Comment by kstrauser | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kstrauser | Hacker News Reader

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One day I was getting out of my car to carry groceries into my house. Our nice neighbor was passing on the sidewalk at that moment, saw the EFF hat I was wearing, and asked me about it. "Do you work for the EFF?" "No, but I throw some money at them when I can because I like them." "Oh. I like them, too. They helped me out a lot once." "Oh yeah? For what?" He laughed. "I'm Mark Klein. Go Google me when you're finished with your groceries." I knew his story from following it in the news, but didn't recognize his name. I about spit my teeth out when I found out who I was living next to.

Super nice guy. Has the only two golden retrievers I've ever been frightened of, and if I were him, I'd probably have some assertive watchdogs, too.

Cool story.

Off topic question... Do golden retrievers have a mean side to them? I’ve always liked them and I dont like scary dogs in general

I don't know if they were actually mean, or just trained to be noisy and act like they were. Either way, I know they'd raise holy hell at the window whenever I walked past it. They might've been thinking "hey Dad, it's so fun to bark at people! Look at how big I'm smiling!" for all I know.

They'll get that hair on you, and you'll never get it off of yourself. Better to leave them well alone.

Not normally, but temperament depends on a lot of things. I've read that socialization and temperament of the dog's parents are important.

Wait, socialization of the parents via some epigenetic effect? Fascinating.

Or more likely because very young dogs would grow some basic traits of character while influenced by the behavior that their parents exhibit in front of them.

For some reason, I assumed that the animals were not brought up with their parents.

Puppies are supposed to be separated from their parents no earlier than about 6-8 weeks old. Critical socialization time is the first 3 months of their life. (Or so. These numbers vary by region and amount of caring; I'd rather have the puppies spend more time with the mom than less.)

Interesting. TIL

Are you trying to point out the missing Oxford comma?

Haha no, did I misunderstand because of the absence of a comma?

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