Excited Golden Retriever Welcomes Guests to His Birthday Party and It's Cuteness Overload

Lately, it seems that more and more people are celebrating their dogs' birthdays, and I am totally for it. If we celebrate our own birthdays and our human children's birthdays, why not also celebrate another year of our pups getting older, too? They might not fully understand the concept, but they will absolutely feel all the love and excitement that comes with being surrounded by their favorite people (and their favorite treats), and let's be real — it's fun for us humans, too.

And if you need a little extra convincing to throw your dog a party on their next birthday, this video might be the push you need. Seeing this dog so happy when his friends come over to enjoy the day with him is everything.

On Sunday, June 30, @captainthegoldenn shared a video from a birthday party that her Golden Retriever , Captain, attended, to celebrate another dog, Player, and OMG — there's so much cuteness in just one video that it's hard to know where to start!

The video starts with the most adorable shot of the birthday boy himself, complete with hat and bandana and a sign on the fence that says "it's my bday mother puppers." Perfection.

Then, the video shows the party attendees arriving, and they are all too cute for words. The gang's all here: Maggie, Kevin, Penny, and the real star of the show, baby Walter, a Golden Retriever puppy who is already stealing the hearts of the people in the comments.

The party included games (kind of), birthday cake, and baby Walter almost falling asleep before the party was over. Poor little one! He'll have the energy to keep up with the big kids soon enough.

When Is My Dog's Birthday?

There's one thing you need to know before you throw a birthday party: The date, of course.

Depending on how you and your dog found each other, this may be an easy or hard question. If you adopted your dog through a breeder or rescue that had their entire backstory handy, you may have had an exact date of birth for them from the very beginning, but

A visit to your vet's office can help you determine a ballpark birthday for your dog, since they'll be able to figure out about how old they are and when they may have been born, especially if they're still puppies.

Then, there are DNA tests like the Embark test that can determine their birthday (along with all kinds of other information involving their age and stage of life) from a cheek swab you take at home and mail in. Pretty cool!

And if nothing else, you can always choose a birthday for your dog that seems like it fits (it's not like they're going to know the difference). Do you feel like you're raising a wild Gemini? A June birthday could be perfect.