Month: February 2006

  • JOSIE, THE LOVE PUPPY

    JOSIE ... THE LOVE PUPPY ... OUR FUR BABY

       
         WAITING TO GO OUT               DOIN' DOG BUSINESS          ALERTING THE NEIGHBORS!

     
       
        STANDING GUARD!                  PLAYING DRESS UP               WATCHING TV!

  • THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

    Going to church doesn't make you a Christian
    any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

     


  • THINKING ABOUT GETTING A GREAT PYRENEES?

    Gosh, they're cute puppies. They are so darn comical and irresistable and cuddley.  Then they grow up!

    Our female pyr is now 7 years old, and weighs 125 pounds. We socialized her as much as possible when she was a puppy with people and other animals. She has been jumped on when she was laying down (without even a grunt), been poked in the eyes, had her hair and tail pulled, wrestled with, used as a pillow, you name it and she has endured it. She has never growled, bared her teeth, or shown any anger. But, they can play very rough when they are puppies and may knock little kids down or injure smaller dogs because of their size.

    They are great companions and will become loving members of the family, but there are also some strong negatives that you must consider and they are the reasons that there are so many pyrs are abandoned or given up.

    1. They have a lot of hair and they shed profusely. You will be picking hair off your tongue constantly, you can give up wearing dark clothes, and you can plan on vacuuming twice a day.
    2. They bark constantly. They bark at everything and nothing at all. She even barks laying down. The neighbors don't enjoy it.
    3. They dig.
    4. They will chew up bushes, small trees, etc.
    5. They will escape every chance they get, ignore you when you try to call them back, and try to elude you when you chase after them. By the way, she has learned to open the gate.
    6. They are big and strong. My daughter and wife have both been pulled off their feet and dragged. I weigh 225 pounds and she pulls me.
    7. They are willful. They were bred to perform instinctively by themselves and without human supervision. They come when you call only if it suits them and at their own pace.
    8. Their hair attracts all sorts of things. They are constantly bringing in grass, twigs, leaves, etc.
    9. They love to play in mud and snow. She doesn't enjoy bathing so you can plan on getting wet yourself.
    10. When she lays down, she takes up most of the space in the room. Because she always has to be by someone, we are constantly tripping over her.
    11. You can imagine the time spent in the back yard with a bucket and a scoop.
    12. They are large enough and smart enough to reach almost any spot in the kitchen. She once ate a dozen frozen eggrolls that were left unattended on the kitchen counter. (She has even opened drawers.)
    13. Pyrs drool, not all the time, usually when they're excited, something smells interesting, or there's food present and always when you have company.

    Those are most of the bad things. They are a high maintenance dog, but for most of us who share their homes with these gentle giants, the time and effort is worth it.

  • A VERY SPECIAL FRIEND

    A VERY SPECIAL FRIEND

    I ran across an on-line story at THEEAGLE.COM about an autistic girl and her bond with a rescued Great Pyrenees.

    AN UNSPOKEN BOND
    A 93-pound dog provides unique therapy for a young girl with autism. Pal loves Jane like no one else can. He is her guardian, her friend and her unconditional companion.

    A pet wasn’t exactly something Jane’s parents, Ken and Francis Mantheis of College Station, ever imagined their daughter would even tolerate. Jane was born with autism, a neurological disorder that impacts the normal development of the brain in the areas of social interaction and communication. Until a few months ago she was utterly terrified of animals, and dogs were no exception. Their squirming, licking, barking, and jumping are all things that as an autistic child frightened Jane.

    For the rest of the story,  go to An Unspoken Bond

  • ANOTHER REASON TO LOVE GREAT PYRENEES DOGS

    We own a seven year old Great Pyrenees named Josie.  We live in the city, where there isn't much need for a livestock guard dog that was bred to live with sheep or goats and protect them from predators like wolves and bears. 

    There are a lot of reasons not to have one of these dogs.  For instance, they have a double coat to protect them from cold.  As a result, she is 125 pounds of loose hair.  But, she has a wonderful, loving temperment.  We have ten granchildren and she has taken every kind of abuse you can imagine without ever showing anger.

    Pyrs, as they are called, were once thought to be on the lower scale of intelligence because they were judged by dog standards.  They won't catch a frisbee, or retreive a stick, or run an obsticle course, or perform other tricks.  It's not because they can't.  It's because they just don't want to.  They are willful and hard to train because they were bred to work by themselves and think for themselves.  They had to be alert for any kind of danger and react to whatever that danger might be.

    Like fire........

    CARNATION, Wash. (AP) — A Great Pyrenees guard dog herded more than a dozen sheep to safety after a barn caught fire.

    Diane Pagel and her husband, Jeff Freeman, initially thought they had lost as many as 20 prized sheep when the blaze broke out last week.

    Then they discovered all but six sheep had been herded to safety by Kodiak, their guard dog.

    "Sheep will go to where it is safe, and for them that was the barn, but apparently Kodiak got them out," Pagel said. "He was the last one out of the barn because hair has been burned on his back legs and back."

    The barn was filled with smoke and flames when firefighters arrived, Eastside Fire and Rescue Chief Lee A. Soptich said. Fire crews had to go more than a mile for water and struggled to cool a 500-gallon propane tank outside the barn and keep it from exploding.

    Pictured here, Kodiak, the Great Pyrenees hero, stays with what's left of the flock of sheep he had saved and protected from the barn fire.

    Kodiak's fur was singed while he stayed between the fire and the sheep. Later, after he knew the flock was safe, he ran to a pond and sat in the mud.