Golden Retrievers - What are the general house rules for you and your pet?

For me, Cruiser was taught these things right from the beginning and it's non negotiable. Especially that rets will grow really big and might have a hard time "unlearning" things when he gets older.

- Can the dog go on the furniture or not? Mine's allowed and I didn't get the expensive ones LOL
- Chewing should be always monitored. Unless you want to see worn out shoes, carpets, clothes etc every day.
- Also the barking should not be encouraged since they are the non barking types, which I really love about rets!

Care to share yours?

For Sarah, we have tried to be consistent and firm but not mean with her. I agree it is MUCH easier to "learn" good behaviors than it is to "unlearn" bad behaviors.

- Sarah is not allowed on the furniture. She can put her front paws on the furniture only while she is sitting.
- We also monitor chewing. We try to have a sufficient number and variety of dog toys. We have the unique situation in that Sarah shares the household with 7 cats ranging in age from age 5 months to 13 years.
- We haven't had an issue with barking as of now.
- We do presently have an issue with Sarah jumping up on people and nipping. We are trying to ignore her when she exhibits this behavior and praising her when she behaves well.

My Great Danes are allowed on the furniture in the living room and den. They are not allowed on the beds.
There is no chewing problem in my house. The dogs were taught early whats ok to chew and whats not. I never pay attention to chewing.
When a dog barks, I go and see what he's barking at then tell him it's ok, I see it and there is no need to bark anymore.
I used timeouts to teach no jumping or nipping.

My brother has flat coat retrievers, three of them. They have house rules, the dogs are not allowed on the furniture and they are not allowed upstairs. The dogs are ok about this. They don't chew things that hey know are not their toys but the rule they find hardest is not to steal. They are only ever fed from their own bowls but they follow the three year old around in the hope that he will have food. They are lovely dogs but they really are a house full.

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Having had three Golden Retrievers in the past and a Labrador, my thoughts are never let your puppy do what you wouldn't want it to do as an adult.

Now have had to teach rescue lab what's what. Dog's are allowed on my bed, but only if the dog blanket is on it, otherwise not. Not allowed on sofa's - they have had their own comfortable beds so why should they need my sofa as well! My dogs have always slept in my bedroom, on their own beds. However a morning cuddle on my bed, on their own blanket is allowed.

Chewing as never been a problem, as they have always had their own chew toys, and have found Kong's invaluable when filled, especially when leaving a young dog for a while.

RubyRoo there is a lot of wisdom in your comment - never let a puppy do what you wouldn't want it to do as an adult.

House rules? My golden retriever did what she wanted, when she wanted. She was a pure joy. Now if there was a rule I wished I could control it would be when not to get in the pool. I swear, I gave up brushing her. It was an impossibility. She'd be beautiful. I'd put her out and, yep, right in the pool. 30 degrees outside and she'd be lying down on the stop step having a pool. During the day, she's swimming -- underwater sometimes. Geez!

House rules, very few..... only 2 main ones - [1] no getting on the bed in the morning until both humans are awake and [2] no getting on the guest chairs. Otherwise they come and go and sleep where they please. Personally I love cuddling up with my dogs on the sofa of an the evening and watching TV.

We have more house rules for our human visitors than the dogs - lol - no feeding them anything from the table, be calm when entering the house, no petting them when they barking & jumping around, etc, etc....

Stephanie, I love your rules for human visitors, that is so sensible.

That is a good point Stephanie, I have to be quite strict with my mum otherwise she would spoil the dog more than she spoils my kids!

My mom was horrible with the dogs. Her biggest mistake? She began this ritual of giving the dogs 3 biscuits every time they came into the house. I told her not to, but she didn't listen. Can you guess what started happening? Yep, my very smart beagle started demanding to go outside, where she'd stay for all of 1 minute before insisting on coming back in for, yep, biscuits. It was pitiful. lol

Orrymain that just shows how important it is to think about what we are doing and to remember that dogs learn quickly ( bad things as well as good) so it is very important to be sensible and consistent.

You know I sometimes think that they learn bad habits far more quickly than they learn good things!

That is very true, and they learn from each other. If you bring a new dog into a home and your 'old' dog has bad habits, believe me, new will learn from old!

If we don't think things through they are very quick to exploit a situation.

Orrymain, I guess you shouldn't leave your dogs with your mother then. Just like with our children, they tend to be spoiled when staying long with the olds.

Debra that is true in a way. My mum would spoil my dog (and my kids) more than I do, but whenever I have asked to do or not do something because it conflicts with the way I do things she has always respected that. My Children and my pets adore their 'grandparents' and there is no one in the world I would trust more than them to take care of them when I am not around.

That is true for me too, my pets love my parents and my brother.