Golden Retriever Care – Tips for a Happy and Healthy Dog

Proper Golden Retriever care is essential to maintaining your dog’s health and happiness. Follow these simple guidelines to ensure you provide excellent care for your pet.

For a healthy puppy or young animal, Golden Retriever care is primarily about prevention and establishing an environment in which your pet thrives. It’s also important to keep an eye out for common health problems. Here are some key factors that will help you properly care for your golden retriever throughout his life.

Provide the basics. Your golden retriever’s home environment should provide the following:

• Quality food and water
• A cozy place to sleep.
• Toys and enough interactive playtime with you
• Space for running and adequate exercise.
• Proper grooming, toothbrushing, and bathing
• Easy access to your bathroom area.

Don’t skip vet visits and watch for vaccinations. As with all dogs, timely visits to the veterinarian and preventative vaccinations are essential for proper golden retriever care.

• Get vaccinated against distemper, an airborne virus that can be prevented. Your retriever needs three injections between weeks 6 and 16 for this vaccine. Thereafter, a booster shot is needed every year.
• Give your dog an annual vaccination to help protect him from rabies, a more serious disease that is usually spread by bites from animals that are already infected.
• Keep up with any other injections or boosters needed, in consultation with your veterinarian. Your vet will also monitor your dog’s general health. While you may notice signs of obvious illness, your vet can look for specific symptoms of treatable health problems before they become long-term.
• Ask about heartworm preventive medications. Heartworms can cause circulation problems, heart failure, and sometimes death. Prevention is easier than treatment, as symptoms are often noticed only in extreme cases.
• Consult with your veterinarian about common golden retriever ailments, such as hip dysplasia, and discuss how to keep your pet as healthy as possible.

Pay attention. For proper care of the golden retriever, you must pay attention to the state of physical and emotional health of your animal. Watch for the following signs of Golden Retriever health problems.

• Cough, vomiting, diarrhea and fever can be signs of distemper. Take your dog to the vet right away so a more detailed diagnosis can be made and treatment can begin.
• Diarrhea, weight loss, or hindquarter bites can be signs of tapeworms. (Careful flea prevention can go a long way toward preventing tapeworms in the first place.) Both tapeworms and heartworms are treatable conditions, so get your dog checked out right away if you notice any symptoms.
• Aggression, seizures, or foaming at the mouth may indicate rabies. Contact your veterinarian immediately.
• Unusual problems with mood or behavior, signs of pain, or unusual scratching or licking may indicate health problems. Check with your vet.

Good care throughout your dog’s life will be maintained during times of illness, and he will know that you are doing everything you can to help him. If he is attentive to your pet’s physical and emotional well-being and doesn’t skip vet visits, he will be able to provide excellent care for your golden retriever, and both you and your pet will benefit.