# Great Pyrenees question



## Bellyman (Jul 6, 2013)

I've been giving some thought to whether a pair of Great Pyrenees dogs might be a good addition to the future homestead. 

I don't have the homestead yet so it's all theoretical at this point but I was kinda wondering about the Great Pyrenees temperament.

My wife was asking me how a pair of these dogs would react should one of the extended family bring one of their dogs along when they come to visit. I didn't have a good answer as I don't know how they might react. As a for instance, our daughter and her family have a lab that could just as easily be named "Odie" (Garfield fame, bumbling, not terribly bright but full of life, loving to romp and play).

Would it be normal for the GP to accept the dog as being part of the visitng group of welcomed guests? Or would they see the dog as a threat and desire to instantly eliminate such threat? What about small children? Or even smaller ankle-biter type dogs (which are often more aggressive than bigger dogs)?

Or maybe there isn't an easy answer. But I wondered as I have no experience with the GP. I've had St. Bernard and Newfoundland dogs but never a GP. The Newfie wouldn't hurt a flea. The St., we had to be a little more guarded with but he wasn't bad.

FWIW, I would never think of taking my dog to someone else's house. It's just not done. But other people have other ideas about that. 

Whatcha think?


----------



## redgate (Sep 18, 2008)

LIke most dogs, it will depend a lot on how you socialize the dog while raising. It will also depend on how you react when the visiting dog arrives. If you encourage your GP to meet the dog and be nice, scold if he acts aggressive, etc., then over time, he will learn to accept. HOWEVER, if you do that, you are running the risk of defeating the point of having the dog to begin with. If you teach him to accept outside dogs, he may choose to accept any outside dog he wishes. In our case, we have chosen to have our dogs protect from ANY outside dog. We do have our dogs behind a pasture perimeter fence, and they cannot access the house area. We tell our visitors they are welcome to bring "well-behaved" dogs, but please do NOT take them near the fence, encourage them to meet our dogs, or allow them to tease or taunt our dogs. We watch closely to ensure that our wishes our met. So far, so good. Our rule is, any dog that crosses that fence line is fair game for our dogs. They aren't attackers by nature, so the few times we have had a breech, our dogs' big bark sends the intruder off with his tail between his legs. This is good. I wouldn't doubt they'd eat a bigger threat alive though! I have too many small livestock and poultry lives at stake inside that pasture to risk teaching friendliness with other dogs. Hope that gives you a few thoughts.


----------



## secuono (Sep 28, 2011)

GPs are very friendly dogs, especially with kids. Mine had never seen one until my brother had a kid, she loves him. 
Any dog who cannot or will not stay away will be gone after. Never a good idea to mix yappy, spoiled, untrained dogs with livestock. If the lab will stay away and be friendly, and you have the house fenced off so it can't get into pasture, it might be ok. 
We have 'pet' dogs, so making sure our LGD met them was important while she grew up, but she won't allow any of them to even look at the livestock the wrong way. She's very gentle with redirecting the doberman puppy's attention if he gets carried away, but she would go for our other two dogs with teeth out. She knows they mean business and she has to be direct and forceful with those two.

GPs are a lot like your other gentle giants, as long as nothing threatens their charges. Training for the other dogs is a must, then careful introductions.


----------



## Bellyman (Jul 6, 2013)

Thanks for the perspective!

Definitely something I want to do with careful forethought, making sure that the situation is right before getting excited over a new puppy (which would be very easy for me to do!).


----------

