Great Pyrenees

(The following was a message reply to another homesteadblogger.)

Hello Debi,

We really love our Great Pyrenees dog. We had two of them but one was killed on the road. They are great guard dogs and wonderful with children. I’ve never known any that turned mean.

They were bred to be guardians and shepherds for sheep or goat herds and they keep all predators run off, including other dogs (unless they like them). I know many folks still keep them for protecting their herds, but we just like them because of their disposition. They are so gentle, ours eat out of the same bowl with 6 cats! The cats even sleep on him sometimes! If we ever get goats or sheep, he should be good for them, too. I’ve not heard of any bothering chickens and they are very loyal to friends but intimitdating to strangers.

On the negative side, they are very large, a lot of slobber, and are more nocturnal in nature. Sometimes they will bark for most of the night, roaming all around on their patrol, so close neighbors may not appreciate them. (We don’t mind because we know he is watching over our home and property. Then he naps and lays around to be petted most of the day.) Also when he was still in the puppy stage he chewed up many shoes and hoses, etc.

I don’t know much about labs. If they don’t chase chickens I would definitely keep them! Pyrenees do get along well with other family dogs when they know they are part of the family. That was why ours allowed the mutt that killed our chickens to stay around; because we adopted it into the family. The Pyrs I grew up with as a child loved our Beagle and Dachand and St. Bernard that we also had, so they would probably do well with labs, too.

You should probably talk to the owner of the dog that roughed up your hen and see if they can keep him contained. That would at least prepare them for the future if he needs to be disposed of. I could not kill ours, so I took him to the pound. He would have made a good dog for someone who did not have chickens running around. I’ve always heard that once a dog gets the taste of chicken, they will always be a chicken killer, but I did not want to believe it back then. I should have gotten rid of him at the first sign of interest in chickens…

Our chickens are laying eggs again! We are getting close to 10 a day now in the nests in our coop! It has been a welcome return.

Have fun growing your flock. Just watch out for the dogs!

God bless!

Eric