As if we needed another reason to love Goldies.
It turns out Golden Retrievers have a special talent that those of us without animal expertise might not have known about. Get this: Golden Retrievers are so sweet and gentle, they can balance a whole, uncooked egg in their mouth without breaking it. (We’re not exactly sure when this highly specific skill would come in handy, but we’re into it regardless!)
my aunt read online that a golden retriever’s mouth is so gentle they can hold an egg in their mouth without cracking it so she tried it on her dog and well pic.twitter.com/6SDyUI3v4j
— hales (@haIeybowers) February 4, 2018
It all started on February 4th, when twitter user @laurdreyfuss shared a video of her aunt gently opening the jaws of her dog Sookie, placing a whole egg in the dog’s mouth and securing it closed. Sookie definitely looked a little confused, but the egg never dropped or cracked. One of the sweetest moments in the video is when Sookie lowers her head and lets the egg roll out of her mouth onto the floor in front of her – completely intact! (Though maybe a little damp with dog drool, but we’ll forgive it.)
The video went viral, and led other Golden Retriever owners – as well as owners of some other breeds – to test if they could get their dogs to do the same thing. Thus, the “Golden Retriever Egg Challenge” was born. Results were mixed, but Golden Retrievers definitely did the best of all the breeds.
Cabot tried the golden retriever egg challenge. Turns out he is a very good boy, except the part where he brought it right to the carpet. #eggchallenge #goldenretriever pic.twitter.com/cwYE6f8co3
— Ally Perleoni (@allyperl) February 6, 2018
Tried out the Golden Retriever egg challenge with Missy tonight. She was successful and remains a very good girl pic.twitter.com/inRC37V6SN
— Brendan Mulligan (@mullaby) February 6, 2018
A little research reveals that Golden Retrievers are a breed with “soft mouths“, meaning they can pick up and carry delicate objects very gently. Apparently, this is a callback to when retrievers were used as hunting companions, and were expected to bring back game with minimal damage. Other breeds, like terriers, tend to shake whatever ends up in their mouth, a quality leftover from when they were used to hunt and kill pests.
Naturally, not all of the videos went as smoothly as the original:
Don’t try the golden retriever challenge with a Shepard 😂🤦🏽♀️ pic.twitter.com/6OC2AwSaXN
— Lyndsay reeves (@ReevesLyndsay) February 5, 2018
Some twitter users worried the challenge may be dangerous or cruel to the animals, but @laurdreyfuss assured them Sookie’s owner is a pet technician and would never hurt her dog, tweeting out: “For the HUNDREDTH TIME, [Sookie] was confused lol. My aunt is a veterinary technician and her and her husband would never cause harm to their animals. she is very, very well taken care of.”
Whether the dogs were able to hold the egg securely or not, they all tried their best and that makes them all good dogs in our books.
