Pure bred retrievers that don't retrieve.... anybody else have one?

[Papa Deuce]

I have plenty of retrievers before, but they were all Labs, and they LOVED to retrieve, and would for hours, literally. Now I have this sweet, not so smart in many ways, Golden Retriever that wants no parts of any kind if retrieving.... It's kind of a bummer, since I like to play fetch with my dogs.....

 

[turkeymama]

Oh bless your heart. I have had 2 Golden Retrievers, only one of them was pure bred. The other was a mix of Golden Retriever and Catahoula Cur. They were the sweetest dogs, but my husband says they were the dumbest dogs he ever saw. I wouldn't quite go that far, because I could teach them some things. They definitely weren't the smartest dogs I ever had, though. The closest either of them came to playing fetch was running after the ball, but never bringing it back. They did enjoy running from me as I attempted to retrieve the ball from them. I loved those dogs.

 

[Pennykay]

My Goldens have always loved to fetch!! How old is yours?

 

[Papa Deuce]

My Goldens have always loved to fetch!! How old is yours?

She will be 3 in January..... Sweet dog, OK watch dog, dumb as a stump.... But she is extremely well behaved. Won't retrieve.

BTW, it is funny. I also have an Australian Sheperd. They are known to be pretty smart. He is so smart that he invents ways to make her look dumb... Here is an example.... He was chasing her around my screened in gazebo. He could never possibly catch her. He is 11 and she is way too fast..... So after they circle the gazebeo 2 times, he goes into the gazebo and lays down, watching her... She circled the gazebo 2 more times before she realized he wasn't chasing her!

 

[Diznotyzed]

We had a wonderful black lab who absolutely would not fetch and he hated water. Go figure. He brought us lots of happiness in other ways, though.

 

[wdwmom2]

My Golden never retrieved anything. I would throw a stick or a ball and she would just look. Never even took a step in that direction!!! But, definitely one of the sweetest dogs I have ever known!

 

[nephthys43]

My lab will retrieve only one thing. A tennis ball thrown into the pool. Nothing else. She will run to where you've thrown it, look at it and look at you like, "what the heck is this?". Love her to death and she's sooo smart. But wish I could do all those cool retrieving stunts I see other dogs do.

 

[mamamary]

Forget about playing ball out in the yard - my lab likes to retireve socks.

 

[Sgt Mickey]

I have asked my lab to retirve me drinks, a snack my shoes it hasn't worked yet
My dog loves to chase tennis balls and sticks, how old is the dog maybe he just dosen't like it yet

 

[diesel]

My lab Gus (pictured below) does not retrieve balls he'll chase them but will never bring them back. Makes for a short game of fetch. My husand alwaysy says "isn't he a retriever?!" We love Gus anyways.

Now swimming/water is a different story. He loves to just sit in his kiddy pool all summer long and gaze out at his yard.

 

[Hillbeans]

We adopted an almost 3 YO Labrador Retriever earlier this year and you'd think with both of those breeds she'd love to fetch, but no go. I think she was caged a lot in her early years and never got "taught" to fetch. She sometimes seems as if she wants to play but doesn't really know how to do it.

 

[VillageMama]

We have a purebred Labrador Retriever who neither retrieves nor likes the water.

We raised him as a puppy for Paws With a Cause and took him with us everywhere. We even brought him with us on a trip to Florida and he was scared of the beach. He wouldn't even go in the water... where the wave finally washes ashore and peters out? No thanks.

I thought, "Boy, I hope that the person with whom he is eventually partnered doesn't like to swim!".

But this land-loving Labrador was released from the program due to elbow displaysia, so he became our forever dog. He still hates the shower!

 

[ogreenlee]

It's the only claim to fame in my family!

from wikipedia:

The Golden Retriever was originally developed in Scotland at "Guisachan" near Glen Affric, the highland estate of Sir Dudley Marjoribanks (pronounced "Marʒbanks"), later Baron Tweedmouth. For many years, there was controversy over which breeds were originally crossed. In 1952, the publication of Majoribanks' breeding records from 1835 to 1890 dispelled the myth concerning the purchase of a whole troupe of Russian sheepdogs from a visiting circus.[5]


My ancestor. Direct lineage!

At least it wasn't a pit bull!

 

[CruiserMom]

I have a Flat Coat retriever that won't retrieve or come anywhere near the pool. My setter/dalmation/pointer (don't really know what she is!) mix LOVES to play ball. Her favorite games is to retrieve the ball, go drop it in the pool, and then bark at ME to go fish it out with the net! The only times she has been in the pool are when she has fallen in by accident!

 

[NMAmy]

We have no idea if our golden is purebred--she's a Humane Society pup--and she doesn't like to retrieve that much. She does love to play catch--if you throw her a ball or a toy, she'll catch it in her mouth and then comes close to "throw" it back to us.

However, if we throw the ball and she misses it, she'll just look at us. She's also horrible about finding things--if you hide a toy under a blanket, she'll give a quick look and then gives up. If she was a hunting dog and the bird didn't fall directly into her mouth, she'd never find it.

 

[Disney Doll]

Oh bless your heart. I have had 2 Golden Retrievers, only one of them was pure bred. The other was a mix of Golden Retriever and Catahoula Cur. They were the sweetest dogs, but my husband says they were the dumbest dogs he ever saw. I wouldn't quite go that far, because I could teach them some things. They definitely weren't the smartest dogs I ever had, though. The closest either of them came to playing fetch was running after the ball, but never bringing it back. They did enjoy running from me as I attempted to retrieve the ball from them. I loved those dogs.

My BFF had a lab/Shepherd mix who would do that! Instead of saying we were playing Fetch, we would say we were playing Here It Is! As in, I would throw the ball, the dog would run full tilt to where the ball had landed and sort of prance around the ball happily and then run back to me without the ball. Hence the reason we called it Here It Is!

My late dog (a spaniel, not a retriever) wouldn't fetch for love or money. I'd throw the ball and he'd look at me like "YOU threw it there. YOU go get it".

 

[Mermaid02]

I have a Flat Coat retriever that won't retrieve or come anywhere near the pool. My setter/dalmation/pointer (don't really know what she is!) mix LOVES to play ball. Her favorite games is to retrieve the ball, go drop it in the pool, and then bark at ME to go fish it out with the net! The only times she has been in the pool are when she has fallen in by accident!

LOL your dog has taught YOU to retrieve... that is so funny!

The only thing my weimaraner will "point" is road kill during her walk.

 

[kayla87]

BTW, it is funny. I also have an Australian Sheperd. They are known to be pretty smart. He is so smart that he invents ways to make her look dumb... Here is an example.... He was chasing her around my screened in gazebo. He could never possibly catch her. He is 11 and she is way too fast..... So after they circle the gazebeo 2 times, he goes into the gazebo and lays down, watching her... She circled the gazebo 2 more times before she realized he wasn't chasing her!

Our two dogs are kind of like that - our border collie is pretty dumb, but in a normal dog kind of way. Our dachshund/pekingese is too smart for her own good. She plays out elaborate plots to steal chews from our border collie. And no, I'm not anthropomorphizing my dogs. She really does plot.

My border collie also doesn't herd the way many non-working border collies do. But she retrieves like...well, a retriever I guess!

My late dog (a spaniel, not a retriever) wouldn't fetch for love or money. I'd throw the ball and he'd look at me like "YOU threw it there. YOU go get it".

Oh...I know that look too well!

 

[Mickey's Minion]

I have plenty of retrievers before, but they were all Labs, and they LOVED to retrieve, and would for hours, literally. Now I have this sweet, not so smart in many ways, Golden Retriever that wants no parts of any kind if retrieving.... It's kind of a bummer, since I like to play fetch with my dogs.....

A pure bred dog does not equal a well bred dog. And by well bred in this example, I meant bred with a specific purpose and goal to maintain certain traits within the breed.

The problem with retrievers is that they are so popular, they dominate the top spots in the most popular family dogs, is that to keep up with demand, there has been some loose and indiscriminate breeding. Puppy mill and and back yard breeders pump out these dogs like carters does pills.

Since the market has been flooded with dogs that were bred with no thought to maintaining the character of the breed, these popular breeds are seeing dogs that are "pure bred" but are not "well bred" Temperaments (seeing more and more bad tempered goldens and labs) and instincts (loss of the field instincts) have been impacted greatly.

Breeding a dog to keep the best of what the breed is all about takes lots and lots of work. You have to research lineage and make sure you breed dogs that will continue the breed traits you want to perpetuate.

It took a hundred+ years of selective breeding to create the Golden or lab and it can easily be undone in half that time.

That doesn't mean that they aren't good family dogs, most of them are still excellent family pets. But the true breed qualities of the retrievers are being lost to the massive amount of backyard breeding to keep up with demand.

Now, in all honesty, this argument is also within the responsible breeder circles. The working dog breeders accuse the show dog breeders of breeding only for coat and looks and ignoring the field instincts. The show breeders accuse the working dog breeders of only breeding for retrieving instinct and ignoring what the dog is supposed to look like.

The most fanatical on either side say that the show dog couldn't find its way out of an open field and that you can't even tell what breed the working dog is supposed to be.

It is actually quite an honor to have a dog with both field titles and conformation titles.

So, back to the original. Just because your dog is a retriever, with the mass breedings of these breeds over the past 20 years, many of those field retriever instincts have been lost in the process.

 

[turkeymama]

My BFF had a lab/Shepherd mix who would do that! Instead of saying we were playing Fetch, we would say we were playing Here It Is! As in, I would throw the ball, the dog would run full tilt to where the ball had landed and sort of prance around the ball happily and then run back to me without the ball. Hence the reason we called it Here It Is!

My late dog (a spaniel, not a retriever) wouldn't fetch for love or money. I'd throw the ball and he'd look at me like "YOU threw it there. YOU go get it".

Yep, we played that one too.