I have a 7 yr old golden retriever, a 5 yr old cockapoo and a 15 mth golden retriever. The 2 youngest are very obedient but the 7 yr old, Mollie, is a problem. She is an extremely laidback, gentle, tolerant dog who loves people, especially children, but is not really interested in other dogs when we are out. In the house, she steps back from her food or a dropped treat if one of the other 2 want it and basically doesn’t assert herself. If I call the dogs in from the garden, the youngest ones come in straight away, but Mollie seems to take time to decide whether or not to obey and frequently doesn’t. On walks she often lags behind if she finds something interesting to sniff and won’t come until she is ready and she completely ignores me if she sees a child or people. However, she has recently stated to run off. As an example, today I locked myself out whilst in the front garden with the dogs, having no phone or leads. So, I held Mollie’s collar and walked round to the back of the house to the back gate, with the other 2 following me off lead. When we got there I briefly let go of her collar and you could see her weighing up whether to sit and wait like the other 2 or to take off and the latter won. I have noticed this weighing up whether to obey a lot recently. There is clearly something going on in her mind but I am at a loss to know what it is. I make a point of always giving her treat if she comes when called when out to encourage her to obey but it doesn’t seem to make any difference. I would add that nearly everyone I meet on our walks loves her and many have said they would like to take her home. Does anyone any idea as to what the problem is and how to deal with it?

How much training/play do you do with her just one-to-one?
It sounds as though she's not interested in you.

As much as with the other two!  I have had a very stressful and worrying day. I had to drop my cockapoo over the fence, then at 70 years old, had to climb over a 5 ft fence to gain access to the house, all the time feeling frantic knowing that Mollie could be anywhere! The last thing I needed to be told was that she doesn't like me!

Have you had her examined by your vet for hearing impairment & cognative tests if this is a new behaviour?

I call it growing old disgracefully lol
In all seriousness I would get her hearing checked out and make sure she has a clean bill of health. I would walk her alone on a long line and depending on what's she's interested on be it food or a toy go back to basics and work on her recall again that's providing health check comes back clean. No off lead walks unless its fenced in and she can't get out

I'd get her checked out just to make sure she's healthy, as medical stuff can do weird things to behaviour.

Then I'd look at how you're rewarding her for complying; what you use, and how it's delivered.  It may just not be rewarding enough for her to build enough of a reinforcement history for general obedience to be habitual.

She is definitely not deaf and perfectly healthy, in fact she has never needed the vet other than jabs and has 2 health checkups a year. Her recall when out does need improving although she never runs off, just disobeys me if she sees a child and lags behind a bit. She very rarely runs on a walk and is content to trot along, stopping occasionally for a sniff but occasionally she will head for somewhere where she has previously found food and will ignore me. My worry is why she occasionally runs away from the house. Sometimes she will walk straight from the car to the door but occasionally she will run off. She has also done this a few times returning to the car after a long walk but I have solved both of these by putting her on a lead.
I am wondering whether it has anything to do with my 15 month retriever. She is very full of herself and a much stronger personality and Mollie is very passive and gentle. Mollie has always been very good and tolerant with puppies and if Susie (my other retriever) wants anything she has, she just walks away and lets her have it be it her dinner, a treat or a bone. She has only once growled which was when a dog was taunting the cockapoo when she was a puppy.  Basically she is a very laid back, tolerant, passive dog who won't even defend herself. I always feed her first and ditto with treats to emphasise her being 'top dog'. Is she running off to assert herself in the only way she can or to get attention? When I find her, after she runs off she will sometimes look at me and keep going and at other times she comes when I call her with no sign of remorse or anxiety at being out on her own. I don't understand why she does this and why only now and again. As a puppy she was the calmest retriever I had ever had, with very little chewing or the usual boisterous behaviour of puppies. She isn't interested in other dogs, only people and children. I am concerned that she may not be totally happy and to be frank am at a loss to understand why.

That's how I excersise my dogs, as their hunting instincts means they will range ahead, which can rarely be safely accommodated.

With the DDA and so many nervous/aggressive dogs and owners, there is low tollerance for dogs that don't trot at heel, do not have instant recall or go willfully selectively deaf.

I have to do the same .Brooke isn't reliable with other dogs and her recall can be  what was it chamsung said ... flexible lol
Cant risk that so long line or we are booking a secure field for off lead safe runs

I had a retriever who had a patchy recall and would often think about it before shrugging and vanishing off across the fields. She spent an awful lot of life on a flexi lead as she couldn’t be trusted especially if we were somewhere that had deer. She would chase until exhausted then realise she was lost, it just wasn’t worth the risk. Training seemed to go in one ear and out the other.
I got chatting to a GR breeder and she pointed to one of her dogs and told me how she couldn’t be trusted off lead much as she ignored recalls. Her other dogs were very well trained and had superb recalls. I told her about my dog being the same and we swapped notes and realised the dogs were both from the same breeder and quite closely related. Makes you wonder if there was some kind of weird genetic element. It’s the only golden I’ve had behave in this way, all the others have been more worried about losing us then to run off

How strange . Can just see them.looking for that gene to test for.

Ok, a couple of thoughts.

Firstly, you can't "emphasise her being top dog": we don't get to decide that, if indeed there's a hierarchy at all.  Often there isn't, between dogs.  So feeding order doesn't make much different unless a particular dog gets anxious about being fed first or last.

Running off is unlikely to be a way of "asserting herself" but it may well be a way to get your attention, depending on how you react: if you only spring to life when she runs off, to try and get her back, then absolutely!  So you could try increasing rewards and attention when she's nearby.  Reward her for not running off in the first place (i.e. hanging around with you).  It sounds more like running off and doing her own thing is just more reinforcing to her than coming back to you though, rather than it being attention-seeking, but my advice would be the same thing.  Reward more for hanging around with you, to make that more reinforcing, not only when she comes back from running off.

And to be honest, I would still query whether there's something underlying, because her behaviour is unusual for a GR.  Only trotting stands out to me too.  Even regular health check ups can easily miss stuff (I see it all the time through behaviour cases, because they aren't typically investigatory - it's listening to the heart, checking eyes/ears/teeth, and not much more), unless you specifically ask for joint manipulation and spinal check, or ask for other investigations such as bloods or looking into gut function.  Gut discomfort affecting behaviour is a very common issue that gets missed very often, and in many cases, the only symptom is behavioural.  I would wonder if she's always been in a degree of mild discomfort, potentially from birth.

Your younger dog could be a factor yes, but that wouldn't change my approach tbh - consider medical possibilities and reward for staying nearby.

Thank you for your reply which was very helpful. I have been making an effort to give her more attention at home and am thinking of using more tasty treats like sausage or cheese when we are out rather than commercial ones. Mollie is definitely very different to my other retrievers and I must say that I haven't considered a health reason. She does occasionally run but very rarely. As I have said she is an extremely tolerant, gentle and passive dog, more so than all retrievers I have previously had or known. I do wonder whether she would have preferred being the only dog but it is as it is so I have to deal with it. I am taking Susie (my other retriever) to the vet in a few weeks and will ask him about Mollie who he knows very well. If necessary I will ask him to give her a comprehensive overhaul to ensure that there is nothing underlying.aazz 00q