I am sorry for your loss, Golden Retrievers are my favorite breed, they are the perfect dogs. They seldom bark and as far as doggy breath goes, theirs is not that bad plus they are easily trainable because retrievers want to please you. Anyways to answer your question I never owned a dog. When I was a kid, my dad was against the idea and I hated him for it then but I get it now. There are two problems with owning a dog.
1-What are you going to do when you want to go on a vacation? Now you are going to pay extra money to put the dog in a kennel etc.
2-What do you do when the dog dies and the kids are devastated? I will say this much, next to England, America is the most dog friendly nation on earth and there is a reason for it. Americans and English just love dogs it is apart of the culture like for example, if you posted a picture of Shah and a dog, people would be outraged, "Are you calling the Shah a dog?" You see pictures of Churchill and the Bull Dog, they do not see it that way. You hear American commentators say, "He is barking at the refree," An Iranian football commentator would never say, "Look at Gucci he is barking at the refree," that is an insult in Iran. I know where that stems from correct me if I am wrong but in Islam aren't dogs considered haram and cats are considered halal/kosher? That is why in most Muslim families in that part of the world, you see them owning cats and not dogs@BT well said dude I hate those trainers and i have a story.
I have been living in a town house in LV for the last year and my neighbors with three annoying small dogs drove me crazy for a year. I even went to mediation because it got so bad and the people said, "Hey you guys have to control your dogs or move to a house." Well they did not want to discipline their dogs but they did move to another house. If you do not want to discipline your dog, don't buy one. It is not fair for me to have to stay awake at 2AM because your God Dam dog is barking. One time I got so pissed at the guy(he was kind of bigger but remember I have some martial arts training. It was 3 AM and the dogs were HOWLING all of them and I was not the only neighbor pissed, I said, "Listen as$hole, if I hear your dogs bark one more time I am going to drag you out of the house and we are going to fight in the middle of the street, I don't care if you call the god dam police. That put the fear of God in him and two months later they were gone. The reason why I came at him hard like that was because rather than apologizing he was talking $hit like a fake tough guy. I should not hear YOUR DAM DOG at night time. If I do then you will hear from me. These are the same jagoffs that have the my kid is always right mentality. Now I just have one bad dog that howls but he is getting better now that the owners are back form vacation.
BTW guys BT is right if you are going to get a dog, do not get a pure bread, get a mutt. Studies and research have shown that mutts live longer and are much healthier. Pure breads have health problems so get the mutt and the best part is, you can rescue one from the pound. Don't be a schmuck and pay $2,000 for some pure bread from a snobby rich dog owner. If I EVER get a dog, I am going to rescue one form the animal shelter. I think they know that you rescued them and they appreciate it more. Also one last thing, IF HUMANS ACTED LIKE DOGS, THE WORLD WOULD BE A MUCH BETTER PLACE!
