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By the same token these considerations, taken together, go a long way to accounting for the fact that when it comes to labrador enthusiasts fancying 'having a go' at training a golden it seems to be a case of 'many are called but few are chosen'. Janet Webb and Nigel Mann come to mind, but then one struggles. Keith Erlandson's first trial bred dog was a golden who proved "unbelievably easy" to train and in his assessment of the breed a quarter century ago he wrote "A good golden is second to none and at the risk of sounding controversial I believe a top specimen can actually be superior to the very best Labrador but I will admit that such dogs are very thin on the ground."
I'm more than happy to go along with that assessment and I have to concede that, as of now, 'very thin' is still an appropriate characterisation aswell. Perhaps that is as it should be: good goldens are like gold-dust and they should be treated with real care and understanding. In return you can produce a gundog whose lustre will put others in the shade. |
by Graham Cox