re: Dog advice: Golden Retriever or Mini Aussie?

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My family is having a lot of back-and-forth about which breed we want to buy.

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Adopt a rescue. Sure you can find something close to what your looking for and there are plenty to choose from. Rescue dogs will love you like no other.

what’s wrong with a normal sized aussie. great dogs

Acquire a pack of Dachshunds.

We adopted our golden from a family a year or so ago and have to put him down this week. Stomach cancer. But in the time we have had him, he has become my best friend and it’s going to be extremely hard to let him go.

I already have a rescue. He was found living behind a dumpster after one of the hurricanes. I’ve posted his pic before — I named him Scraps.

Love our 2 goldens. Go with the golden can't go wrong

Golden all the way. Have had three of them and all were great pets.

I’ve lived with a mini Aussie (35 pounds) for 4 years, and Aussie for 1 year (45 pounds) and a golden for two years under the same roof.

They’re essentially the same dogs. Love to be right next to their human- though the aussies are more fond of “their” people whereas the golden would take attention from anyone offering it. Aussies are a lot more vocal- they can and will serve as a watch dog and bark if they hear a noise that isn’t normal. They’ll bark at strangers coming to your house at first. They were bred to work with livestock so it’s in their DNA to alert you when something isn’t right. Neither breed is smarter than the other with the right training. All 3 can be pretty sensitive to a raised voice or negative reinforcement. Be careful with “mini” aussies though. There can be some health issues when breeders try to get smaller and smaller. Minis essentially are just standards that are the offspring of runts. I’d want to see the parents before I got another mini. She’s been the best dog I’ve ever had though. I’ll have Aussies for the rest of my life, but have nothing bad to say about Goldens. This is the crew. The Golden was my old roommates dog

I like a lot of dog breeds

But I have a hard time suggesting anything but a golden retriever

Hard to improve upon perfection

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Golden>>>others

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This.

I've had 5 goldens in my lifetime. numbers 4&5 are ages 7 and 5. Every single one has been an awesome dog. Smart, loving, gentle, the embodiment of man's best friend.

Their only con is that they shed in a way that defies physics. I can brush them for over an hour each, making a pile of hair the same size as the dog. And they look exactly the same. Like they haven't lost hair one.

Then they'll walk inside, shake, and hair flies. I think their body produces hair twice as fast at it loses it.

But as shedding dogs go, their hair tends to clump up in to tumble weeds and find its way to predictable parts of the house. Usually near the return air for the A/C. So it's not too big of a deal to vacuum it up. That's better than Labrador hair that just covers EVERYTHING.