The Golden staying with me is a great guy. He isn't hyper. Compared to my dogs he's actually pretty lazy. In my mind he is everything a Golden should be: he LOVES to play with other dogs, he adores people, he is SWEET and doesn't have an aggressive bone in his body. He comes from a great breeder and he's beautiful to look at.(his big smooshy face charmed a cop and got me out of a speeding ticket yesterday actually
)
The thing that comes into it for me is all the typical retriever stuff-- things to think about if your parents are used to living with border collies and a pap. They are very different. Bear in mind herding dog people aren't often sporting dog people and vice versa.
I'll give you a couple of examples of stuff I meant:
We are hiking along the trail and encounter a huge mud puddle. My herding dogs walk around it in the dry spot, the Golden dives right in and his facial expression says "YAY!!! A MUD PUDDLE! MY FAVORITE!" I don't have the heart to keep him out of it because he's having so much fun and I am laughing my buns off watching him.
My kiddie pool flipped over in the wind a few days ago and filled with old leaves and Mud. My herding dogs wouldn't touch it. The Golden says "What a great day! LOOK Ma! I found somewhere to DIG!" I call his name, he looks up and his muzzle is dripping with mud
again, don't have the heart to ask him to stop-- it's the cutest thing ever.
This Golden mostly doesn't wreck stuff- he is past the chewing pup stage- he is 15 months now. But if he's bored and finds something, he might very well chew it and if he does it will be completely destroyed in 2 minutes. His jaw strength and love for chewing is different than a herding dog. He can pop a tennis ball in two bites. He has a wet mouth.
His love of all people and his happiness to see them means given the slightest provocation (and you know how people are-- they looove to rough up and love on a gorgeous retriever) so it's quite often that he jumps up or mouths mittens or sleeves when he gets excited. He is learning, and most dog people don't mind, but non dog people freak out. If you aren't a dog person a 90 pound dog jumping up on you can be scary.So that's a situation that has to be managed.
He also sheds more than double what my bc and aussie do.
Don't get me wrong,this is in no way against Goldens. I adore this dog and I don't think you can find a better family pet in many ways. I personally just don't find them LESS work than a herding dog- I just spend time on different things like cleaning mud and vacuuming hair and making sure things don't get chewed up, whereas with my bc and aussie I spend more time giving them a job to occupy their brains.