Golden Retriever Beau Picks the Alligator on His First Birthday

"POV: it's your puppy's first birthday," reads the text over the clip. The hallway floor is set out like a stall: five stuffed toys, each tied to a balloon, including a mint-blue plush, a red dinosaur, a cream toy in a party hat, a grey one with floppy ears and a small green alligator.

Beau, a golden retriever, comes down the hall with a ball already in his mouth. He noses along the row, then trots off with the alligator.

"I think he liked the alligator 🥹🥹🥹," his family wrote on @goldendayswithbeau, where the account goes by "Beau the Golden Retriever." The reel went up on October 15. When we checked, it had about 3,000 likes and 83 comments, nearly all of them birthday wishes. "Happy birthday hopefully you got lots treats toys and belly rubs," one wrote.

Built to carry things

Arriving with one toy and leaving with another is very on-brand for the breed. The American Kennel Club describes the Golden as a Scottish gundog. The breed was developed in the Highlands in the 19th century by Lord Tweedmouth, who wanted a hunting retriever suited to the area's rainy weather and rugged terrain. Goldens still work in hunting and field trials, as guide dogs and in search and rescue. The AKC gives the breed its top score for trainability, and notes that the first three dogs of any breed to earn its Obedience Champion title were all Golden Retrievers.

Beau's job that morning was easier: pick one, carry it off.

Borrowing the idea

The setup is easy to copy if you can never guess which toy your dog will actually play with. Put a few out, let your dog choose, and keep the rest for another day. We only had this one clip from Beau's family to go on. The account doesn't have a YouTube channel we could find, and Beau's TikTok wasn't viewable for us, so we can't say how the alligator has held up since.