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FBQ: Is a Pyrenean Mountain Dog (Great Pyrenees) the right dog for me?

I have to point out that the people asking this question have it back to front. The question should really be: Am I the right person for a Pyrenean Mountain Dog? If you’re offended that I have turned the question round then the answer to your original question is a no!

People who live with Pyrenean Mountain Dogs are generally agreed that we have lots of attitude. I think that attitude is a good thing and I’ve seen lots of quotations saying that attitude is everything, but apparently some humans don’t want attitude from a dog!

My ancestors were bred to look after livestock in the mountains, with little or no supervision from humans. We are confident and think for ourselves. If you think a dog should obey you, without question, simply because you are a human, you are the wrong person for a Great Pyrenees.

We are intelligent and capable of learning quickly. Training needs to begin early and our bipeds usually think they have the perfect puppy for a while, as we pick things up so quickly. But most of us, sooner or later, start thinking about whether we actually want to do the things we’re asked to do. Then we start thinking about ways of avoiding doing the things we don’t want to do. I myself began this phase when I was about eleven weeks old – and I’m not particularly precocious!

We need bipeds who are patient and consistent to work through this with us. A sense of humour also helps! If you have those qualities, we’ll gradually grow to trust and respect you and we’ll do as we’re asked most of the time. Training us isn’t about dominance, we respond to positive reinforcement but we’re not usually as motivated by food as people expect dogs to be. I enjoy a treat or two, but I’m far more motivated by praise or a game.

Thank you, but I’m not hungry!

I’m a well-behaved adult and I trust and respect my bipeds – they can take me anywhere with them. But I still occasionally check to see if my bipeds are on their toes by trying to bend a rule. Of course it’s just a coincidence that this happens when I know they’re in a hurry, or that it’s raining and they don’t really want to put on shoes to come outside to fetch me in from the garden! I’ve heard that I’m far from alone in doing this!

If that Pyr-attitude doesn’t worry you, check out “Not the dog for everyone“. For those brave souls who are still with me, here are just a few more things you should know before deciding that you’re right for a Great Pyrenees.

Size

It’s fairly obvious that we’re large, but this has lots of implications that are not as obvious – see “Santa Pups“.

Hair

We have lots of it! We moult heavily once or twice a year, but we’re generous with our hair the rest of the time – see “From hair to eternity“. I hope you don’t like wearing black!

Barking

We have a reputation for barking a lot. Our bark is loud, so it can be a cause for concern. I have barked about this a few times.

I hope you find the right dog for you!

See you next Wednesday!

When my bipeds first took me home with them I was only six weeks old. I was one of eleven puppies and, as we grew and became more active, my mother’s bipeds were finding it difficult to give us all as much attention as we needed. As we were all healthy, weaned and eating well, they made the decision that some of us should go to our new families early. This would mean that they could give more individual attention to the puppies that remained and the families who took puppies early could give their puppy lots of attention.

I mentioned in “A trip down memory lane” that my bipeds took me home at the weekend and on the Monday morning I was taken to see the vet. My biped rang the veterinary clinic as soon as it opened and asked for an appointment to get a new puppy checked over. She was given an appointment for later that morning and she gave details of my breed and age to the receptionist.

You can’t fit a Pyrenean Mountain Dog in this!

An hour later she bundled me into a cat basket! It’s hard to believe that was ever possible! She carried me out to the car and we set off. It wasn’t a long journey, she was soon carrying me into a building. She spoke to the receptionist and then she found a seat in the waiting room. She put the basket, containing me, down by her feet. There were about half a dozen other bipeds in the room, each with a basket or a box – each one containing a potential friend for me.

A door opened and the vet appeared. He caught sight of us and his expression changed, he seemed worried. He called his next patient in and closed the door. Each time he opened his door to call in his next patient he looked in our direction and, each time, he looked even more concerned. My biped checked on me a few times and, each time she did, she seemed more worried.

The tension mounted – it was almost a relief when it was our turn to be called in. My biped put the basket with me in it on the end of a high table.

The vet asked, “What have we here then?”

My biped replied, “A female Pyrenean Mountain Dog puppy, six weeks old.”

He asked, “And what size do you expect her to become?”

My biped gestured just below her waist and said, “About so high, weighing in excess of one hundred pounds.”

Clowie , Pyrenean Mountain Dog, Great Pyrenees, smiling

I’d like to see him lift me up like that now!

Wow! I had some growing to do! She was expecting me to be as large as my mother! The vet went to the corner of the room and started tapping away on his computer.

My biped asked, “Is something wrong?”

He replied, “No, no, I’m just updating the computer.”

He came back and took me out of the basket. He held me up to his face.

He smiled and said, “You’re a hefty little lady!”

He then put me on the table and felt me all over. He peered in my ears and my mouth, he listened to my heart. He picked up some clippers and clipped the dewclaws on my hind legs. He told my biped that they were already growing strongly and she’d need to keep an eye on them. He asked if she was confident about clipping them.

She replied that she was and asked, “Is the puppy healthy?”

He asked, “What is it about the puppy that’s worrying you?”

She replied, “Nothing. It’s just that you appeared worried as soon as you saw us.”

He said, “Oh, you picked up on that! Okay, the receptionist had entered an age of six months, not six weeks, on the system. I wasn’t looking forward to telling you how that puppy is going to grow, if you thought you had an almost fully grown dog!”

My biped smiled and said, “I can imagine!”

The vet also smiled and he said, “She appears to be in excellent health.”

They then talked for ages about all kinds of things related to me, but I’ll tell you about those another time.