Sorry you had bad luck with the previous Pyrs... Hope your new pup works out to be all that you could hope for. The problem with rescues is most of the time you really don't know what you're getting. I hope to get a second dedicated LGD (Pyr or Pyr/Toli cross) female to team up with Mel some time next year after I start getting my herd animals. Mel was born 1-2-15 and I picked him up late May. So he had almost 5 full months with his LGD parents and his brothers (1 of ten male pups) to train. All but 2 of the pups from that litter have become excellent LGDs, and all look more or less like Mel. Mel has the largest head but is not the heaviest of the group. The heaviest and largest weighs in at right around 145 summer weight, Mel is about 125 summer weight. He was raised with a large human family and lived with the goats and chickens. He is primarily a watcher LGD and is equally a companion dog. I still haven't gotten my herds yet for him to watch so I don't know if he'll revert to being a true LGD or will forever be a hybrid. Either way is fine with me. Many Pyrs tend to wander and it's best to have them on very large acreages... The thing is, if they see it, they want to own/protect it
so having good fences with hot wire really are pretty much a requirement. Mel will wander if I'm not there to keep an eye on him. He'll never be let free in an unfenced area. Aside from him wandering, folks down here tend to shoot dogs they don't know.
Duke looks like a real sweetheart! It's amazing how these dogs bond. They just aren't like a normal house pet dog. They are "different", and in the best ways! Luckily Mel is NOT a barker... He'll alert if he thinks he sees or hears something that's not right, but he doesn't bark at shadows or blowing leaves and the like. He spends the night outdoors keeping watch and then he gets a morning cookie and spends most of the day sleeping on the living room floor unless I'm outside. He always wants to be where I am. I take him for walks outside the house fencing and around the property and there's been a couple of times he wanted to go under the fences at wash outs to explore, but when I've told him no and called him back he's always come. Really looking forward to getting my first goats this spring and introducing him back to what his real job is. I'll wait till he's comfortable and established before I get him a partner. Not sure if I'll go rescue, or look for established dogs coming off a farm that's calling it quits, or getting a pup.
Duke looks like a real sweetheart! It's amazing how these dogs bond. They just aren't like a normal house pet dog. They are "different", and in the best ways! Luckily Mel is NOT a barker... He'll alert if he thinks he sees or hears something that's not right, but he doesn't bark at shadows or blowing leaves and the like. He spends the night outdoors keeping watch and then he gets a morning cookie and spends most of the day sleeping on the living room floor unless I'm outside. He always wants to be where I am. I take him for walks outside the house fencing and around the property and there's been a couple of times he wanted to go under the fences at wash outs to explore, but when I've told him no and called him back he's always come. Really looking forward to getting my first goats this spring and introducing him back to what his real job is. I'll wait till he's comfortable and established before I get him a partner. Not sure if I'll go rescue, or look for established dogs coming off a farm that's calling it quits, or getting a pup.
