Overbreeding Of Golden Retrievers, Other Lines Producing Vicious Dogs

The gentle golden retriever, legendary as the contented and good-humored companion of the affluent and the comfortable, is producing some vicious little pups these days.

"Some (breeders) are breeding daughters back to fathers, sons to mothers," Robin Adams said, "and what you've got is a genetic Molotov cocktail."

Overbreeding is the explosive.

The result is that an increasing number of goldens are mean, biting and are even turning up with misshapen bodies and weakened internal organs.

Adams, who lives near Reading, Pa., and heads the Delaware Valley Golden Retriever Rescue group, has seen the saddening outcome.

One misbred golden, for which she could not find a home earlier this year, "was so vicious that we had him at arm's length to get him to the vet," Adams said. "Then we had to put a muzzle on before we could euthanize him."

Animal advocates in other cities across the nation say they are seeing the same problems. Golden retrievers, they say, are just the latest of breeds to suffer because their popularity has led to overbreeding.

In East Coventry, Pa., animal behaviorist Susan Bulanda has seen similar problems with Labrador retrievers, the American Kennel Club's most popular breed in 1992.

"The thing that has been most alarming to me," Bulanda said, "is the increased aggression in certain popular breeds."

"When they become popular," Bulanda said, that's when "you have a lot of bad breeding taking place."

In the 1970s, some St. Bernards were overbred and became unmanageable, said William E. Campbell, while recently Lhasa apsos in Los Angeles have become scary "because the thresholds for defensive biting were lowered significantly - by breeders."

Overbreeding is "an international problem," said John C. Wright of Macon, Ga., certification coordinator for the Animal Behavior Society, a 33,000-member international group.

"Any time you have a breed that for any reason has become popular," he said, "free enterprise is going to take place. . . . Unfortunately, there are breeders who are not responsible out there. And they will overbreed."