Anyone ever own a Golden Retriever???

We just got a retriever puppy this summer, he is 6 months old now and he's been house broke for almost two months, they learn anything you want to teach them real fast, my daughter has him ringing some bells hanging on the back door when he needs to go out, we've also got him doing all kinds of tricks already.

The hip troubles are common in most large dogs, if you pamper them and make sure they have soft warm places to lay, they usually don't have much troubles with their hips. We had a St. Bernard which is notorious for having hip troubles and only have a life expectancy of 8 years but ours made it to 12 and only started having hip troubles for the last 6 months or so. The vet said it's because he was a house dog and always had a good place to sleep, unlike most large dogs that end up staying outside or sleeping on the cold garage floor.