Why Golden Retrievers carry things: the soft mouth

Golden Retrievers carry things because they come from gundogs bred to pick up shot game and bring it back to hand without damaging it. That gentle, inhibited grip is called a soft mouth. A shoe offered at the door, a sock carried round the house or a hand held gently in the mouth are the same behavior with a different object. It is usually harmless and easy to put to use, but it needs watching for two reasons: some dogs swallow what they carry, and a few start to guard it.

The soft mouth and where it comes from

A retriever's job is to find a bird that has fallen, often in water or thick cover, and deliver it to the handler in a state fit for the kitchen. A dog that crushes or punctures game is of little use, so retriever breeders have long valued dogs that hold things firmly but gently. Trainers then shape that tendency with practice.

The popular idea of a single "soft-mouth gene" does not match what is known about dog behavior. A large study that surveyed owners of more than 18,000 dogs and genotyped over 2,000 found that most behavioral traits are heritable, but that breed explains only about 9% of behavioral variation between individual dogs. Characteristic breed behaviors turned out to be genetically complex, shaped by many genes, and breed tendencies lined up only weakly with a breed's original work. Goldens as a group are inclined to carry things. Any particular Golden may do so a great deal or hardly at all.

Lord Tweedmouth's retrievers

The breed was developed by Dudley Marjoribanks, later the first Lord Tweedmouth, at his Guisachan estate in the Scottish Highlands. The American Kennel Club's history of the Golden Retriever sets out how it began. In 1865, on a walk in Brighton, he came across a wavy-coated retriever called Nous that belonged to a cobbler. Nous was gold, although his parents were black, at a time when black sporting dogs were fashionable and other colors in good litters were often destroyed.

In 1868 Nous was bred to Belle, a liver-colored Tweed Water Spaniel. That litter, including puppies named Cowslip, Crocus and Primrose, is regarded as the first Golden Retrievers. The Tweed spaniel is now extinct. It was associated with the fishermen of the River Tweed on the Scottish-English border, and crossing it with a retriever produced a dog that could work on land and in water. Marjoribanks recorded his breeding in a leather-bound book, with the last entry in 1890.

According to The Kennel Club, later additions to the line included the Bloodhound and the Irish Setter. The Kennel Club recognized the breed as a "yellow" or "golden" Retriever in 1913, and the name Golden Retriever became official when the breed club was founded in 1920.

Why a Golden greets people with a shoe

Arrivals are exciting, and many Goldens deal with excitement by picking something up. The nearest object wins. Shoes and socks are popular because they sit near the door at nose height and smell strongly of the people the dog is greeting. A dog that cannot find anything in time may take the person's hand or wrist gently in its mouth instead. Done softly, this is a greeting, not a bite.

Many Goldens seem a little calmer with something in their mouth, and a dog holding a toy is not jumping up. Leaving a designated greeting toy in a basket by the door makes the right object the easiest one to reach. So does keeping shoes and laundry out of sight.

Carrying or guarding

A dog proudly carrying a sock and a dog guarding one look very different. The first has a loose, wiggly body and a wagging tail, and gives the item up easily. In its guidance on food guarding, the ASPCA lists warning signs such as standing stiffly, tensing or freezing, staring, growling, snapping or biting. It advises against punishing or intimidating a guarding dog, since the dog reacts as though the person intends to take the item away. A Golden that shows these signs over objects needs help from a veterinary behaviorist or qualified trainer, and should not be chased or cornered to get the item back.

When carrying turns into swallowing

Socks, underwear, hair ties, toy pieces and corn cobs can all be swallowed by a dog that carries everything, and some cause a blockage in the stomach or intestines. Chasing a dog that has picked something up can prompt it to gulp the item down. Swapping it calmly for a treat is safer.

A dog that may have swallowed an object and then vomits, retches without bringing anything up, stops eating, strains, seems painful in the belly or becomes lethargic needs a vet the same day. Some objects pass. Others need endoscopy or surgery, and waiting for signs to worsen makes treatment harder.

Teaching useful carrying

The instinct is easier to work with than against. The principle is to reward the delivery and never punish the pick-up. A Golden scolded for bringing a shoe learns that bringing things to people is risky, which makes the next stolen item harder to get back.

• Take it and give. Offer a toy, say "take it", then trade it for a treat as the cue "give" is said. These two cues underpin everything else.
• Bring a named object. Start with the lead on the floor a short distance away, ask for it by name, and reward the delivery to hand. Add a second object only once the first is reliable.
• Tidy up. Teach the dog to drop toys into a low basket, one at a time, which turns a retrieve into a job with an end point.
• Carry on walks. A light toy or empty bag to carry keeps some dogs calmer on the lead and less inclined to grab things they pass.

Retrieving games and water work

The Kennel Club lists the Golden Retriever's exercise need as more than two hours a day, and retrieving is an ideal way to spend part of it. Fetch on grass, retrieves from water, scent games where the dog finds and brings back hidden toys, and simplified field training with marked and blind retrieves all use the same drive.

Dock diving, in which dogs run along a dock and leap into a pool after a toy, suits many Goldens. Open water needs more care than a pool. Avoid strong currents, very cold water and water with visible scum or algae blooms, which can be toxic. A dog that tires will keep retrieving past the point of safety, so the handler sets the limit.

Treats and body weight

All this training has a cost in treats. In UK veterinary records, Golden Retrievers had 2.58 times the odds of being recorded as overweight compared with crossbred dogs, one of the highest figures among the breeds studied, and neutered and middle-aged dogs were also at higher risk. Using part of the day's kibble as training rewards, and cutting the meal to match, keeps a busy retriever lean. More detail on portions is in the Golden Retriever nutrition guide.

Sources

1. Ancestry-inclusive dog genomics challenges popular breed stereotypes. Science, 2022.
2. Golden Retriever history. American Kennel Club.
3. Retriever (Golden). The Kennel Club.
4. Food guarding. ASPCA.
5. Frequency, breed predisposition and demographic risk factors for overweight status in dogs in the UK. Journal of Small Animal Practice, 2021.