Noah turned 7 months old today. He weighs 22.6lbs and is 17" tall. His growth in terms of weight has slowed considerably. He used to average 4-5lbs a month and now it's around 2lbs a month. His legs should be finished growing, but he should fill out a bit. Given this growth curve, I think he will mature to a healthy weight of around 28 - 30lbs. As you can see from the picture, he is considerable taller, wider, and heavier than Sherlock now. Some interesting behaviors have surfaced over the last month. I think Noah is going through his second fear period. He will freeze or run away when he notices something out of place or sees something he has never seen before. Thankfully, he only reacts to objects and is still as friendly towards people and other dogs as he has always been. The second behavior which I do not want to escalate is that he has started to resource guard from other dogs. Primarily, every time someone brings a toy into the dog run, if Noah ends up with it, once the other dogs start to chase him, he gets very tense and growls if they persist. I have been working on a drop it command. He tends to respond better to "out" than "drop it", so I am going to work on "out". I want to get to the point where I can yell "out" from across the park and have him drop whatever he has. Additionally, solidifying a better recall will help in these situations as well. He is still submissive towards adult dogs and continues to either flop on his back or lick at a dog's face. I think his guarding behavior stems from insecurity, so continuing with training will be great to strengthen his self-confidence. All in all, it's been a great month for Noah and he is maturing into a great dog.
The resource guarding behavior is a golden thing-- especially among the "calm" ones. I have no idea why this might be. Temple Grandin thinks that breeding for calmness in goldens is fundamentally messing up their brain chemistry. It is causing them to have more epilepsy and more aggression issues.
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.com/books?id=az0fszrRaiQC&pg=PA238&lpg=PA238&dq=golden+retriever+serotonin+aggression+temple+grandin&source=bl&ots=UHrzEqto_A&sig=HQGwG_Ulz7aCxgJ6iqq8Gukpv_M&hl=en&ei=UDoGSvnQI5yltgeT7bWLBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2
Her analysis about goldens is at the bottom of the page. She has autism, but she feels that it gives her insights into animal behavior. She has a doctorate in animal sciences, and she helps design humane slaughterhouses.
You probably wouldn't be able to stand a the more typical golden retriever temperament where you live, so somewhere there has got to be a compromise. I don't think you'd be able to live with a true field-bred golden, especially if it was a goldendoodle with field golden lines in it.
BTW, my dog went through a second fear period at 7 months of age, too.