Golden retriever not cooperating.

My Golden Retriever runs away when called then eventually rolls on his back and bites at my hand when I reach for his collar, is it because he is only 10 months or could it be something I'm doing?He is well treated and is always excited when we come home and likes to play with the kids...could this just be a stage.

Sounds like your Golden needs some confidence building.

Running away and rolling over onto his back are all signs of submissiveness. It should not be punished. Don't reach for his collar when he is doing this. He is very scared. The act of reaching or looking over a dog is very dominant and will provoke a submissive dog to try and protect itself. I'd hate to say this: but his biting you is your fault. He's showing you his belly saying "Okay you win" but then you are reaching overtop of him and standing overtop of him which your body langauge is telling him "The game is not over" so then he reaches for his way to protect himself and thats to bite. If you punish this bite, you are greater risking his security and he'll probably bite again.

A few questions here:

Why do you have to grab his collar?
Has he gone to obdience training?
Does he tend to strech, yawn, shake, or lick his paws very often?
Where did you buy him?
Does he ever urinate when meeting new people?

If you can answer these, that would be great.

-Sara

Thanks for your advice, our dog does often mouth his paws and also chases and bites his tail.
He does stretch, but only when he wakes up, why do you ask.
And no he does not urinate when new people arrive.
He has been to training classes...Peter...

Great! Thanks Peter. When a dog streches, yawns, shakes or lick his paws often it's a way for them to be dealing with anxiety issues (all these actions are very self rewarding and make the dog feel relaxed). Sounds like your doggy is doing just fine in that department, if he had some anxiety issues, I would tell you to teach him those actions on command.

You still didn't tell me why you need to reach for his collar, or where he was bought from. These are pretty important questions too.

Thanks Peter!

-Sara

Hello again, I'm not sure if my reply got to you so I'm sending again.
I reach for his collar so I can get him back inside or back to the yard.
We received the dog from the sister of a friend. We trust the friend and met the origional owners, they were nice people. The dog was 10 weeks old at the time. They did not want the dog and two small kids at the same time so we took him(we were looking for a dog at the time).

Thanks again...