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Your Golden Retriever is your best friend.
You want what’s best for them, but there are so many choices when it comes to food, training, and making decisions about their health.
It can get confusing, so to help you learn what’s best for you and your Golden we put together this study.
We got 598 Golden Retriever owners to share their favorite products, services, and decisions they made to raise their Golden.
Then we boiled down all of that information into easy-to-read graphs for you.
Here’s a table of contents:
Products:
Raising your Golden:
- Pet insurance
- Doggy daycare
- Dog walker
- Online dog training course
- Neutering/Spaying your Golden Retriever
Fun facts:
- Most popular Golden Retriever names
- How many dogs do you have
- Where did you get your Golden
- How much did you pay for your Golden
- Golden Retriever owners’ favorite thing about Goldens
- How old is your Golden
Best Products For Golden Retrievers
In this section, we’ll talk about the most popular food and vacuums for Golden Retrievers.
(We covered more products in our 2021 survey if you want more info about products.)
Best Food For Golden Retrievers
Here are the most popular brands of food people feed their Golden Retrievers:
- Purina Pro Plan (29%)
- Royal Canin (12%)
- Hill’s Science Diet (9%)
- Blue Buffalo (5%)
- Raw (3%)
Purina Pro Plan and Hill’s Science Diet were more popular compared to the previous year, while Royal Canin and Raw diets became less popular. Blue Buffalo was about the same.
But this is for the study overall.
Here’s what we get when we only look at the results for Golden Retriever puppies:
- Purina Pro Plan (35%)
- Royal Canin (16%)
- Blue Buffalo (9%)
- Hill’s Science Diet (8%)
- Raw (3%)
Just like the overall results, Purina Pro Plan became more popular than the others when it comes to Golden Retriever puppy food.
Of course, your dog may be different, or your vet may recommend another food, so talk to your vet before deciding what to feed your Golden Retriever.
Best Vacuums For Golden Retriever Hair
Golden Retriever shed a lot – there’s no getting around it.
But what you can do is get a good vacuum that picks up all that hair for you.
Here are the most popular vacuums for Golden Retriever owners:
This is similar to last year’s results in that Dyson and Shark were the top 2, but Shark was much closer to Dyson this year.
Bissell and Roomba were close again, but this year Roomba became more popular than Bissell.
And, just like last year, many people have a combination of both an upright vacuum, like a Dyson, and a robot vacuum, like the Roomba.
Read more about the best vacuums for Golden Retriever hair here.
Raising Your Golden Retriever
These next few questions have to do with raising and caring for your Golden.
Pet Insurance For Golden Retrievers
Vets aren’t cheap, but is it worth it to get pet insurance?
Here’s what the data says:
32% of Golden Retriever parents do have pet insurance, while 68% of Golden Retriever parents do not have pet insurance.
Of those that do have pet insurance, here’s are the top 5 companies they use:
- Nationwide (16%)
- Pets Best (12%)
- Trupanion (12%)
- Embrace (10%)
- Petplan (10%)
Doggy Daycare For Golden Retriever Owners
It’s tough raising a dog and going into the office.
One way to make this easier is to take your Golden to doggy daycare.
But how many Golden Retriever parents actually do this?
Here’s what the data says:
17.4% of Golden Retriever parents take their dog to doggy daycare, while 82.6% don’t.
This next question is an alternative to doggy daycare.
Dog Walking Services For Golden Retriever Owners
If you don’t want to take your dog to daycare, you can always have someone come to your home to walk your pup.
But how many Golden Retriever parents actually use dog walkers?
Here’s what the data says:
9.1% of Golden Retriever parents use a dog walker, while 90.9% don’t.
I’m surprised that more people use doggy daycares than dog walkers.
Are you surprised?
Online Dog Training Course For Your Golden Retriever
The world is still a little weird with meeting people in person, but one of the most important things you can do for your Golden is train them.
But instead of hiring a dog trainer in person, these days you have the option to get an online dog training course.
Here’s how many Golden Retriever owners have purchased an online dog training course:
10.8% of Golden Retriever owners have purchased an online dog training course.
This up about 30% from last year where only 8.3% of Golden Retriever owners had purchased an online course.
And one thing we didn’t include in the survey this year, but did include last year, was the question, “Did you find the course helpful?”
91.5% of people said they did find online courses helpful, so if you need to train your dog but don’t want or can’t afford to hire a trainer, an online dog training course might be a good choice for you.
Neutering or Spaying Your Golden Retriever
Here’s how many owners of Golden Retrievers over 1-year-old have spayed or neutered their pup:
78% of Golden Retriever owners have spayed or neutered their dog.
A few things to keep in mind here:
First, this data includes Golden Retrievers that are one year old.
Some vets recommend waiting until your dog is a year and a half or older, so that could have skewed the data.
Second, keep in mind that the majority of people who filled out this survey are from America and the practice of spaying or neutering your dog varies around the world.
Finally, this is something you definitely want to talk to your vet about before you make a decision.
You can read more about spaying or neutering your Golden Retriever here.
Fun Facts About Golden Retrievers
This next section shares some fun facts about Golden Retrievers from your fellow Golden parents.
Most Popular Golden Retriever Names Of 2022
Here are the 20 most popular Golden Retriever names this year:
- Leo
- Daisy
- Bella/Belle
- Cooper
- Murphy
- Willow
- Chloe
- Lucy
- Maggie
- Sunny
- Teddy
- Tucker
- Ben/Benni/Benjamin
- Charlie/Charley
- Sadie
- Rosie/Rose
- Bailey
- Millie
- George
- Harper
Big changes this year! Tucker was the most popular name by far last year, while Leo was only #16.
How Many Dogs Golden Retriever Owners Currently Have
Here’s how many dogs people have right now:
1 dog: 67.1%
2 dogs: 25.3%
3 dogs: 6.1%
4 dogs: 1.5%
5 or more dogs: 0.17%
The percentage of people with 1 dog went down a little bit this past year, while the percentage of people with 2 or 3 dogs went slightly up.
Where Golden Retriever Owners Got Their Golden
Here is where people who participated in this survey got their Goldens:
Beeder: 85.3%
Rescue: 8.3%
Other: 6.4%
The percentage of people who got their Golden from a breeder went slightly down, while the percentage of people who rescued their Golden went slightly up.
How Much Golden Retriever Owners Paid For Their Golden Retriever
With all this talk about inflation and Golden Retrievers becoming so popular, I wanted to know how the price of Golden Retrievers has changed this past year.
Here’s how much people paid for their Golden Retrievers they got from a breeder:
$0 – $999: 24.3%
$1,000 – $1,999: 35.7%
$2,000 – $2,999: 29.6%
$3,000 – $3,999: 8.4%
$4,000 or more: 1.8%
The percentage of people who paid $0 – $1,999 decreased by 12.5% over the past year, while the percentage of people who paid $2,000 – $3,999 increased by 26.2%.
To sum it up, people are paying more for Golden Retrievers.
You can see last year’s numbers here.
Golden Retriever Owners’ Favorite Thing About Golden Retrievers
There’s a lot to love about Goldens, but what do people love the most?
Here are the top 10 qualities people love about Golden Retrievers:
- Their personality
- They’re loving
- They’re loyal
- They’re sweet
- They’re friendly
- Their temperment
- Their happiness
- Everything!
- They’re gentle
- They’re cute
Brb, going to go give my Golden a big hug!
Golden Retriever Age
Here’s how old the Golden Retrievers are whose parents participated in this survey:
Less than 1 year: 31.9%
1-4 years: 41.2%
5-9 years: 17.2%
10 years old or older: 9.7%
Always good to see those Goldens over 10 🙂
2023 Golden Retriever Owner’s Report
Hope you enjoyed this year’s survey results!
Have any questions about the results?
What questions do you want us to ask next year?
Let us know down in the comments!
You can see last year’s results here:
And a big thank you to those who participated!
Related articles:
Love this! Can’t wait for all the great information!
Thank you! Coming soon!
Milo keeps us laughing all the time. He is a good boy
He sounds great!
Keep up the great work
Thanks for your tips.
You’re welcome!
Gracie is our 3rd Golden we will only get golden females because of their smarts and love. We will spayed her when she is a year old
Thanks for sharing John!