Desert Kennels Pyrenees Breed Information
(Information applies to Ranch and purebred Great Pyrenees)
Growth This breed can have growing pains. Your puppy may start limping if it is growing to fast or overweight. Feeding 2000 mg of ester C every day often eliminates lameness in about a week. I feed the ester C daily until the age of 2 years. If your puppy appears lame or in some unexplained pain after about 10 days of ester C please consult with your veterinarian about its diet, exercise and pain relievers if no other explanation can be found. The Truth About Pet Foods.com can help you with diet choices. These puppies should always be on a good Large Breed Puppy Formula food until 2 years of age. Your Pyr may only need ¼ of the recommended amount of food because of its slow metabolism. When I feed less than the manufacturer's recommended amount I always add a daily multi vitamin to prevent deficiencies.
Your Puppy may reach 90% of his adult height by the time he is one year old. He will continue to gain muscle and mass until he is 2 to 2 ½ years old. Mentally/emotionally he will grow up and stop thinking like a puppy around 2 years of age. His metabolism should slow to an adult Pyr's around two years old, sometimes earlier for a female. Expect him to start feeling his age around 7 years old. Their average life span is around 10-14 years.
I recommend introducing your puppy to as much of your future expectations as you can by the time he is 6 months old. With pets, show dogs and livestock guardians this is usually easy. Don’t wait to find out your 50 pound 6 month old puppy is terrified of riding in a car, getting a bath, or Grandma’s staircase and you aren’t strong enough to move him in an emergency! If you want your dog to pull or pack when he grows up please introduce him to the equipment early but without any weight until he is 2 years old. I also highly recommend you have your dog x-rayed for dysplasia before asking him to move any weight.
Spaying/neutering Spaying and neutering helps prevent wandering and a number of heath problems. It can help pets kept "in town" be more comfortable within the smaller spaced environment. I believe spaying/neutering pets by the time they are 10 months old benefits their personality. However: several members of the Great Pyrenees clubs agree that spaying/neutering before two years of age can result in narrower heads and bodies, and lighter bone overall. Also spayed and neutered Pyrs can develop a softer textured, more easily matted hair coat. If you have a female that is accidentally bred a veterinarian can give her an injection (within 72 hours) that can prevent conception.
Obedience Training It can be very difficult to train a Pyr to come on command, go over a jump or retrieve because of the breed's independent instincts. Many don’t have the instinct for repetitive obedience work and constantly listening to human commands. Almost all will come to you for love every time you speak to them. It is usually very easy to teach them to “stay” (especially in the "down" position). Some have earned obedience titles and some love agility. I recommend group obedience classes to help pet Pyrs adjust to a pets' lifestyle. Please visit The Great Pyrenees Library, The Great Pyrenees Connection and the Great Pyrenees Club of America websites for breed specific training tips, including livestock guardians.
Stock Training The Great Pyrenees Connection, The Great Pyrenees Library and the Livestock Guardian Association (and their online discussions) can help you raise a livestock guard. Many pups raised correctly with flocks or herds become very effective before they reach one year of age.
I had an inquiry for a poultry guard, I was not sure if they already had poultry on site or not. I have copied my response here to give you some insight into raising livestock protection dogs:
If your home is within100 feet of your poultry house/yard a "home/yard" raised pup would easily adopt guarding the hen house. If you keep your poultry farther away than that I would recommend placing a pen that is puppy proof and chicken proofso your Pyrwill have the poultry for company. If you do not have adult poultry already it is ok to start with the pup as a house pup and take it out to "help" with the chores. I would tie the pup/pen the pupwhere it could watch you care for the chicks, but not where it might step on a chick! Pyr pups can be very clumsy. I have heard of properly raised 7 month old Pyrs being trusted with flocks of sheep. I would recommend not putting a properly raised Pyr with poultry or loose rabbits it could get into (the dog inside the poultry yard) until at least a year old. Maybe even 18 months old so the dog is well past the "I want to play with everything" stage. If your poultry are always in a barn/pen then the dog can easily protect the area outside of it. However a loose young dog with loose barnyard birds is risky if the Pyr is still a "puppy in the head".
The most important thing about"training" a livestock guardian is to raise it correctly: never create a situationwhere the dog might have to protect its food or fight over its food with the stock. Never let a pup chase, play with or chew on the stock. Raise the pupnext to the stock so the stockbecomesits pack/companions.Raise the pup in some kind of pen; NOT TIED UP ON A CHAIN. A tied up Pyr can instinctively behave like any other tied up dog and the result will be a normal dog that eats, plays with or attacks anything within reach of its chain. And when you untie the dog the behavior will stick. Never feed your stock dog meat that comes from the species you want it to protect. You want your dog's instincts to view the livestock as the puppies thata babysitting wolf pack member would protect, and not the food the pack eats. I supplement my dogs' diets with several dairy products, eggs, fish and the occasional chicken nugget or McDonalds hamburger that doesn't remind them of the livestock. I have, on occasion, found a winter kill rooster under the barn or a haystack bunny that was several weeks old because my Pyrs didn't eat it!
If you have the patience to properly raise a livestock guardian itwill try to do its job until it dies of old age at 10-14 years old. In high predator areas I recommend starting with a properly raised dog. When that dog is 5 or 6 years old start raising the next.When your experienced dog is 7 or 8 years oldit will have helped you properly raise your 2 year old. This timeline/cycle gives you the continuous protection of a strong dog and an experienced dog. Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Grooming A bit of brushing once a week is usually sufficient unless they are shedding. Shaving them for the summer can lead to sunburns. Check behind the ears for mats and the length of their dewclaws front and rear. Purebred or registered Great Pyrenees usually have more hair and more of a matting problem that ranch lines. Also check in between the pads of their feet since they can pick up a variety of things they can not remove themselves. Especially if your Pyr is growing up in a corral where you hay the stock! By the time a dog goes lame from hay seeds and leaves in his feet it could take you an hour per foot to clean it out, weeks of medicine and “change of surface” to heal (voice of experience here)!!
Feeding A Pyr will need a good quality Large Breed Puppy food the first two years of his life while he is growing. Feed as much as is needed to maintain a healthy weight. We add vitamin C to our puppies diets. A puppy food for "all breeds of puppies" or "small/medium breed puppies" can create dysplasia! Some Pyrs will get an ear infection from eating too much red meat. I feed Loyall dog food to our adults, and vitamin C tablet in their drinking water a couple of times a week. When your Pyr reaches two years old and its metabolism slows down you may find a quality dog food at half or two thirds the recommended amount (per weight of the dog) will suffice. I feed adult dogs carefully to avoid weight gain.
Health Dysplasia, hot spots and ear infections can be common problems. Heat stroke during the summer is also a risk. Pyrs have a much slower metabolism than other breeds. Always accurately weigh the dog before any drugs are administered. If your veterinarian’s scale doesn’t go over a hundred pounds please barrow a scale that does! Some vets administer half the usual dosage than gradually add what is needed to the desired effect. When a pyr gets a dose of anesthetic for surgery it can take them twice as long to fall asleep and twice as long to wake up from their slower metabolism. Finding an experienced Pyr vet (or giving your vet a copy of this paragraph) can save your dog’s life even during the simplest procedures.
Housing Most Pyrs are happiest outside. They can live outside in the winter at very cold temperatures as long as they have a shelter that their body heat can warm up. Mine can go in or under the barn. They also will spend the day sun bathing when it is 15 degrees and slightly breezy! I give my dogs winter dog houses built from straw or hay bales. They will also use dog houses that have dirt floors. Any straw, wood shavings, old carpet or blanket will give added comfort in the winter. They like the “dog igloo” style of house (with the floor removed). You can hang old carpet or blankets over the door in the winter to help keep them warm at night.
Personally I use dog houses have dirt floors so they can dig down into the cool earth in the summer. The freshly dug dirt is also softer than any man made floor. Please remove the door for the summer or the poor dog may find it hotter inside in the shade than outside in the sun! If you can give that removed floor a couple of legs and put it over the dog house for shade your Pyr will enjoy the extra coolness. Placing the dog house in the shade in the summer can make a 20 degree difference in some climates! Again, please watch your Pyr for hot spots and heat stroke in the summer. If you have air conditioning your Pyr will enjoy being a house dog during the day in the summer. Of course they can be house dogs year around if you raise them to be.
PLEASE NOTE: Most Pyrs can not be contained by the underground fence or an electric wire fence!! They may continue to charge an approaching threat believing the sensation is caused by the threat!
Personality and Instincts The Pyrenees breed was developed to protect flocks of sheep from predators and thieves. They would patrol vast areas around the flock to search for predators. These dogs often had to decide for themselves who or what was friend or foe. The adult dogs were often fed only 2-3 times per week, some were left alone with the flocks and others had human shepherds with them most of the time. The shepherds expected these dogs to know their job so the shepherd would not have to constantly tell the dog what to do. The best dogs had hair coats that rarely matted, would prevent hawks and eagles from carrying off lambs and would even find sick sheep and watch over them. When the flocks weren’t in the mountains the dogs would protect the farm and corrals. The guard dogs would spend most of the day lying around watching the flock or farm. At night they actively patrolled more and would frequently bark to tell the predators they were on duty.
Expect your modern Pyr to behave the same way! Your Pyr may bark at strangers and may not be friendly unless you give the visitor the OK. Your Pyr will actively search for a "flock" of children, small pets or livestock if you don't have any for it to protect already. A Pyr raised on a farm is in the habitat that its instincts were designed for. If you live "in town" it could take a 6 foot fence to keep your Pyr home. Electric fencing and underground dog fences often do not work with this breed!! Your Pyr will bark at night and at visitors unless you train it not to. Frequent visitors and especially visiting dogs will require you to have good communication skills with your Pyr since this will be completely against his instincts. Visiting "flocks" of children are usually welcome. Group obedience classes and puppy kindergarten classes are highly recommended for pet Pyrs, especially "in town" pets. Your Pyr will want to be outside and "on duty" most of the time. In the summer inside in the air conditioning would be wonderful for a pet. "House Pet Pyrs" may choose to not to eat every day or gain weight very easily because they are not burning off the energy they would use on a farm. If your house Pyr is otherwise happy and healthy I would not worry if he doesn't eat for one or two days in a row occasionally.
The above information is of course no replacement for a good dog book, veterinarian or other educated professional.