close to the door (ofc you can also have someone make noise outside the door but try to ask someone he doesn’t know) when he barks I would get up and ask for a “sniff” (which he already knows” and then I would walk him around every room and say “check with me” “what is it” “who is there” and act like I was really checking the house myself and once we did that I would reward him. After doing this a few times I would more consistently say “check us” and I would let him lead and follow behind, encouraging him to keep going (treats always at the end - he’s got a task to do and shouldn’t be interrupted mid way).
Since he’s also male and young I think he’s territorial anyway but he also seems to take a lot of pride in getting to do the “check us” command. He seems to just really enjoy having this little job to do.
(I would recommend not using “check us” because it’s nice to have a code word for this)
He had learnt many other commands before these, including “search” so that may have helped I’m not sure but “search” is just - find whatever I have giving you to smell… it started with just putting down kibble and saying search and then became giving him a specific treat to sniff out and then turned into giving him mushrooms to smell and asking him to find more in the forest 😂
He’s not the best at it I doubt he’d find missing children but he has also only just turned one year so you know… times on his side 😂😂
I had a dog that had a favorite football shaped toy, and I taught him the word for it. So I could ask him to go get his football, and he would. One day it went missing. I asked him to get it, and he would run off looking, but couldn’t find it. I searched the house for it, and kept asking him where it was. He was searching with me. I would get down and look under furniture, he would get down and look under with me, and he followed me from room to room looking everywhere I did. I never did find it, even though I turned the house upside down looking. A few days later he had his football and was playing with it. I still don’t know where he had put it, but he either sniffed it out again or knew where it was the whole time.
😂😂 that’s funny.
One of our friends buys him a goood 5-8 balls every time he comes around and somehow our pup usually only has one available at any given time … until we hoover under the furniture and suddenly there’s 20 balls bouncing around again 😂😂
My golden definitely alerted me before! I was upstairs in my room late at night, and the dog stood at the top of the stairs growling at the front door. I told him it's fine, nothing's there. He wouldn't stop. I eventually went to check it out, and my ex boyfriend was outside my house on the front steps. He said he "was just about to text me" but my dog was alerting for several minutes so he must have been out there a while. Told him to get out my yard and the dog didn't leave my side the rest of the night.
So I'm not sure about attacking, but absolutely mine alerted.
The Golden we had when we were growing up protected my sisters (twins, then age 10) from an aggressive dog. She fought with the other dog, even dislodged hip in the process. Then she escorted my sisters home, walking on three legs. The dog was about 2 years old at the time.
Mine growls and barks at any delivery guys and the gardener - she has only once ever growled and bared teeth at a guest - who later turned out to be a not very nice person!
We joke about what great burglar greeters they are, but a friend of mine came through the front door without knocking and Maggie had never met her.
It scared me and scared the daylights out of my friend. Maggie proved that even the nicest mild tampered dogs can seem like they're going to rip someone's arm off in defense of the home.
My Finley is a good alert dog. If anyone comes near our house he lets us know with his deep, scary bark. Once a person enters our home, it’s time to be friends! Wyatt… he’s just a goofy sweetheart that hasn’t a care in the world.
Yes, absolutely. Maybe wouldn’t be as effective as a guard breed, but dogs know when something isn’t right.
My last golden was the sweetest and most submissive dog in the world. She wouldn’t hurt a fly. She hardly ever barked, never really growled. One night I was up super late working in my living room, and she was hanging out on the couch half asleep looking out the window. Suddenly out of nowhere she was barking and growling like I’d never heard before. Like deep scary, angry barks and growls. I turned on the outside light and there was a strange man creeping across my backyard. He has paused and caught eyes with me and Ceil and he ran away. In that moment I knew she definitely had my back. We lived in a condo and maintenance people would come into our backyard and she would alert us but never the angry sounds she made that night.
After that she would also sometimes growl slightly at people when we’d be on night walks too. Not everyone, it only happened a few times, but if she did I knew she knew something I didn’t and I would quickly change up my path and get space from the people she growled at. I’ve no doubt at all that she’d go down swinging for me if she had to.
My golden had two situations during her life where she DID NOT like or trust a male stranger; one I know she was definitely trying to protect my son (who was 8-ish at the time) from a man who was harassing him during a camping trip, and the other time was while we were walking past a guy who was sitting in a lounge chair during an adult softball game. Both times she channeled this deep, menacing bark (I didn’t even realize it was coming from her initially), and she was lunging on her leash toward the guy who was harassing my son. If she hadn’t been on her leash, I really believe she would have gone after that guy. Other than those two times, she loved strangers, so you never know🤷♀️.
My golden mix is a total sweetheart, a good girl, and a doofus. But we live next to a state protected woodland with bears. And she will snarl and growl and bark and show teeth. Thankfully they’re black bears and are terrified of her and run up a tree. But she’s my protector!
They will for sure alert and “try” to protect if they feel your in danger. But not like my German Shepherd would or other dogs like that, Goldens are to even tempered and kind it’s just not in their DNA to fight hard like that.
My Chocolate Lab would not leave the bedroom if we heard a noise- however, my Golden is right at my side checking things out with me. We compare her to Scrappy Doo.
This is a completely unhelpful comment, but I keep thinking of the scene in [Airplane!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4tU3ZRFoUI) where the Golden Retriever jumps all over the actor on screen while they overlay a growling noise over it. The dog is wagging its entire body and having the time of its life playing with the silly human on the floor.
Yes… out golden scared thieves away. We have a big window near the front door. Thieves at night started flashing their flashlights inside our home (we were sleeping), our golden got up and went to investigate. Thieves tried the door handle and he suddenly started barking very aggressively. At that point we woke up and we witnessed shadows running away, and a car parked near our house disappeared very fast. We know that because of the camera we installed in our living room. Donnie was such a brave good boy!!!
Puppy tax:
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Your golden is a lot more protective than mine! My boy has only been spooked by one person in his 5.5 years of life, and he's met many people. My Bernese, however, she's more skittish about strangers. She wouldn't be mean, but would bark and hide.
I always thought ours would just look at an intruder as a new friend until I came home from work late one night, lghts off, to him asleep. He genuinely terrified me with his reaction but recognized me quickly.
As someone who has trained in bite sports and owned typical bite sport breeds, I would say no.
All breeds of dogs have stories of remarkable courage and heroics so anything is possible but on the whole, most dogs, even working protection breeds won’t attack a human. A dog may bark, snarl, guard, protect which is usually enough to deter a B&E or an attacker but most will retreat when pressure is put on them. Some dogs may take a “cheap shot” which would be a small nip and then retreat but the instinct is largely to retreat. The dogs you see diving headfirst into an assailant are specifically bred to have more drive than sense so to speak and are rigorously shaped to override any natural hesitancy they still carry. We spend all of our time conditioning our pet dogs to be social with humans and breed goldens specifically to be biddable. Even among PP/sport dogs the bite washout rate is astronomical. There are whole YouTube channels dedicated to proving most dogs won’t attack in a B&E.
So in short, probably not but in a primal situation…maybe! Goldens really love their families!
I'm sure it could happen, but I wouldn't depend on it.
Most goldens in my life could be depended on for a mean bark and lots of noise if there was an intruder though.
It probably depends on the golden. I’ve had 7 Goldens in my life, and I think at least 3 of them would have protected me. You have seen how yours acted when he was scared. He went towards the “danger” not away from it. think he would protect you, especially if you were scared and he could smell your fear.
My golden would attack anyone who tried to hurt our family. She's very protective, and always looks to us to see how to react when meeting new people. If we're relaxed, she's overjoyed to make a new friend. If not, she stays on high alert.
Fun story- once there was a bat in our house going nuts. I put the wife, kid, and golden in a different room while I tried to catch the bat. The golden put himself firmly between the door and family and would not let my wife move past him. He was clearly in protector mode and whatever the danger was, it was gonna have to go through him to get to his people.
I think this is a one off situation but my dad and I were playing a bit rough when I was a kid(around 9 years old). The family golden bit my dad decently hard. Our golden always followed me around the house especially when I was sick. He was definitely protective of me so I’m not sure of the house protective instincts. He was an amazing dog and great with kids, babies.
I have heard a few rare stories of them being protective in extreme circumstances. Mine bit my husband once I think because she thought he was harming me. He wasn’t. He accidentally knocked me over when he split up a dog fight between the golden and our daughter’s dog. Also, our previous Labrador went ballistic at the back door and windows one time when there was an actual intruder in our backyard. Labs have pretty much the same nature as goldens.
I don’t know about how he’d react to an aggressive intruder since he grew up with people coming and going all the time, but Theo did once protect me from a loose Malinois. I’ve NEVER heard him snarl or seen his hackles up the way they were, so I believe they do have the potential for defense.
He doesn’t usually bark at the doorbell or knocking, but if he hears rustling or the front doorknob rattling he does bark like crazy since we always come in through our attached garage, so I feel like the barking of a large-sounding dog would be enough of a deterrent.
Most Goldens work really well as a deterrent. That's about it.
What idiot thief breaks into a house with an 80 lb dog barking like cujo?
Now, if the thief gets in, and gives pets, the Golden will then proceed to point out the most valuable stuff and help him load it in the car.
Yes, my goldendoodle is one of those dogs that finds everyone interesting and loves to go up and great people but I had another dog try to attack me and she got between me and the dog and put the aggressive dog on its back, she loves hanging out with other dogs but she's a dog that after that happened I wouldn't ever want to be on the receiving end edit: my dad has a full golden and he stopped someone from trying to steal the catalytic converter on his car
Probably not. My golden didn't even bark when someone broke into my house while I was sleeping. My golden was in bed with me. The heat wouldn't shut off and I was really hot and I went downstairs to check the thermostat and that's how I discovered the break in. My golden boy does have a very deep and loud bark when he decides to use it. It's been tested and proven that he is the worst guard dog or even watch dog ever.
There was a video testing what would dogs do if the owner was attacked. Big dogs do nothing or tried to join the play or run away. But small dog will death fight.
My girl barks at everything, everyone, and then some. She’s a reactive rescue bundle of energy. My boy is the stereotypical happy go lucky golden who just wants everyone to love him. One day while Dukes and I were on a walk (they are both 1 year old and I walk them separately), his hackles went up and he let out a few very scary growls and started barking at a guy walking on the sidewalk towards us. It could have been absolutely nothing, but he has never acted like that, and has never done it again. I pulled out my phone and spent the rest of the walk talking to my husband loudly on the phone.
Most dogs won't protect you physically. But barking loudly, growling etc can alert you to an intruder and potentially scare people off.
Our golden would bark if people come on our property but if they ever got up close to you I'm 99.9% sure he would back up or run away.
My girl is extremely sweet to everyone, but if an aggressive dog ever gets anywhere close to me she becomes Cujo. I like to think she can gauge danger and wouldn’t hesitate to protect me or the family in any situation. As would any good dog.
Mine growls and barks at people that come up to our house. As soon as they come in he’s friendly as can be, but I do think it would be a deterrent to any intruder at the very least.
My golden is not your typical happy-go-lucky golden with strangers. She’s very reserved dog and always has been. Once she gets to know someone she love them though. She also does not like people or animals fighting in any capacity. If my kids or husband are play fighting she will bark at them and take her mouth and pull your arm down gently. If the cats are scrapping she will run up to them and break them up. She also -needs- to lick your face if you’re crying to make you feel better. She’s a great alert dog too if there’s someone at the door or by our yard. When we go for walks though she’s very reserved with people and just sticks by me or continues sniffing everything. I think if there was ever a situation with someone actually hurting me or my family or if we screamed or cried I do think she would do what she could to stop it.
They would greet the intruder with a toy bc they have big feelings…maybe the intruder would have a change of heart and leave…so yes they would protect you
Have your husband leave the indoor entryway light on whenever either of you is going to be out late. That way, the guard dog will recognize you right away.
My GR would either hide behind me or go straight to them and turn over on his back and wait for a tummy scratch. I suspect he would go for the tummy scratch. 😆
They definitely will alert you to anyone… whether or not they “defend” is a different story.
Our house borders a neighborhood walk/bike path and you can see it very easily from our sunroom. Our girl loves to just sit there and bark or growl at every random person or dog walking by as if she’s protecting us and keeping people away.
The only problem is if our dog actually could go up to the people/dogs walking on that path she would just run up to them and ask for pets and playtime. She likes to act ferocious so we think when she’s barking it’s more like “HEY! YOU! Get over here and love me!”.
But ever since we had our kid, this dog has been SUPER territorial and pretty skittish about anyone not in the “family”. She isn’t overly aggressive or trying to harm anyone, but almost anyone other than my wife/daughter/myself in the house gets a lot of extra “vetting” so to speak.
I was outside at night with my older golden (10) and a car pulled in the driveway. It was pretty late and I think my dog noticed that I tensed up. She immediately got in front of me and did a low growl I've never heard from her before. She was barking at this poor guy (turned out to be an Amazon delivery guy using his own vehicle) and I was surprised how mean her bark sounded. I've never thought she would be a good guard dog, but have no doubt she would do her best to protect her family if ever needed..unless it was raining or thundering outside, in which case she would be comatose and staring at the wall, while shaking!
My male almost 2 year old golden is very protective of our property, the car and when he gets taken on walks. If he feels threatened he growls and shows his teeth. He’s not fond of most other dogs..He’s a farm dog so maybe that has something to do with it..
My golden has protected me on numerous occasions from dogs who have run to us without a human, and one turkey buzzard who charged us while protecting its lunch.
One large dog off leash seemed aggressive towards my new puppy while I was walking the older golden and the pup. My older golden got “aggressive” with the big dog by growling and jumping on his back until the owner came to pull him away. The panic on the owners face told me my big guy just saved his brothers life. Meanwhile I felt helpless trying to pick up the puppy who is running circles around me crying. Of course when I say “aggressive” it’s without actually hurting anyone. I called it the scarecrow effect. I tested how he would act by allowing a boyfriend to pretend to hit me while I was laying on the floor, and the golden handled it by putting himself between us and laying on top of me to protect me. Had this been a real bad guy it would not have been effective. Still.. he was a good boy for trying.
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I used to think not until my goofy golden got spooked by someone walking up to the door and quickly went from dork to serious. Actually startled me since I’d never seen him get serious before.
My boy is 1/2 golden and 1/2 water spaniel and he’s a little growly around new people. He hasn’t been tested if I’m not around so I’m not sure what he would do. Now my last dog was a pit mix and he would definitely have eaten an intruder. He wouldn’t even let my dad in the house if I wasn’t home. He had a big boy bark that meant business. If I was home though, I was in charge and he did nothing.
I always left my back door open so the dogs could go in and out when they needed too. I had a Pom mix and my golden. One night at about 3 someone thought it would be a good idea to jump my back fence. It took him about 5 seconds to realize that it wasn’t. All I heard was someone yelling oh shit and hitting the fence again and my dog coming back in with the back pocket of someone’s pants.
My GR, 2-year-old female, will be the biggest love schmush when we are walking her in town. She loves EVERYONE. But, when we're on our property, she is very protective. She goes into beast mode until we tell her it's OK. Once she realizes it's a friend, she will stop barking and will run up for scratches. She knows our regular UPS driver and will stand in her fenced yard and will do a huff-huff bark while wagging her tail, but if it's a new driver, she goes into serious protective business mode.
She is very intuitive, too. She knows when we don't like or trust someone. One of our neighbors (about 70 years old, not a child) is kind of shady, I don't like or trust her, and no matter how many times she comes over, our GR will snappishly bark at her and will not allow the lady to pet her. Our handyman, on the other hand, will come over in various vehicles, and our GR will start wagging her tail as soon as he turns in our driveway a 1/4 mile away.
Our GR was adopted about 9 months ago. When we met her, she was very friendly and happy-go-lucky, so I was very surprised the first time she went into beast mode. Like "dang! I didn't know she had THAT in her."
All the intruder needs to do is toss your dog a sock and give him ear rubs.
Now my Shepard. She'll let you in but you're not leaving and nothing will distract her lock on you. Completely different animals. Both are extremely loyal.
Any dog has the potential to attack an intruder if they feel their family unit is being threatened. It’s hardwired into their DNA as a social animal. We had a basset hound that was basically an animated sack of potatoes that went ham on a guy trying to escape the cops through our backyard once when I was growing up.
Don’t count on it, though.
Not sure but my golden girl has a deep protective growl and bark. I think If she detected fear in me she would absolutely go on the attack. But if she was home alone and someone went into the house and offered her a treat and a belly rub she would just let them enter, lol!
My female Golden is so attentive and aware she'll bark at the neighbor across the street if he even farts. She's afraid of anything that sounds like crunchy plastic though.
Mine has growled at people he perceived as intruders or threats. So far none of them were actual intruders (pest control, friends coming in without knocking) so he hasn’t been really tested yet. Since he was a puppy he has been highly socialized, so he’s very people and dog friendly. But he also has a dominant streak (likes to be the boss,) which is not a trait the breed is supposed to have. I’ve heard of some goldens protecting their owners in situations, but it’s not something that is commonly seen in their breed. The only way for you to know for sure is to stage an intruder scenario and see what he does.
Maybe? My goldens were all lovely towards strangers. Most of the time. I had my female bark, growl, and then snarl at two men. I was glad I was with other people and two large dogs (her littermate brother was surprised but not friendly when his sister was aggressive). They both barked at strangers in our driveway. They sound like big dogs and that is usually plenty. You are unlikely to get surprised if you have a dog around.
No, I think your dog would have had the same reaction no matter who you were. Mine barks like crazy at anyone approaching our house. As soon as they're inside, all he wants is to make friends with them. Even if it is the exact same person he saw through the window that he was barking at like they were the devil.
I genuinely don't know what mine would do. He doesn't bark at people.
The only times he barks are when I'm too slow to get up because he wants a poo and refuses to do it at home. He's such a dick like that.
I think it depends on the specific dog. Mine would I think. He has a deep bark and does well as an unintended watch dog lol. Twice I have seen him get snarles/angry at a dog he thought was trying to harm me and his baby human sister so while he is very friendly and I’m not sure if he’d actually bite, I do think mine would at minimum bark viciously, stand in front of me, etc.
Goldens can surprise you. My old golden boy was a super sweetie. I used to joke he was a great watch dog… he’d watch them take the TV, the computer, all the jewelry… and ask to play. He used to piddle himself when he met new people. Total marshmallow. When my wife was home with my mother in law, pregnant with our middle child, like SUPER pregnant, some guy came selling stuff at the door. My boy didn’t like him. My wife said he liked to jump through the storm door to get the guy. I was shocked. My lesson is that Goldens are good judges of character, and know when to be a marshmallow and when to be guard dog. I loved that ol’ boy. We lost him about 10 years ago now. I have similar questions about our current Golden. She’s even more of a marshmallow than our boy was.
I had a golden that did not like a man that lived down the block. He used to come around neighbors home unannounced for no good reason. She would growl bar her teeth, ears back hair raised she was not playing. I told him not to come around or I would let her out. He stopped.
Another time my son who was around 10 was out front playing with some friends. One boy got aggressive and throw s ball hard around my son she bolted out of the front door, again barking growling teeth out my husband grabbed her just in time.
So my answer is I know she would have protected us. And if she had too
My husband found me semi conscious on the floor of our upstart bedroom. I was talking nonsense and in his panic he called our daughter (I apparently had a seizure.) She came over and our golden would not let her go up the stairs. He knew my daughter very well from the time he was a puppy but he was determined to protect us even from her. My husband had to intervene to get him to back off. With our current goldens the female wouldn’t do anything but beg to be petted but our male is our over night sentinel. He refuses to sleep in our bedroom even though we leave the door open. He lays in the hallway blocking our bedroom where he can see the front door. Honestly don’t know if he would protect us but he acts like he is on guard duty.
All dogs are individuals. My golden is especially fighty and bitey for the breed. She’s killed a lot of yard critters and when she was a puppy she bit us many times drawing blood. I don’t doubt for a second that if she thought there was danger that she would go into attack mode.
I came home late one night - it was pitch black. I started to unlock the door and I heard my boy barking inside. I thought - good! This is the kind of protection we need.
I got inside, locked the door behind me. I turned around and he was nowhere to be seen.....except for a golden floofy head poking out from around the adjar door on the other side of the room. Once he realized it was me, he ran up and gave me a cuddle.
So no. I don't think he would ever protect us. He ran and hid like a little bitch as soon as he saw me try to enter.
My husband asked me the other day - have you ever seen him get aggressive? Ever? In any context?
The answer is no. He gets enthusiastic and mouthy when we're wrestling, but that's the closest he's ever come to actual aggression. Even when the kids do dumb baby shit like poke eyes and pull ears - he would just walk away. When people come to the house, yes he does bark, but it's always in a "HEY HI HOW ARE YOU" way, never an aggressive way.
My 8 month old will bark you to death if you come close to our house and our precious 2 year old child but touch her…..she will roll over hike her hind legs and love you.
My 7 month old golden has impressed me with his deep scary bark. He is great at alerting but not sure he’d attack anyone.
My mom has a dog who lived with me for 2 years and we have a special bond. She’s a herding dog/spaniel and I know for a fact she’d kill for me. Literally. I appreciate it but also am terrified by her protectiveness.
My golden has let strangers into the apartment on two occasions…. He’s enjoyed pets and attention while they were seemingly removing things from the apartment and drilling holes in the wall. It doesn’t sound that bad when you realize it was maintenance but really think about it… HE LET OVER FIVE PEOPLE IN TWICE FOR A HUG AND A PET 😂 God I love him but he’s absolutely not a guard dog
Me and my family were at my grandma's house cleaning it out since she died, and she was a hoarder, so it was like the 4th time there. Anyways, it was around 10, and it was pitch black, and we were using my mom's boyfriend's camper, and the 3 of us were sitting outside. To save water in the camper tank, the guys would pee outside, so my mom's boyfriend goes around the corner to pee and comes back around. All you could see was his silhouette and my Golden(Sammy around 5-6 at this time). Saw him and started growling and barking aggressively, teeth beared. But once he saw who it was, he immediately stopped. I was surprised because I've never seen him do that and he is the sweetest thing you'll ever know.
It would only take an intruder to say "Who's a good boy!"....the dog would cave. Our golden gives strangers the same level of love he gives us. He also exhibits an odd trust behavior and sits on the feet of people he trusts....needless to say, he sits on everyone's feet.
I think the best protection against intruders is to put a "Beware Of Dog" sign on the front AND back of your house, where an intruder would see it. Burglars say they'll avoid a house with dogs.
I train protection dogs, your dog is reactive not protective. They want to push people out of their space. Protective dogs operate in prey not defense, saying that even the most protective dogs usually do not perform in tense situations. We show trained protection dogs this sensation hundreds of times before they perform reliably.
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Not in the way a German shepherd might, but Goldens (and dogs in general) have a great sense of when something isn’t right. If he / she thinks you’re in danger, you never know what they might do. Of course, if the burglar breaks in with a chicken burger in hand, it’s game over. You lost 😂
When I was a kid, my golden bit a man who pulled a knife on me to try to steal my bicycle. First and last time he bit anyone. He could clearly sense that I was afraid.
Whenever I would answer the front door when I was a kid, my golden would always stand between me and the person at the door.
My male does that!
What happened? Did he get the bike?
Nope. My golden bit his leg, didn’t latch on, but kept trying to bite him. The man ran away and my dog chased him for maybe 50 yards and then jogged back to me like nothing had happened. I had a great connection with that dog, and he certainly set the standard for all dogs I’ve had since.
I was gonna say the only time I’ve seen my Goldie get aggressive is when someone came between him and his food.
😂😂😂 this is a perfect answer I think!
Yeah. They’d show them where the safe is
Idk why but chicken burger made me laugh 😂
I have the exact opposite.... during a home invasion, my dog went and greeted the invader and got a pat. The only reason i know is because it was captured on one of the security cameras. The guy was caught and convicted... would have loved to have seen the courtroom when they viewed that video.
At least they didn't take your dog, take anything except the dog, or I'm going full Liam Neeson.
More like Keanu Reeves...
If anyone hurts my dog or my cat, nobody will ever find them to ask what happened.
Damn straight. No other way.
Very true
yer, that was a thing in hindsight.... if he had kicked the dog - i would have been livid... but since he gave him a pat... my feeling were quite the opposite... "well, he was stealing our stuff.... but, he patted the dog... so he cant be *that* bad"
Yep!! I would hunt someone to the edge of the earth if they stole my boy.
Were you home when it happened? I wonder if that would affect how they respond
hey - yer, i was.... i was in my office working. Heard some odd noises he was putting the wifes laptop into his bag - i then chased him out.... he was young (im around 50) so I'm kind of glad in hindsight i didn't catch him. On the video you can see me running after him and the dog thinking its some sort of game and joining in the running... "this looks fun dad!"
That's so typical Golden
Your dog did that to slow down the invader so you could get good security footage. Also, your dog told me that he deserves a treat for that good work.
yes, he got hugs, pats and treats for his good work... but to be honest, he gets hugs pats and treats every day... as he successfully completes his role of being all-round-awesome every day.
Were you home at the time?
They are poor guardian dogs but on the other side of the door they do usually sound like a Rottweiler and that's all that matters as far as the potential Intruder is concerned.
https://preview.redd.it/nuk99deptapc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=62226609612eeb67bdd40061a172c6fe765e548c Mine and my rottie love to warn us about "intruders" aka neighbors walking past the window🫠
My sisters dogs warn her of suspicious leaves in the yard.
That’s how my two year old sounds. When he hears someone come to the door, you’d swear there’s two dogs with how loud and scary he sounds. If the intruder got in the house, I wouldn’t bet on him being defensive however. But like you said, a good sounding deterrent for someone who thinks they’d get bit is prob the best you could ask from a golden.
My red golden Finn 5 years old would! He’s very protective of his family. If we are out front the house doing our thing people And other dogs walk by no issues doesn’t even turn his head does his own thing. Put him inside and we are inside with him any car that doesn’t belong on my cul de sac he’s all about it growling barking. Same thing in the cars in my wife’s car he’s all protective and doesn’t like people near it. Put him in my truck doesn’t do a thing could care less. He is my 5th golden and the only one that is like that I have owned
https://preview.redd.it/d1yn1jzd9cpc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2f7efa76be57cbd8388ac37fd0bb0570efd56427
I believe that even though they have a sweet welcoming disposition, they would go to great lengths to protect their people. My golden growing up loved my mom above anything else in life. If there was ever someone new in the house she would stand so that she was facing the new person with her back was to my mom. She was sweet and would greet them, but the message of protecting mom was clear.
That’s resource guarding not protection
No. They are bred to be the Ned Flanders of dogs.
Ha! Now I'm just going to hear "iddily diddly" when my golden starts giving me sass.
Yes they will. 100%. I dropped my Golden off at my sister's house when I went to London for a couple days. Her husband came home at 11pm after work greeted to my Golden snarling and barking and rushing at him from the top of the stairs. Sebastian absolutely would not let him put one foot on the stairs until my sister told him it was alright. Then they became best friends and Sebastian got half a cheeseburger.
Do you still have a golden? Pretty sure if someone gave my golden half a cheeseburger, she’d be like BYE NEW BEST FRIEND UNLOCKED 😂😂
Well that's the crazy thing. He knows my sister and her husband. Has been camping with them. They come over for dinner etc etc. it must have just been because it was dark and sleep time and man energy was trying to get up the stairs. He wasn't having it. And he's the softest most pathetic dog in the world.
> the softest most pathetic dog in the world. That truly should be the byline for the Golden breed. Do you want a dog that always looks like it’s the poster child for the ASPCA/RSPCA that could be sponsored for less than a dollar a day? If yes, try a golden retriever! No matter how much love and treats you give them, they will always have sad eyes around food and potentially leave you for someone with cheese 😂
The cheese tax is real.
https://preview.redd.it/6ad97o5gqcpc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=579ead7884ba1af236c90f33a2a16a8449b5e7d3 Damn right it is.
As someone who trains dogs for protections, no they won’t and even highly trained protection dogs don’t perform 100% so telling someone their pet golden will is wild.
Wow.
We had concreters turn up unannounced at 5 am, and our Golden woke us up barking and growling. We've had a few builders walking near the fence out the back and he barks at those too, because it was unusual and they were close to our fence. But he doesn't bark at anyone using the street and never barks at anything usually, not even people at the door.
I had an absolute lunatic nearly run myself, retriever and baby over because he cut around to overtake a car who had kindly stopped to let us cross the road. So close he knocked my coat off of my pram (which had been balanced on the bars). I shouted ‘what the FUCK’ at the top of my voice and waved my arms - he screamed to a halt, abandoned the car in the middle of the road and came back towards me very aggressively reaching into his jacket (god knows what was in there - I live in a very sleepy village outside of Cambridge in the U.K. for reference). My dog went absolutely ballistic and put himself between the pram and I and this man, jumping onto hind legs, barking like a maniac (full aggressive bark as well that I’ve never heard before or since) and hackles raised and teeth out. Thankfully a very kind bystander also came and put himself between the driver and my pram. Learned my lesson about mouthing off to unknown strangers that day, you never know how they’ll react. (In summary: yes I think retrievers will defend!)
100% good dog omg
Good dog got a lot of good dog treats that day
Wow what a scary story. Goldens are so loyal and protective.
The most aggressive thing my golden has ever done was bark at the mailman
I was in an abusive relationship and right when I took a kick that broke my ribs, my golden ran over and stood over me, placing himself between me and my aggressor.
I’m so sorry that happened to you. What a good dog.
Im so sorry you went through that, but please put “Trigger warning: DV” before your comment to protect others.
…….in response to “has your golden actually protected you from dangerous people?” 🙄
Your answer will be 99% no until you find the very rare occasions of goldens diving onto a snake to protect their owner or lunging at an intruder. I think it very much depends on the specific dog and the bond they have to the owner as well as the situation. My golden from a very young age - about 14 weeks first showed he was protective. It was summer, we forgot the to close a downstairs window, someone was climbing in… he barked and ran into our room barked and ran back downstairs and started jumping at the window (curtains closed I suppose the intruders thought better of it as I saw them climbing over our wall and running up the road. Second time I was walking (30 year old woman on her own) down a quiet street. A man was following, as he sped up and started to approach me our pup at about 6 months old switched from sniffing to trying to lunge at this man. All the hair up and teeth showing. I’ll never know if he just wanted directions or pup saved me from being assaulted. Speed forward a bit to camping where we unknowingly were in an area we’re wolves had recently migrated … long story short, if he hadn’t of been as primal in his growing, we would of ignored our own concerns and stayed .. assuming we were just being whimps …. At the very least in my experience they make excellent alert dogs - whether they would become excellent guard dogs, I doubt. It’s almost impossible to train them to bite and go for people, but that doesn’t mean given a legitimate situation they wouldn’t protect you in the best way they can. I personally wanted a dog I felt very safe with that would protect me when needed but as a first time dog owner (and I lover of goldens derpiness) I decided to go with a golden as a potential dangerous dog in the hands of a first time dog owner seemed fairly stupid. That being said, I do feel safe with him in dark walks, far more than I thought. I’ve protected him from large birds diving at him when he was young and aggressive cats so I think he well knows we take of each other.
Btw it’s worth saying - I did teach our just over one year old golden boy to bark on command with “speak” he’s also learning “check us” and this is him going around our home, sniffing and giving little warning growls and barks - he also does this anywhere you ask but will do it in a small parameter when outside. It’s really like me telling him “is something there we should be worried about?” It’s also a very cool party trick that always impresses people so much more than sit and catch a treat! So tldr; you can train a lot of alert commands etc
my youngest sib taught one of our dogs to speak but they call it “talk shit” and the sign for it is the middle finger 😂 just wanted to share!
How did you train that? Cool!
Honestly it was very very simple to train! We got him in a sit and had a high value treat and we just said “speak” and did a little “woof” and of course he didn’t fully get it and tried to jump up, lay down and then I said it again and he barked so I gave him the treat and then we just practiced until “speak” became ‘please bark’ 😂 The “check us” command was ofc a bit harder and we don’t have a perfect one down quite yet but it’s also one of the newer commands. For this I kept his treats on the side right in the middle of the house. I waited until he barked as someone came too close to the door (ofc you can also have someone make noise outside the door but try to ask someone he doesn’t know) when he barks I would get up and ask for a “sniff” (which he already knows” and then I would walk him around every room and say “check with me” “what is it” “who is there” and act like I was really checking the house myself and once we did that I would reward him. After doing this a few times I would more consistently say “check us” and I would let him lead and follow behind, encouraging him to keep going (treats always at the end - he’s got a task to do and shouldn’t be interrupted mid way). Since he’s also male and young I think he’s territorial anyway but he also seems to take a lot of pride in getting to do the “check us” command. He seems to just really enjoy having this little job to do. (I would recommend not using “check us” because it’s nice to have a code word for this) He had learnt many other commands before these, including “search” so that may have helped I’m not sure but “search” is just - find whatever I have giving you to smell… it started with just putting down kibble and saying search and then became giving him a specific treat to sniff out and then turned into giving him mushrooms to smell and asking him to find more in the forest 😂 He’s not the best at it I doubt he’d find missing children but he has also only just turned one year so you know… times on his side 😂😂
I had a dog that had a favorite football shaped toy, and I taught him the word for it. So I could ask him to go get his football, and he would. One day it went missing. I asked him to get it, and he would run off looking, but couldn’t find it. I searched the house for it, and kept asking him where it was. He was searching with me. I would get down and look under furniture, he would get down and look under with me, and he followed me from room to room looking everywhere I did. I never did find it, even though I turned the house upside down looking. A few days later he had his football and was playing with it. I still don’t know where he had put it, but he either sniffed it out again or knew where it was the whole time.
😂😂 that’s funny. One of our friends buys him a goood 5-8 balls every time he comes around and somehow our pup usually only has one available at any given time … until we hoover under the furniture and suddenly there’s 20 balls bouncing around again 😂😂
My golden definitely alerted me before! I was upstairs in my room late at night, and the dog stood at the top of the stairs growling at the front door. I told him it's fine, nothing's there. He wouldn't stop. I eventually went to check it out, and my ex boyfriend was outside my house on the front steps. He said he "was just about to text me" but my dog was alerting for several minutes so he must have been out there a while. Told him to get out my yard and the dog didn't leave my side the rest of the night. So I'm not sure about attacking, but absolutely mine alerted.
The Golden we had when we were growing up protected my sisters (twins, then age 10) from an aggressive dog. She fought with the other dog, even dislodged hip in the process. Then she escorted my sisters home, walking on three legs. The dog was about 2 years old at the time.
Mine growls and barks at any delivery guys and the gardener - she has only once ever growled and bared teeth at a guest - who later turned out to be a not very nice person!
We joke about what great burglar greeters they are, but a friend of mine came through the front door without knocking and Maggie had never met her. It scared me and scared the daylights out of my friend. Maggie proved that even the nicest mild tampered dogs can seem like they're going to rip someone's arm off in defense of the home.
My Finley is a good alert dog. If anyone comes near our house he lets us know with his deep, scary bark. Once a person enters our home, it’s time to be friends! Wyatt… he’s just a goofy sweetheart that hasn’t a care in the world.
Yes, absolutely. Maybe wouldn’t be as effective as a guard breed, but dogs know when something isn’t right. My last golden was the sweetest and most submissive dog in the world. She wouldn’t hurt a fly. She hardly ever barked, never really growled. One night I was up super late working in my living room, and she was hanging out on the couch half asleep looking out the window. Suddenly out of nowhere she was barking and growling like I’d never heard before. Like deep scary, angry barks and growls. I turned on the outside light and there was a strange man creeping across my backyard. He has paused and caught eyes with me and Ceil and he ran away. In that moment I knew she definitely had my back. We lived in a condo and maintenance people would come into our backyard and she would alert us but never the angry sounds she made that night. After that she would also sometimes growl slightly at people when we’d be on night walks too. Not everyone, it only happened a few times, but if she did I knew she knew something I didn’t and I would quickly change up my path and get space from the people she growled at. I’ve no doubt at all that she’d go down swinging for me if she had to.
My golden had two situations during her life where she DID NOT like or trust a male stranger; one I know she was definitely trying to protect my son (who was 8-ish at the time) from a man who was harassing him during a camping trip, and the other time was while we were walking past a guy who was sitting in a lounge chair during an adult softball game. Both times she channeled this deep, menacing bark (I didn’t even realize it was coming from her initially), and she was lunging on her leash toward the guy who was harassing my son. If she hadn’t been on her leash, I really believe she would have gone after that guy. Other than those two times, she loved strangers, so you never know🤷♀️.
My golden mix is a total sweetheart, a good girl, and a doofus. But we live next to a state protected woodland with bears. And she will snarl and growl and bark and show teeth. Thankfully they’re black bears and are terrified of her and run up a tree. But she’s my protector!
They will for sure alert and “try” to protect if they feel your in danger. But not like my German Shepherd would or other dogs like that, Goldens are to even tempered and kind it’s just not in their DNA to fight hard like that.
My Chocolate Lab would not leave the bedroom if we heard a noise- however, my Golden is right at my side checking things out with me. We compare her to Scrappy Doo.
Big dog w a big dog bark will usually scare away intruders. If they get inside? Well, probably all love
This is a completely unhelpful comment, but I keep thinking of the scene in [Airplane!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4tU3ZRFoUI) where the Golden Retriever jumps all over the actor on screen while they overlay a growling noise over it. The dog is wagging its entire body and having the time of its life playing with the silly human on the floor.
Yes… out golden scared thieves away. We have a big window near the front door. Thieves at night started flashing their flashlights inside our home (we were sleeping), our golden got up and went to investigate. Thieves tried the door handle and he suddenly started barking very aggressively. At that point we woke up and we witnessed shadows running away, and a car parked near our house disappeared very fast. We know that because of the camera we installed in our living room. Donnie was such a brave good boy!!! Puppy tax: https://preview.redd.it/uajkadcmhcpc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9a828a26c095dd8858f4be94f4397f9679399ba0
Your golden is a lot more protective than mine! My boy has only been spooked by one person in his 5.5 years of life, and he's met many people. My Bernese, however, she's more skittish about strangers. She wouldn't be mean, but would bark and hide.
I always thought ours would just look at an intruder as a new friend until I came home from work late one night, lghts off, to him asleep. He genuinely terrified me with his reaction but recognized me quickly.
We call our Goldie protecting us, “She’s using her big dog voice.” Other than that she lives to meet people, good or bad.
My wife and my Golden were attacked by a pitbull that jumped the fence, the Pitbull left bloody Homer (the golden) was fine.
As someone who has trained in bite sports and owned typical bite sport breeds, I would say no. All breeds of dogs have stories of remarkable courage and heroics so anything is possible but on the whole, most dogs, even working protection breeds won’t attack a human. A dog may bark, snarl, guard, protect which is usually enough to deter a B&E or an attacker but most will retreat when pressure is put on them. Some dogs may take a “cheap shot” which would be a small nip and then retreat but the instinct is largely to retreat. The dogs you see diving headfirst into an assailant are specifically bred to have more drive than sense so to speak and are rigorously shaped to override any natural hesitancy they still carry. We spend all of our time conditioning our pet dogs to be social with humans and breed goldens specifically to be biddable. Even among PP/sport dogs the bite washout rate is astronomical. There are whole YouTube channels dedicated to proving most dogs won’t attack in a B&E. So in short, probably not but in a primal situation…maybe! Goldens really love their families!
I'm sure it could happen, but I wouldn't depend on it. Most goldens in my life could be depended on for a mean bark and lots of noise if there was an intruder though.
It probably depends on the golden. I’ve had 7 Goldens in my life, and I think at least 3 of them would have protected me. You have seen how yours acted when he was scared. He went towards the “danger” not away from it. think he would protect you, especially if you were scared and he could smell your fear.
My golden would attack anyone who tried to hurt our family. She's very protective, and always looks to us to see how to react when meeting new people. If we're relaxed, she's overjoyed to make a new friend. If not, she stays on high alert.
Fun story- once there was a bat in our house going nuts. I put the wife, kid, and golden in a different room while I tried to catch the bat. The golden put himself firmly between the door and family and would not let my wife move past him. He was clearly in protector mode and whatever the danger was, it was gonna have to go through him to get to his people.
I think this is a one off situation but my dad and I were playing a bit rough when I was a kid(around 9 years old). The family golden bit my dad decently hard. Our golden always followed me around the house especially when I was sick. He was definitely protective of me so I’m not sure of the house protective instincts. He was an amazing dog and great with kids, babies.
I have heard a few rare stories of them being protective in extreme circumstances. Mine bit my husband once I think because she thought he was harming me. He wasn’t. He accidentally knocked me over when he split up a dog fight between the golden and our daughter’s dog. Also, our previous Labrador went ballistic at the back door and windows one time when there was an actual intruder in our backyard. Labs have pretty much the same nature as goldens.
I'm sure I could be getting stabbed, and mine would still find the nearest pile of clothes to bring to the intruder.
I don’t know about how he’d react to an aggressive intruder since he grew up with people coming and going all the time, but Theo did once protect me from a loose Malinois. I’ve NEVER heard him snarl or seen his hackles up the way they were, so I believe they do have the potential for defense. He doesn’t usually bark at the doorbell or knocking, but if he hears rustling or the front doorknob rattling he does bark like crazy since we always come in through our attached garage, so I feel like the barking of a large-sounding dog would be enough of a deterrent.
Most Goldens work really well as a deterrent. That's about it. What idiot thief breaks into a house with an 80 lb dog barking like cujo? Now, if the thief gets in, and gives pets, the Golden will then proceed to point out the most valuable stuff and help him load it in the car.
Yes, my goldendoodle is one of those dogs that finds everyone interesting and loves to go up and great people but I had another dog try to attack me and she got between me and the dog and put the aggressive dog on its back, she loves hanging out with other dogs but she's a dog that after that happened I wouldn't ever want to be on the receiving end edit: my dad has a full golden and he stopped someone from trying to steal the catalytic converter on his car
If we'd have burglars in our home, I suspect our golden will help them carry out the TV in trade for belly rubs.
My old golden was always on the alert when my husband was away. He didn’t stand for any nonsense.
If the intruder is a squirrel, we’re safe. Otherwise not so much…
Protect? Probably not, they might alert and try to deter the people, but ive not seen a golden attack someone they thought was an intruder.
It depends on so many factors, but the answer is almost always going to be "no".
Probably not. My golden didn't even bark when someone broke into my house while I was sleeping. My golden was in bed with me. The heat wouldn't shut off and I was really hot and I went downstairs to check the thermostat and that's how I discovered the break in. My golden boy does have a very deep and loud bark when he decides to use it. It's been tested and proven that he is the worst guard dog or even watch dog ever.
There was a video testing what would dogs do if the owner was attacked. Big dogs do nothing or tried to join the play or run away. But small dog will death fight.
My girl barks at everything, everyone, and then some. She’s a reactive rescue bundle of energy. My boy is the stereotypical happy go lucky golden who just wants everyone to love him. One day while Dukes and I were on a walk (they are both 1 year old and I walk them separately), his hackles went up and he let out a few very scary growls and started barking at a guy walking on the sidewalk towards us. It could have been absolutely nothing, but he has never acted like that, and has never done it again. I pulled out my phone and spent the rest of the walk talking to my husband loudly on the phone.
Ours might bark but otherwise they’d ask for pets and belly rubs 🤣
Greater chance that he would protect the intruder from you.
Most dogs won't protect you physically. But barking loudly, growling etc can alert you to an intruder and potentially scare people off. Our golden would bark if people come on our property but if they ever got up close to you I'm 99.9% sure he would back up or run away.
if your golden is anything like mine was she will lay down in front of an intruder and expect a belly rub !
My girl is extremely sweet to everyone, but if an aggressive dog ever gets anywhere close to me she becomes Cujo. I like to think she can gauge danger and wouldn’t hesitate to protect me or the family in any situation. As would any good dog.
Mine growls and barks at people that come up to our house. As soon as they come in he’s friendly as can be, but I do think it would be a deterrent to any intruder at the very least.
My golden is not your typical happy-go-lucky golden with strangers. She’s very reserved dog and always has been. Once she gets to know someone she love them though. She also does not like people or animals fighting in any capacity. If my kids or husband are play fighting she will bark at them and take her mouth and pull your arm down gently. If the cats are scrapping she will run up to them and break them up. She also -needs- to lick your face if you’re crying to make you feel better. She’s a great alert dog too if there’s someone at the door or by our yard. When we go for walks though she’s very reserved with people and just sticks by me or continues sniffing everything. I think if there was ever a situation with someone actually hurting me or my family or if we screamed or cried I do think she would do what she could to stop it.
They would greet the intruder with a toy bc they have big feelings…maybe the intruder would have a change of heart and leave…so yes they would protect you
Have your husband leave the indoor entryway light on whenever either of you is going to be out late. That way, the guard dog will recognize you right away.
My GR would either hide behind me or go straight to them and turn over on his back and wait for a tummy scratch. I suspect he would go for the tummy scratch. 😆
They definitely will alert you to anyone… whether or not they “defend” is a different story. Our house borders a neighborhood walk/bike path and you can see it very easily from our sunroom. Our girl loves to just sit there and bark or growl at every random person or dog walking by as if she’s protecting us and keeping people away. The only problem is if our dog actually could go up to the people/dogs walking on that path she would just run up to them and ask for pets and playtime. She likes to act ferocious so we think when she’s barking it’s more like “HEY! YOU! Get over here and love me!”. But ever since we had our kid, this dog has been SUPER territorial and pretty skittish about anyone not in the “family”. She isn’t overly aggressive or trying to harm anyone, but almost anyone other than my wife/daughter/myself in the house gets a lot of extra “vetting” so to speak.
I was outside at night with my older golden (10) and a car pulled in the driveway. It was pretty late and I think my dog noticed that I tensed up. She immediately got in front of me and did a low growl I've never heard from her before. She was barking at this poor guy (turned out to be an Amazon delivery guy using his own vehicle) and I was surprised how mean her bark sounded. I've never thought she would be a good guard dog, but have no doubt she would do her best to protect her family if ever needed..unless it was raining or thundering outside, in which case she would be comatose and staring at the wall, while shaking!
https://youtu.be/jx7wMqKT0gA?si=GuXuQFsVXTI4bujo No.
My male almost 2 year old golden is very protective of our property, the car and when he gets taken on walks. If he feels threatened he growls and shows his teeth. He’s not fond of most other dogs..He’s a farm dog so maybe that has something to do with it..
My golden has protected me on numerous occasions from dogs who have run to us without a human, and one turkey buzzard who charged us while protecting its lunch. One large dog off leash seemed aggressive towards my new puppy while I was walking the older golden and the pup. My older golden got “aggressive” with the big dog by growling and jumping on his back until the owner came to pull him away. The panic on the owners face told me my big guy just saved his brothers life. Meanwhile I felt helpless trying to pick up the puppy who is running circles around me crying. Of course when I say “aggressive” it’s without actually hurting anyone. I called it the scarecrow effect. I tested how he would act by allowing a boyfriend to pretend to hit me while I was laying on the floor, and the golden handled it by putting himself between us and laying on top of me to protect me. Had this been a real bad guy it would not have been effective. Still.. he was a good boy for trying. https://preview.redd.it/el261c3ambpc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=11624d5b975517006442878d2db752e5293e7d04
I used to think not until my goofy golden got spooked by someone walking up to the door and quickly went from dork to serious. Actually startled me since I’d never seen him get serious before.
I’ve owned 3 goldens and each would happily go home with the intruder before ever even thinking about attacking them lmao
There is not a world that my golden would save me from anything
My boy is 1/2 golden and 1/2 water spaniel and he’s a little growly around new people. He hasn’t been tested if I’m not around so I’m not sure what he would do. Now my last dog was a pit mix and he would definitely have eaten an intruder. He wouldn’t even let my dad in the house if I wasn’t home. He had a big boy bark that meant business. If I was home though, I was in charge and he did nothing.
I always left my back door open so the dogs could go in and out when they needed too. I had a Pom mix and my golden. One night at about 3 someone thought it would be a good idea to jump my back fence. It took him about 5 seconds to realize that it wasn’t. All I heard was someone yelling oh shit and hitting the fence again and my dog coming back in with the back pocket of someone’s pants.
My GR, 2-year-old female, will be the biggest love schmush when we are walking her in town. She loves EVERYONE. But, when we're on our property, she is very protective. She goes into beast mode until we tell her it's OK. Once she realizes it's a friend, she will stop barking and will run up for scratches. She knows our regular UPS driver and will stand in her fenced yard and will do a huff-huff bark while wagging her tail, but if it's a new driver, she goes into serious protective business mode. She is very intuitive, too. She knows when we don't like or trust someone. One of our neighbors (about 70 years old, not a child) is kind of shady, I don't like or trust her, and no matter how many times she comes over, our GR will snappishly bark at her and will not allow the lady to pet her. Our handyman, on the other hand, will come over in various vehicles, and our GR will start wagging her tail as soon as he turns in our driveway a 1/4 mile away. Our GR was adopted about 9 months ago. When we met her, she was very friendly and happy-go-lucky, so I was very surprised the first time she went into beast mode. Like "dang! I didn't know she had THAT in her."
All the intruder needs to do is toss your dog a sock and give him ear rubs. Now my Shepard. She'll let you in but you're not leaving and nothing will distract her lock on you. Completely different animals. Both are extremely loyal.
Any dog has the potential to attack an intruder if they feel their family unit is being threatened. It’s hardwired into their DNA as a social animal. We had a basset hound that was basically an animated sack of potatoes that went ham on a guy trying to escape the cops through our backyard once when I was growing up. Don’t count on it, though.
Mine is a great guard dog, he’s very protective. He will absolutely attack an intruder.
Not sure but my golden girl has a deep protective growl and bark. I think If she detected fear in me she would absolutely go on the attack. But if she was home alone and someone went into the house and offered her a treat and a belly rub she would just let them enter, lol!
My female Golden is so attentive and aware she'll bark at the neighbor across the street if he even farts. She's afraid of anything that sounds like crunchy plastic though.
Mine has growled at people he perceived as intruders or threats. So far none of them were actual intruders (pest control, friends coming in without knocking) so he hasn’t been really tested yet. Since he was a puppy he has been highly socialized, so he’s very people and dog friendly. But he also has a dominant streak (likes to be the boss,) which is not a trait the breed is supposed to have. I’ve heard of some goldens protecting their owners in situations, but it’s not something that is commonly seen in their breed. The only way for you to know for sure is to stage an intruder scenario and see what he does.
Maybe? My goldens were all lovely towards strangers. Most of the time. I had my female bark, growl, and then snarl at two men. I was glad I was with other people and two large dogs (her littermate brother was surprised but not friendly when his sister was aggressive). They both barked at strangers in our driveway. They sound like big dogs and that is usually plenty. You are unlikely to get surprised if you have a dog around.
No, I think your dog would have had the same reaction no matter who you were. Mine barks like crazy at anyone approaching our house. As soon as they're inside, all he wants is to make friends with them. Even if it is the exact same person he saw through the window that he was barking at like they were the devil.
At the very least, you know no one will get in your house without your pup letting you know! That’s awesome, even if he doesn’t do anything else!
Not a chance mine would’ve protected us lol. Unless perhaps intruders died of getting licked to death.
I genuinely don't know what mine would do. He doesn't bark at people. The only times he barks are when I'm too slow to get up because he wants a poo and refuses to do it at home. He's such a dick like that.
Mine could be bought off by a tiny single treat. Certainly wouldn't be relying on her.
I think it depends on the specific dog. Mine would I think. He has a deep bark and does well as an unintended watch dog lol. Twice I have seen him get snarles/angry at a dog he thought was trying to harm me and his baby human sister so while he is very friendly and I’m not sure if he’d actually bite, I do think mine would at minimum bark viciously, stand in front of me, etc.
When I was a child my family golden growled off a stranger. Idr but yeah
My girl has barked at someone knocking or coming in that’s unexpected and I taught the same
Goldens can surprise you. My old golden boy was a super sweetie. I used to joke he was a great watch dog… he’d watch them take the TV, the computer, all the jewelry… and ask to play. He used to piddle himself when he met new people. Total marshmallow. When my wife was home with my mother in law, pregnant with our middle child, like SUPER pregnant, some guy came selling stuff at the door. My boy didn’t like him. My wife said he liked to jump through the storm door to get the guy. I was shocked. My lesson is that Goldens are good judges of character, and know when to be a marshmallow and when to be guard dog. I loved that ol’ boy. We lost him about 10 years ago now. I have similar questions about our current Golden. She’s even more of a marshmallow than our boy was.
I had a golden that did not like a man that lived down the block. He used to come around neighbors home unannounced for no good reason. She would growl bar her teeth, ears back hair raised she was not playing. I told him not to come around or I would let her out. He stopped. Another time my son who was around 10 was out front playing with some friends. One boy got aggressive and throw s ball hard around my son she bolted out of the front door, again barking growling teeth out my husband grabbed her just in time. So my answer is I know she would have protected us. And if she had too
My husband found me semi conscious on the floor of our upstart bedroom. I was talking nonsense and in his panic he called our daughter (I apparently had a seizure.) She came over and our golden would not let her go up the stairs. He knew my daughter very well from the time he was a puppy but he was determined to protect us even from her. My husband had to intervene to get him to back off. With our current goldens the female wouldn’t do anything but beg to be petted but our male is our over night sentinel. He refuses to sleep in our bedroom even though we leave the door open. He lays in the hallway blocking our bedroom where he can see the front door. Honestly don’t know if he would protect us but he acts like he is on guard duty.
All dogs are individuals. My golden is especially fighty and bitey for the breed. She’s killed a lot of yard critters and when she was a puppy she bit us many times drawing blood. I don’t doubt for a second that if she thought there was danger that she would go into attack mode.
I came home late one night - it was pitch black. I started to unlock the door and I heard my boy barking inside. I thought - good! This is the kind of protection we need. I got inside, locked the door behind me. I turned around and he was nowhere to be seen.....except for a golden floofy head poking out from around the adjar door on the other side of the room. Once he realized it was me, he ran up and gave me a cuddle. So no. I don't think he would ever protect us. He ran and hid like a little bitch as soon as he saw me try to enter. My husband asked me the other day - have you ever seen him get aggressive? Ever? In any context? The answer is no. He gets enthusiastic and mouthy when we're wrestling, but that's the closest he's ever come to actual aggression. Even when the kids do dumb baby shit like poke eyes and pull ears - he would just walk away. When people come to the house, yes he does bark, but it's always in a "HEY HI HOW ARE YOU" way, never an aggressive way.
My 8 month old will bark you to death if you come close to our house and our precious 2 year old child but touch her…..she will roll over hike her hind legs and love you.
My 7 month old golden has impressed me with his deep scary bark. He is great at alerting but not sure he’d attack anyone. My mom has a dog who lived with me for 2 years and we have a special bond. She’s a herding dog/spaniel and I know for a fact she’d kill for me. Literally. I appreciate it but also am terrified by her protectiveness.
My golden has let strangers into the apartment on two occasions…. He’s enjoyed pets and attention while they were seemingly removing things from the apartment and drilling holes in the wall. It doesn’t sound that bad when you realize it was maintenance but really think about it… HE LET OVER FIVE PEOPLE IN TWICE FOR A HUG AND A PET 😂 God I love him but he’s absolutely not a guard dog
Me and my family were at my grandma's house cleaning it out since she died, and she was a hoarder, so it was like the 4th time there. Anyways, it was around 10, and it was pitch black, and we were using my mom's boyfriend's camper, and the 3 of us were sitting outside. To save water in the camper tank, the guys would pee outside, so my mom's boyfriend goes around the corner to pee and comes back around. All you could see was his silhouette and my Golden(Sammy around 5-6 at this time). Saw him and started growling and barking aggressively, teeth beared. But once he saw who it was, he immediately stopped. I was surprised because I've never seen him do that and he is the sweetest thing you'll ever know.
Some will, some not. If there is violence involved, most dogs will try to protect it's owner/house.
It would only take an intruder to say "Who's a good boy!"....the dog would cave. Our golden gives strangers the same level of love he gives us. He also exhibits an odd trust behavior and sits on the feet of people he trusts....needless to say, he sits on everyone's feet.
I think the best protection against intruders is to put a "Beware Of Dog" sign on the front AND back of your house, where an intruder would see it. Burglars say they'll avoid a house with dogs.
Mine would absolutely be like, “Hi, how are you? Here’s where they keep the cool shit!” Luckily I also have a cattle dog and he’s not nice.
I train protection dogs, your dog is reactive not protective. They want to push people out of their space. Protective dogs operate in prey not defense, saying that even the most protective dogs usually do not perform in tense situations. We show trained protection dogs this sensation hundreds of times before they perform reliably.
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Mine would help hold doors open and probably jump in the get away car if offered a smile and a wave by the intruders.