​498 Golden Retrievers Gather In Antwerp To Set World Record

Hundreds of Golden Retrievers gathered in Antwerp this weekend to set one of the best world records we've ever seen.

At least 498 doggos came together in the Belgian city to set the unique world record, with footage from the meet-up on Sunday 2 June showing them all having a bloody wonderful time.

"Today we just broke the world record of Golden Retrievers meeting," an event organiser said.

"It was actually not really our intention nor our goal, we just wanted to spend a beautiful day with other Golden Retriever lovers.

"The last record was 361, and now we have 498."

The man also explained his Golden Retriever ended up meeting his parents at the event.

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The animals and their owners managed to break the world record for the 'number of Golden Retrievers in one place', following last year's mass gathering of 361 dogs in Scotland.

The event last July took place at Guisachan House, the ancestral home of the Golden Retriever.

But while the dogs from the Scotland event have now had their record smashed, it still sounds like they all had fun on the day.

Ashleigh Baird, who was there with her dog Chewbacca and his best pal Buddy, told LADbible: "It was a fantastic day, lovely to see all the Goldens playing and having fun together.

"We were so surprised that people had travelled from all over the world to be there, but that made it all the more special."

She added: "We tried to pet and cuddle all 361 goldens and it was heaven."

The Golden Retriever breed comes from the crossing of a wavy haired retriever with a golden spaniel at Guisachan House in 1868.

According to the Friends of Guisachan House website, Nous, a Wavy-Coated Retriever, and Belle, a Tweed Water Spaniel were bred together by Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks - later known as Lord Tweedmouth.

"From that breeding he kept two yellow females, Primrose and Cowslip and gave one male, Crocus, to his son, Edward Marjoribanks," the site explains.

"For many decades it was thought that there was a fourth puppy, Ada, but that was subsequently determined to be erroneous. Ada was from a second mating of Nous and Belle and was given to Lord Tweedmouth's nephew, the 5th Lord Ilchester, beginning the famous Ilchester line of retrievers.

"Thus it was the offspring of Nous and Belle that became the foundation of the breed subsequently known as, and now universally loved as, the Golden Retriever."

Topics: News, Animals, Dogs

Jess Hardiman

Jess is a journalist at LADbible who graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics - indecisiveness at its finest, right there. She also works for FOODbible and its sister page Seitanists, which are both a safe haven for her to channel a love for homemade pasta, fennel and everything else in between. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

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