Herd Dog?

[Barr'sWCT]

I know I have read on the forums about a certain kind of herd dog that works good with protecting the deer herds. Can someone please tell me the breed name of this dog. Thank you.

[CurtisLloyd]

Great Pyrenees

[Barr'sWCT]

Thanks Curtis it was driving me crazy because I knew I seen the name on here before and did a search but I guess it must have been some time ago and the forum must be gone. Thanks again.........

[IndependenceRanch]

Remember the old forums are still available for viewing.
http://www.deer-forums.com/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi

[Whitetail Sanctuary]

We have a Great Pyreneese that roams around our deer pens and farm he does a GREAT :)job for us and loves it if you let him clean the back side of a bottle baby !:eek:

[pdaddy]

We have a Great Pyrenese, Sadie, that guards our herd. She thinks she is a deer and we dare not tell her otherwise. If we forget to feed her , she just eats whatevers available, Raccons, possums, cats , yotes or deer feed. We enjoy her work so much we acquire a second dog, a puppy I named Snowball, my wife calls her Screwball ( she a little over the edge:))

[Barr'sWCT]

I hear all great things about this breed of dog. I do have 3 dogs, a decker rat terrier she barks at the deer and given the chance she would chase the deer. It is her breed they use this type of dog out west to hunt deer or track wounded deer. Then I have a shizue she tries to play with the fawns if I would let her. Then my border collie --which I feel he isn't pure border collie the only time he even bothers with the deer is in fawning season. Then he likes to check out all the new fawns as they are born. I was thinking about a great pyrenese for a while. Can someone give me an idea on the cost of them if they are prone to any health issues. Thanks for everyones import.

[CurtisLloyd]

the only problem we have seen is that they work themselves to death, they work 24-7 365. the ones we have had from five different breeders have lasted about 7-7.5 years, live hard die young?????

[ANTLER VALLEY]

Barr's WCT-I, too have been thinking about getting one. I saw them for sale in the KC newspaper last year in the neighborhood of $200-250. I sure would like to have one or two, but there is something that keeps holding me back...

Someone explain to me where the dog sleeps, what kind of shelter he has, etc? I have 18 pens with an alley that runs down the middle. The alley only touches the outside of the farm at one end. The opposite end has the alley ending in a cul-de-sac, though another small alley runs perpendicular to the large alley there and acts as a back door to the farm. If I had a dog he could get to any pen from the 800' alley, but would he do me any good from there? If a strange dog was on the outside and was barking at the deer, and he was in the alley, barking back-with deer in the middle, wouldn't that be a bad thing? Someone help me out here, if you can.

Thanks

[Barr'sWCT]

That would be a bad thing--if your deer are like mine and a dog barks they go nuts--well I should say most of them do. I do have a pen that I have my calmer deer in that nothing bothers them. Then my other pen everything gets them running around. I have the same problem on were I would put the dog too. The thing is my dogs I have now will let me know if anything is around the farm. But until me or my husband get to go look at what the dogs are barking at it could be gone or there wasn't anything out there to begin with. We are finally starting to get some nice looking deer and I want to protect my investment. I haven't had anything to really worry about yet--but would like to be prepared incase something would happen that the herd should have had a guard dog. I guess I worry to much on what could happen --but I am still going to think about getting one though.

[Scott Heinrich]

This saturday, I lost my herd dog. She was an akbash. She was the most phenominal dog I have ever owned. She was old (10 years) and I knew she was going downhill for the last 6 months, so several months back I got a Pyreneese/Anitolloian cross. He is still just a puppy, but the old dog traught him well and he looks like he will be a good herd dog too.

[Barr'sWCT]

Scott
Sorry to hear about the lost of your dog. It is hard to loose a good dog and pet.

[Whitetail Sanctuary]

sorry for your loss scott. loosing a good dog is like loosing a good friend! hope your new pup works out for you

[CurtisLloyd]

We have had the same situation, we tried to add another dog, he came from a relative who was moving if you have never seen one kill, watching them settle who was boss was eye-opening, they have to be the dirtiest fighters of all cannine species. the small pup ( 13 mo 90 lbs ) beat he crap out of the new larger one ( 13 mo 125 lb) . You know a dog is serious when he grabs the other by the tongue, after that everyone knew who the boss was.... no questions. Them about two days later the wind blew a grainery door open, the dog went onside to check it out, we found him about 36 hours later,not a pleasent way to go. We are now adding a new pup to the pack, it will be a probably brother to Leo, he got that name after we saw his determination,even as a puppy he had the heart of a lion. I'm sure he'll fill his shoes but we will wait to give him his name, I like to let them earn their name.

[Awesome Antlers]

I've had two Great Pyrenees over the years and loved them both very much. They did have a couple of traits though that I didn't like. One was their constant drooling, not a huge problem by any means, but an annoyance when they wanted attention or especially when company stopped by. The other thing I didn't like was, anytime someone would drive down our lane (myself included), the dogs would bark and scare all the deer back from the fences. Again, didn't really cause much problems as the deer got used to it, but it was annoying never the less. Having said all that, there definitely was more good than bad with the Pyrenees. Like someone said in an earlier post they work 24/7, that really is the truth...

We have since purchased an Anatolian Shepherd male pup about a month ago. I have to tell you I am very impressed to this point. No drooling (yet anyway), very lovable and looks like he will make an excellent guard dog, although a little early to tell for sure. During the day he runs loose on the farm, at night he goes in with the bottle babies. He seems to do great in with the deer, we have kept him with the bottle babies(at night) since he got here with no problems that I am aware of. Pretty crazy now that I think back on it, there is Hardcore, Tonto, Golddigger, TimberJack, Prairie Blaze and Powerdrive in this pen of fawns.
I don't intend to keep him in with the deer long term but this has served two purposes for us. The first is to acquaint him with the critters he is to be guarding. The second is to keep him from roaming while he gets use to us and his surroundings ( we don't have a kennel setup). He has stayed put when running loose and he seems to be working out real well for us. Behr(Bear) is 16 weeks old and weighing in at 50#, he's putting on 5 lbs a week here lately, he's gonna be a big-en...

Good luck with whatever you choose, I don't think you can go wrong either way...

[Robbie]

Look into rescue, rather than supporting the "backyard" breeding industry. Most rescues groups have puppies and purebreds. I have been involved in rescue for 15 years, and it is a wonderful thing to do. Call me if you have any questions or concerns. I will dispell the myths you have heard about rescue dogs being anything other than fabulous. You just have to ask the right questions and choose wisely, then you get a great dog, and you save one from being euthanized.

Here are just a few of the organizations that popped up when I did a Yahoo search for Great Pyrenees Rescue.

Great Pyrenees Rescue
We are a Great Pyrenees Rescue organization, located in Black Forest, Colorado. ... these wonderful dogs by purchasing our 2009 Great Pyrenees Rescue Calendar! ...www.pyrescue.org - Cached

National Great Pyrenees Rescue
National Great Pyrenees Rescue (NGPR), is devoted to the rescue and successful placement of Great Pyrenees dogs throughout the United States.www.nationalpyr.org - Cached

Appalachian Great Pyrenees Rescue
... to the Appalachian Great Pyrenees Association, Inc. (AGPA, ... The purpose of this site is to help unite Great Pyrenees dogs with their prospective new homes. ...www.agprescue.com - Cached

Indy Great Pyrenees Rescue
Indy Great Pyrenees Rescue is dedicated to rescuing homeless Great Pyrenees dogs, ... Our mission is to rescue and place homeless Great Pyrenees in new loving homes. ...www.igpr.org - Cached

Great Pyrenees Association of Southern California Rescue
Information on Great Pyrenees dogs available for adoption in Southern California. ... Great Pyrenees Rescue of Southern California is now part of Ralph's Grocery ...www.greatpyrrescue.org/index.htm - Cached

Welcome to Great Pyrenees Rescue Society
... case but when Malise of Great Pyrenees Rescue Society first saw ... Great Pyrenees Rescue Society stepped up and today, Phoenix is a trim 110 pound. ...greatpyreneesrescuesociety.org - Cached
AZPyrs - Arizona Great Pyrenees Association and Rescue
Breed education,adoption application and list of available dogs.www.azpyrs.com - Cached

Great Pyrenees Rescue (Nebraska)
Nebraska Animal Rescue is a organization formed in August of 2002 by Patty Taylor, a ... It is not unusual to have 10 Great Pyrenees in rescue at a time. ...nepyrenees.bravehost.com - Cached

Great Pyrenees Rescue of Northern California, Great Pyrenees ...
Great Pyrenees Rescue of Northern California has dogs available ... may be dogs in the care of Great Pyrenees Rescue of Northern California who are ...www.gprnc.org/index.htm - Cached

East Penn Pyr Rescue
Information on placing or adopting a Great Pyrenees dog in the eastern Pennsylvania region. ... Great Pyrenees Rescue. for Eastern Pennsylvania ...www.eastpennpyrrescue.org/index.html - Cached

[my2girls]

I too have a Great Py - love him "deerly"! He is wonderful with the deer - lays with them at night and follows them around. Beautiful dogs :) They do bark a lot - mine even barks at airplanes :( Little frustrating sometimes but I would rather he bark at everything than not bark at anything....know what I mean?

[ANTLER VALLEY]

Just had a "new" thought...if we get a dog that the deer enjoy having around, but tends to bark a lot, does that help matters when the stray dogs or leashed dogs who are passers by are barking, too? Just wondering.

[my2girls]

Im stumped on that one :0

[Barr'sWCT]

When he barks does the deer go nuts? Or are they use to the dog since it is in with them.

[Robbie]

I have 5 dogs, all different breeds/muts. They are not in the same pen as my deer, but are one fence over, and all can see each other. When they bark at the horses, or at strange cars, or whatever, the deer don't really pay any attention. The deer know my dogs, and pretty much ignore them. I can tell when a strange/stray dog is on the property beacuse they go on alert, on point, looking, at attention, snorting and stomping, but they don't bolt. I can see the body language of the deer and know that an unfamiliar animal or person is on the property. They are like another type of alarm system!

[my2girls]

No - usually when he barks the deer look in the direction he is looking and are alert. Unless they see something they go about their business. Now if they see another dog - they freak - but that has only happened one time - the SSS came into play :)

[my2girls]

Same here but my 3 dogs are in the pen with the deer. My Great Py lays with them at night. I have 1 dog we rescued he is 1/2 pitt bull and something else, lab maybe, but he is a VERY good guard dog as well. He loves it when the girls clean him - its cute :)

[NYDoe]

Had great pyrenees for gaurding sheep. They did not "bark" at threats, they just bee lined straight to them. And when something sees them coming, believe me, they clear out.

[ANTLER VALLEY]

Finally broke down and got some pups-meet the brothers...Truman and Roosevelt. My 4-year old daughter calls them Truman and Roosenbell!