It is funny that folk mention dolphins - my wife figured out how to get the dog to fetch the paper after we saw a dolphin show at the local paper. And that guy who wrote those “Bedlam Farm” books talks about dogs having to “work” for everything.
I think I’m just missing the golden nature, and how easy they were to train a dog to act the way I like a dog to act. I fear I am likely too lazy to want to put in the effort to learn a new way of training for this dog. So he’ll end up being a pretty good dog, but not what I’ve so enjoyed in my past goldens.