7 December

The Greatness Of The Great Pyrenees

by Jon Katz

We pass a beautiful sheep farm on the way to and from Albany (we were at Bishop Maginn High School). There are about 40 sheep in one pen guarded by two Great Pyrenees livestock protection dogs. These are beautiful and wonderful animals, and we pulled the car over to watch.

The dogs challenge and sound the alarm when any strange person or animal shows up and it was fascinating watching them move back and forth to stay right between me and the sheep, even though I was up on the road a good distance away. They live outside with the sheep and are with them day and night.

The breed shows us what dogs are capable of doing and how they help us live their lives. Like border collies, this breed desperately needs to work, they are not meant to be house pets.

They never took their eyes off me, moving when I did. There was no charming or distracting them. I think humans could use dogs like to protect themselves from nasty or greedy humans.

These dogs are born to protect livestock and be dogs, and it is beautiful to see them given the freedom to meet their destiny. Nothing dangerous is going to get close to these sheep as long as these dogs are around.

8 Comments

  1. lovely photo! A distant *neighbor* of ours, two canyons over….has 2 Pyreneese that guard his flock of 300 chickens. They are steadfast at their job……. and they do it well. Can’t even stop your car anywhere near their property because you will be *found out* in quick order!
    Susan M

  2. My nephew has sheep by Winterset Iowa and has this kind of dogs. They are great animals and protect his sheep from predators. They are not a house pet.

  3. I’ve bicycled across 29 states, West to East. In Montana I was biking uphill(biking always seems to be uphill and in the wind). When I crested a hill to my right were two Great Pyreneese Dogs and a huge flock of sheep covering the hillside. Both dogs were waiting by the gate. I think they were expecting their master to be fed. They saw me and started to bark and circle the sheep.. They moved tin opposite directions and circled the sheep until they were over the next crest. It was like a moving carpet of sheep. One of my better memories of those bicycle rides.

  4. Jon…
    I love these dogs. We used to encounter a neighbor walking a Great Pyrenees. They seemed to proceed together at a synchronized, slow and gentle pace.

    I imagine they could be quite different in their working environment.

    We never owned one, but we did have an Australian Shepherd, which is reported to have an ancestral relationship. Our Aussie was affectionate, easy going, and eager to please. We adopted Whitney, who had one eye lost to a congenital defect and the eyelid sewn shut. She was given free run of our back yard, and we had the special companionship of an evening walk.

    Whitney never lost the traits of her breed. We live near a golf course which hosts coyotes. During one evening walk, several of them approached us. As the separation narrowed to ten feet, my apprehension peaked. Then surprisingly, the issue was settled. After an initial growl, Whitney barked menacingly. Straining at the leash, she pressed directly towards the group. Getting the message, the coyotes trotted deliberately back to the golf course and disappeared without a glance.

  5. my son just got his 5th one of these. He has very expensive type of goats and they protect them. the youngest one of the dogs is 5 months old. He was gotten to give an older one a more purposeful life she lost her partner. They are amazing dogs, usually trained by an older dog and loyal to the end. They live in the mountains of North Carolina where they have bear go through and mountain lions (seen on cameras at night) they have never lost an animal yet.

    Son and daughter in law love them dearly but they know what their work is and they are always on the job.

  6. I raise Livestock Guardian Dogs. Mine are a 3 way blend of Pyrenees, Anatolian Shepherd and Maremma sheepdog. I recently had a cow killed by a pack of wolves. My best guard dog against timber wolves is in the house with month old puppies. I only had one loose outside. He got the rest of the cattle and horses to safety, along with the aid of my donkey. Without their help, I know we would have lost more. They must have a home with livestock- I will not sell a puppy to a non working home.

    1. Thanks Carrie, I do see the Pyrenees in the cities more and more..must be hard on them..thanks for your story, it’s very powerful..

  7. I have walked my dogs almost every day past a sheep farm close to my home and every day their Great Pyrenees dog comes to the fence and barked until I am out of sight. I thought that eventually she would become used to us and stop barking but apparently that is not the case. For her, we present a new danger each time that we pass.

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