I’m a pizza driver, and I deliver to this house with a Great Pyrenees who is AWESOME AS FUCK. I knew it was a Great Pyrenees because of Shebly, and now I kinda want one. What can you tell me from experience about the breed? Was a Great Pyrenees your first choice? Are they good for first time dog owners?
Pyrenees fuckin’ rule and I cannot think of a breed I would rather have. They were our first choice because we wanted a giant dog and Pyrs are the healthiest and longest-lived of the giant breeds (they typically live 10 to 13 years, yay!). Bear in mind that I’m not an expert, I’m just repeating things I’ve heard and my own experiences.
So here are the caveats, and some funny anecdotes, and then all the squishy feel-good stuff once you get through that:
Pyrs have…ISSUES…with other dogs. They’re herd guarders by nature, and their first instinct when they see another dog is to make sure that pooch knows who’s in charge, and who’s protecting the herd (ie, me and Cristi). This, coupled with the fact that they’re huge dogs and can be downright terrifying when they want to be, makes other dogs react defensively, which sets the Pyr off, which can be…bad.
You have to do active training and socializing to get them to be chill around other pooches. Shelby gets along fine with little dogs, but anything bigger than a beagle and she goes into MUST DOMINATE mode, which is obviously not okay. She wasn’t socialized at all as a puppy (she’s a rescue and had AWFUL previous owners), so we just accept her for who she is and keep her away from other big dogs. She’s never gotten into a fight or anything, but it is definitely something we have to be careful about.
When we took her down to my parents’ house for Christmas last year, she absolutely LOVED their little Jack Russell terrier. She would just follow him around the house all day trying to get him to play with her. Of course, she was literally 10 times his size and he was TERRIFIED of this giant wolfbear that kept trying to POUNCE ON HIM…it was pretty funny.
She absolutely adores children (no matter how grabby and annoying they get), small adults, women, men as long as they don’t have beards (and she’ll warm up to beardy dudes really quick most of the time), cats, bunnies (as long as they’re not in Her Yard)…pretty much anything I can think of.
She WILL try to herd people when we have a lot of guests over. Our bathroom is down the hall from the kitchen and living room and if someone who isn’t at our house on a regular basis tries to go to the bathroom, she’ll run over and bark at them to try and keep them in the living room, which is Where They Belong Because They’re Guests. She’s a funny dog.
As you might be able to tell, they’re a pretty strong-minded breed. You can train ‘em, but they generally do stuff because THEY want to do it. And while they’re certainly affectionate, they also have an independent streak. Shelby is perfectly happy to sit outside in our backyard by herself all day, as long as she can come in and get snuggles whenever she wants. They’re guard dogs, they’re used to operating on their own for most of the time.
Pyrs don’t need the constant, strenuous exercise of some of the working or hunting breeds, but they do like having space to roam. Their natural “territory” is something like 20 square miles, so if they get out without a leash, you’re probably fucked. Shelby escaped once last winter during a snowstorm and was a mile away inside 10 minutes. That fucking SUCKED.
As far as exercise goes, we take her on walks around the neighborhood as often as possible- sometimes twice a day if it’s nice enough. And she spends a fair amount of time chasing bunnies and birds around the yard.
I can’t imagine that they’d make good apartment dogs, or urban dogs, or even SUBurban dogs unless you live in a spread out neighborhood and have a big fenced in yard. You need space. And they bark a lot. Again, they’re herd guarders. Their job is to warn the shepherd when something is menacing the flock. In our case that means cars, UPS trucks, large birds, the neighbors, and invisible ghosts/UFOs/Bigfoot.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that they are BIG, POWERFUL DOGS. Shelby is almost a runt for a Pyr and she weighs about 90 pounds. I’ve seen males that were taller than me when they stood up on their hind legs, and I’m 6’3”. They have the bite strength of a mastiff and could literally take off a human leg at the hip if they wanted to. This means that if you can’t control them, they can be a mortal danger to themselves and anything around them. It’s important to keep that in mind at all times, keep them well trained, ALWAYS BE THE ALPHA, and give them lots of hugs so they stay happy.
And finally, the #1 question I get from people who see me walking my giant fluffy beardog around town- “does she shed a lot?” To which I reply with a thousand-yard stare before slowly dragging a knife down my forearm, maintaining eye contact the whole time.
Just kidding, it’s not really THAT bad. Or maybe it is and I’ve just been desensitized to it. We do get little tumbleweeds of fur drifting around the house. Any dark colored clothing will be 50% white within 10 minutes. We brush football-sized piles of fur off of her when she loses her winter coat. I guess what I am trying to say is that if you have a Pyr, dog hair will become an intimate part of your life. I mean literally intimate. You don’t want to know some of the places I’ve found Shelby-hairs.
And you have to brush them regularly, or they get huge nasty-ass dreadlocks that you have to cut off. Shelby had probably 10 pounds of filthy dreads on her when we got her. She couldn’t WAG HER TAIL because there was a football-sized dread on it that made wagging painful. It took us weeks of brushing and snipping to get them all off.
So, with all those caveats aside, WHY are Pyrs my absolute favorite breed ever?
#1: They are so goddamned affectionate oh my goodness. There is no such thing as too much petting or snuggling for a Pyr. Shelby does this thing where if I’m lying in bed she’ll jump up on it and then lay down next to me with her head on my chest and it is the CUTEST THING AUGH.
#2: THEY ARE HUGE. I love huge dogs. Dogs are meant to be enormous, as far as I’m concerned. I’m sure your bullshit little terrier or whatever is nice, but fuck that noise. I want a dog I can tackle. I want a dog that could drag me to safety if the house was burning down, only they wouldn’t have to because they would bark and the fire would get so scared it would put itself out. MY DOG HAS A BIGGER SKULL THAN YOU.
#3: fluffy fluffy fluffy fluffy fluffy fluffy fluffy fluffy fluffy fluffy fluffy fluffy fluffy fluffy
#4: They’re smart! Shelby might only know “sit” as far as commands go, but she knows dozens of other words (“outside” and “walk” being her two favorites).
#5: Guard dog potential. I’m normally skeptical of housepets as guard animals, because 99% of dogs will just wag their tail if a stranger breaks in, regardless of what their proud owners THINK they’d do. But I know firsthand how Shelby responds to strangers invading her territory.
One night Shelby was outside, barking as usual, and we wanted her to come inside. The usual tricks (calling her name, promises of treats, explicit death threats) weren’t working, so I devised a plan. I’d go around the side of the house and let myself in to the backyard via the gate in our fence, and then herd her towards our back door.
So I come through the gate, and call Shelby’s name. Shelby turns, and because it’s so dark, sees a LARGE, UNIDENTIFIED MAN invading HER YARD. She goes into full on BERSERKER MURDER MODE. She charges across the yard, making a sound I have never heard her make before. It’s not a bark, it’s barely even a growl. It’s this low, back of the throat rumble that just screams “oh dude, you picked the wrong yard. They’re not even gonna find your BONES.”
It is at this point that I realize my plan may have been a mistake.
THANKFULLY, once she got within about 10 feet, she actually recognized me and instantly went from “KILL KILL KILL” to “oh HEY boss! LET’S PLAY CHASE ME CHASE ME CHASE ME”
Anyway yeah I think she’s a pretty good guard dog.
IN CONCLUSION:
Pyrs rule but like all big dogs they are an extra level of care and responsibility. If you’ve got the time, patience, and space for them, there is no better pet in the entire goddamned world. My only complaint about Shelby is that we don’t have four of her. YET.
