Voices: I love all dogs – but I just can’t get on board with Britain’s favourite breed
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As docile and biddable as these blondes may be, they are no match for my unruly rescue pooches, writes Kate Spicer. And what’s worse is that our raging retriever addiction could lead to unscrupulous breeders cashing in. What do Tom Cruise, Martha Stewart, Monty Don, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jackie Chan and Ronald Reagan have in common? None of them can resist a certain type of blonde... dog, that is. I am, of course, talking about golden retrievers: those biddable beasts with big brown eyes and silky, honey-coloured fur.
But it isn’t just celebs who are total suckers for their charms. According to YouGov’s ratings collection, golden retrievers are the most beloved dog breed in the UK – with 78 per cent of all British people stating so. And if you’re Generation X, like me, that figure rises even higher. (Must be all those good girls sat at the feet of Blue Peter presenters throughout the eighties and nineties; we had it drilled into us.) Forget vaping madness – the country is in the grip of a raging retriever addiction.
Except, for once, me. While I love all dogs, no matter how hard the yappy little ones, the ugly ones and the neurotic lockdown cockapoos might make it, I’m afraid retrievers just don’t do it for me. They are the wholesome Instagram surrendered wife of pets. I want a dog with spirit – not a docile Muppet.
I get the appeal – oh boy, do I. When I visit my brother’s family, I look upon his dear golden good girl with envy as my two unruly, hard-to-train, and insatiable rescue bitches climb on the roof, steal Christmas dinner off the carving board and hurtle after cats – but not before rolling in fox excrement. In fact, I come home frequently to pressure hose three types of s*** off my Spanish podencos.
