Hi.  We have a six month old Golden Retriever male puppy  who, on the whole, is pretty well behaved.  He has a blanket and loads of toys - raggers, squeakies, chews - and has (so far) left the furniture, cables etc alone.  He will sit, stay for very short periods, and all in all is an absolutely gorgeous dog.  He's okay on his short walks but he's a very friendly dog and when he sees a neighbour whom he really really likes, there's no stopping him and he pulls and pulls until he's there.  Never aggressive and he seems to know who is a dog person.  He doesn't get anywhere near as excited when its a stranger.  I'm assuming this is normal puppy behaviour??? The other query is he appears to be a "digger".  If there is a bare patch of earth in the garden he's in it.  We have three raised vegetable beds and where the veggies have come out, he's digging to Australia.  Again, is this normal retriever behaviour (or dog behaviour), is it puppy behaviour, is it something he'll grow out of or do we concrete the garden (joke!).  Would be very grateful for advice - we'd like to know whether its worth doing the veggies etc or put in bushes!  Many thanks.

Aww he sounds like a very well mannered lil boy and well trained too, youve done really well there hun! :) :)

The digging is a doggy thing lol not a puppy or breed thing, some dogs are born diggers like our Turbo loves to dig and rip up our newly grown lawn lol but Mitz dont care and never really dug up anything her life!
He sounds like a very well mannered and well adjusted pup and I dont think you need any advice apart from a congratulations and carry on with what your doing as hes doing really well on your training and you sound like your happy too which is great!!
Also love how he is judging and learning about people, who he cant and who he can say hello too, bless him he sounds like a real champ dog!

All puppies grow out of some behaviours but wouldnt hold hope about the digging lol :)
We just accepted that we wouldnt have a lawn as its so much fun to watch them run round I wouldnt want to stop garden play for the sake of a bit of grass which they wee on anyway lol, it even says in our breeds book (SBT) if you like a neatly preened garden dont get a terrier and evn tho hes a lab the same is applied when their young lol If you wanted to stop him you can train him not too, but wheres the fun in that when the garden is their play area, but thats just me! lol
Dog are so much fun when their puppies and your lad sounds like a brilliant puppy!!! :)

is it something he'll grow out of or do we concrete the garden (joke!). 

:-D :-D My advice concrete the garden. :-)

GR's are renowned diggers, as Rach85 states it is a dog thing, but GR's are especially good at it, and may not grow out of it for a few years if ever, what many GR owners do is section off a piece of garden and more importantly distract him from this behaviour, if he starts digging call him over to play or have training games and when unsupervised section him into a piece of the garden that he can not dig, I really would suggest pathing or decking a large section for him to be in when you can not watch him.

The pulling towards people, dogs etc, is normal puppy behaviour for most breeds, (which he almost certainly will grow out of :-) ) you may be better getting him a long line for the next few months as his inquisitive button will be pressed right down and there will be no stopping him, if you have a nice big boned male he will be quite strong and can easily hurt someone in his excited state of meet and greet, so make sure that you are very vigilant and can hold him, his recall may well go array at this time too, so again the long training line will suffice in keeping him and everyone around him safe.

GR's are beautiful dogs and when fully mature are a pleasure, as adolescents they are full on and need a good strong will and lots of patience, so classes would be a great asset for you both too.

I have a GR, now 3 years of age, and he is a digger :) As a pup he dug all over the garden and also pruned all our shrubs down to ground level. He then stopped digging for a while and left the shrubs alone. Just recently he has started digging again but he is only allowed to do so in one area of the garden - although he does have a sneaky dig on the lawn at times. We have divided our garden into two now - one half is a dog area where they can dig and run around, the other half is by invitation only and digging, swimming in the ponds, mad running circuits and plant anhialation is not allowed :)
That way we get the best of both worlds - we can enjoy our civilised part of the garden and the dogs get to enjoy the other half without having to be constantly supervised on their way to Australia :)

> We have divided our garden into two now - one half is a dog area where they can dig and run around, the other half is by invitation only and digging, swimming in the ponds, mad running circuits and plant anhialation is not allowed :)
>

This is what I always suggest to new puppy buyers, ti really makes for much happier co-existence, and makes life a lot less stressful.

Thank you everybody for the advice.  He already has a concrete area which is very strongly fenced off beside the house right outside the kitchen door so he can get in and out without going into the actual garden.  We will have to be more vigilant in the main bit and give him a bit to actually be able to dig in.  He is also a pretty good pruner - old fashioned pinks are his favourite ...

Whilst we were on holiday my OH found a book in the charity shop for 50p (!);  Ain't Misbehavin' by David Appleby. I'm part way though and it seems to include a lot of good common sense ideas. 

He suggests the best way of getting your dog to avoid digging where you do not want it to is to give it a place where it can dig: the canine equivalent of a sand pit.  To do this, dig out an area of garden to a depth of one or two feet and fill it with sand, loose soil or soil mixed with sand.  Mark the boundary of this area, with logs for example.  If you bury toys and any bones or chews you buy your dog in this pit, your dog can have have great fun digging them up again.  This shouls satisfy it's need for digging.  However, do not give your dog a place to dig if it doesn't have a digging problem.  You may otherwise develop a behaviour you don't want.

If you have observant neighbours I wonder what they will make of you creating a pit and burying bones?!!