I have a rescue that I got when he was about 3 years old. I work full time and live alone. He is alone from 7 to 4:30 every week day and he does just fine. We go for lots of walks and I take him to the park nearly every day. He is pretty low energy and content to lay around with a bone. For your living/work situation I would recommend an older dog who doesn’t require a ton of exercise. Even if the dog is alone most of the day, it’s still a better life than being at the pound!
No fence and no dog walker, plus you have a garage?
Are you proposing to put the dogs in the garage all day while you are at work?
No way is any shelter or breed rescue actually going to issue you a dog under these circumstances.
There are older dogs than 1 and 3 available through either breed rescue or the pound. A bonus is that a senior rescue—Weim Rescue counts dogs over 7 years old as ‘senior’—will cost less to adopt from the agency. (Though you might end up paying that savings back in increased vet bills.) They’re also lower energy than a 1-3 year old dog. Mine started to really slow down when she got to be 7. You still have to exercise them every day, but it doesn’t have to be for quite as long.
I am far from an expert, but I do not recommend the invisible fence for Sporting Group breeds like a Golden. Perhaps it depends on the level of prey drive your dog has? I could see the higher functions in my Weim’s brain switch off when she detected a squirrel (or cat, or Shih Tzu, you get the idea.) Sure, the shock collar’ll hurt, but not until they’ve already dashed across the road to get at the prey. And then they’re flailing around trying to figure out what they did wrong. Others may have more beneficial experiences with it. Shock collars are used in high-end retriever training, so it works for a lot of Sporting breeds.
I lived in an apartment, i.e., no yard, with my dog for the last 9 years of her life. She didn’t seem to mind. Again, I did something every day with the dog, usually for hours at a time. She was an inside dog, and practically constantly underfoot. I had a crate, it didn’t work for her, but other people have raved about theirs. Plus, I did use it successfully for the Lab. I have read of breed rescue groups getting irritable if you don’t have a house with a fenced yard though. Some insist on visits to your home before letting you adopt. For the first four years of her life, she lived with a same-aged Labrador. They got along.
Cliffs: The rescue group might refuse to adopt to you, but I personally don’t see a problem with the situation of you having a dog, provided you crate train it, don’t leave it in the crate for longer than 8 hours, and exercise the dog every day. Even without a fence. Even without a yard.
It got to be a pain in the ass after awhile, accommodating your life and the dog’s needs, but I found it more than worthwhile.
No yard and no fence is one thing. Thinking that leaving the dogs in the garage all day instead to keep them from trashing your house is quite another.
I definitely agree that a dog does not require a yard per se, but with no one walking it and it being left alone for so long, it had better already be completely housebroken by the time you get it.
Really, I think you’d be wise not to get dog(s) unless your schedule, finances, or household change a good bit. Living next to a major street, I wouldn’t trust an invisible fence for any type of dog, but especially a sporting dog like a retriever, Weimeraner, or such. If a dog walker or sitter is out, and you have no safe way to give them unsupervised outdoor access, what happens if you’re held up at work for some reason? What happens if you have the flu and can’t drag yourself out of bed for walkies?
I love dogs, a lot. I’ve rescued and loved and trained and fostered many dogs, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed their companionship. But they’re always far more work, expense, and trouble than what you envision when your first spot that drooly face and wagging tail that you’re gonna fall in love with. Too many people love the idea of a dog far more than the experience of a dog.
Not my first choice, no. But many dogs around here do a lot worse. Many spend there lives in cages in the back yard and never get out for walks. Running around in a garage that may actually be more square footage than my house doesn’t sound that bad. Again, just a thought. The idea of a “Doggy Den” seemed kind of kool.
Your dogs aren’t going to run around in a garage. They’re going to sleep, or maybe chew on something you give them to chew on (which you have to be careful about - don’t leave them with anything that’s not indestructable). When something happens that they can hear but not see, they’re going to bark and be anxious.
But they’re not going to have anything to look at or even new stuff to smell, so they’re not going to be doing much of anything but sleeping and barking and being anxious. And either hot or cold, depending on the day.
Maybe a couple little terriers would amuse themselves playing with a ball or something but I can’t for the life of me imagine a golden retriever romping around a garage on its own.
Brushing is only half of it with a Golden. Not only do they shed, but their fur constantly grows out. A Golden will need a trip to the groomer for a trim probably every six weeks or so or else they could become matted. At about $85 a grooming session, that can add up pretty quickly. You might want to consider a Labrador. They shed and need brushed, but you can skip having their fur trimmed.
Dogs are a lot of work.
Firefox ate my previous response, but don’t get a dog unless you are prepared to let the dog know that you depend on him as much as he depends on you. Work 10 hours a day? Not a problem if you are there for him the other 14. That means taking him on walks (even if he is a she). Walks are important. Get to the point where you can let him go without a leash and he will come back when you call, and you have a good one. If you can’t figure out how to do this on your own, find a trainer to help you. It just takes working with the animal. Yes, it’s work, but a loyal dog is worth the work. A year or so of work, and the rest of the animal’s life is anything but work.
As long as you work with the dog, it will admire you. You treat the dog as property or a chore to be dealt with, and you, and the dog, will be better off not getting one.
ETA: I agree with cochrane get a lab or a lab/golden mix. They will shed just as much, but the lab won’t mat.
Too late for additional edit.
If you get a retriever, you will have to teach it to swim. They come programmed to love water, but they don’t know how to swim. Teach the dog to fetch first, then fetch in water, increasing the depth. Some consider retrievers to be stupid, but they aren’t. They do have to be taught how to swim, though (hey, even humans, the smartest animal on the planet, according to some, have to be taught how to swim). I’ve seen local vet students try to teach lab puppies to swim by throwing them in a lake. Bad idea. You can’t teach a scared animal anything. They love water, but freak out when they are over their head. It isn’t until they learn to dog-paddle without taking their front paws out of the water that they are comfortable in deep water. They love it (they have webbed feet, after all), but you have to teach them.
The other side of that coin is that, if you teach them, they will trust you. The trust of a loyal dog is something you can’t buy.
Most rescue places are not going to put a dog in the circumstances you describe. I think that should be a clue.
That is surprising. My Lab did know right off the bat how to swim, though the Weim was exactly as you describe. Although, when the Weim figured it out (after she got tired and her body went more parallel with the water) she crushed the Lab at swimming. I thought Labs came out of the womb knowing how to swim. Guess not.
While I agree that spending 8 hours a day in a garage is not worse than being killed at a shelter, coming home from work every day to clean up dog excrement is pretty unpleasant, the dogs won’t become housebroken, and the smell will literally seep into the concrete. Your garage will soon become stinky and nasty, making trapping them in the garage worse and worse. The garage stink will be all over the dogs and you won’t want to bring them into the house without bathing them, so they will end up spending more and more time in the garage. Every time you open the garage, the filthy uncivilized beasts will leap upon you with joy at the sight of their human and a wall of stink will smack you in the face.
Try for a dog that has been fostered, so you can get an accurate report of whether it is housebroken or destructive. A shelter dog kept in a cage reported as “housebroken” might be, but they have to be basing this assertion on the previous owner’s claim.
My experience is that mammals that are buoyant enough swim instinctively. Horses instinctively paddle, as do cats. If retrievers who are bred to work the waters edge have lost the instinct to paddle, something’s gone far wrong with the breed.
Yeahwut? My golden didn’t have to be taught anything, she just took off on her own. She refuses to jump in to water - maybe that’s something you have to teach? But if she’s in a pool with steps or a lake with a shore, it’s bye bye doggy.
We go to the beach every week and there’s always dogs who are there for the first time. Dogs of all shapes and sizes and breeds are swimming around, without anyone helping (no human swimming at the doggy beach!) They either are scared of getting wet, or they are swimming. No teaching.
Golden Retrievers?
You must be running for office… 
Be sure to name one Scout and have them wear bandanas.
I have owned several long-haired dogs and I have no idea what you are talking about here. Their hair will ‘constantly grow out’? This isn’t really the case - Golden’s do have thick and semi-long hair, but it also sheds continuously and does not grow to extra-long lengths like a Poodle or Maltese, etc. Taking them to the groomer is not necessary. Regular brushing (once or twice weekly) will prevent tangles and mats. Trimming them down to keep them cool in the summer is optional and can be easily done at home.
That has not been my experience owning Goldens. Mine have always needed a trip to the groomer every 8 weeks on the outside. YMMV, of course.
For what, though? Did you brush them at all inbetween visits?
The way Goldens shed, it’s an all-day task brushing such a large dog. I preferred to have a professional do it and save my effort. I don’t have Goldens anymore. I have a Lab who has never been to a groomer in eight years and he and I are perfectly happy.