It's Dog or Nothing

All Things Great Pyrenees

Archives for March 2016

5 Ways to Help Your Senior Giant Breed Dog

7 Comments

Is your giant breed dog starting to slow down as he gets older? We have 5 tips to help your senior giant breed dog live a long, pain-free life.

5 Ways to Help Your Senior Giant Breed Dog

As our furbabies grow older, their needs grow as well. Unfortuntately, we don’t always notice their changing needs right away. The following 5 things can really help your senior giant breed dog live a long, pain-free life.

Invest in a Ramp

If your dog is losing interest in coming upstairs to snuggle with you at night or lacking excitement for car rides, there’s a good chance your dog is in pain. Investing in a ramp can allow your senior dog to enjoy his favorite things once again.

When purchasing a ramp, ensure you measure your car or other area that you plan to use it. You don’t want to have to send it back! It’s also important to take it slow with the new ramp. Most likely, your dog will be wary of the ramp and need some coaxing to learn to use it. Time and treats will help you and your dog achieve success!

Add Joint Supplements

I always recommend starting giant breeds on joint supplements as soon as you bring them home, but it’s never too late to start. Depending on the severity of your dog’s pain, there are several levels of joint supplements available.

We are currently using GlycoFlex from VetriScience and the Pure Salmon Oil from Only Natural Pet to keep Mauja and Atka’s joints healthy and pain-free. A good joint supplement can help to avoid or reduce medication for your senior dog.

Upgrade Your Dog’s Bed

Many dogs, especially the fluffy ones, enjoy relaxing on the cool tile or other hard floor. However, as your dog ages, the hard floor can be particularly detrimental to his health. The hard floor can lead to stiff joints and an aching body. An orthopedic bed can really help to soothe the joints.

It can be extremely difficult to get a high-quality orthopedic bed that doesn’t flatten under the weight of your gentle giant, but Big Barker beds are specifically designed with giant breeds in mind. While I do not have any personal experience with the Big Barker beds, I have heard wonderful things about them.

Get Regular Exercise

While your senior giant breed may have slowed down a bit, it’s important to continue with daily exercise. Be sure not to over-exercise your senior dog, but moderate amounts of exercise will help keep his muscles strong and supple.

In addition to muscle strength, regular exercise will also help to prevent obesity, which puts unnecessary strain on your dog’s joints. Maintaining an active lifestyle is a great way to improve your dog’s mood and prevent anxiety and boredom.

Try ToeGrips

It’s not uncommon for senior giant breed dogs to have issues with slick floors. Their mobility becomes limited and they run the risk of further injuries from slipping and falling. Rather than cover your house with mats that probably slip under your dog’s feet, try giving your dog the gift of ToeGrips.

ToeGrips work with your dog’s natural bio-mechanics by enabling instant traction through their toenails. The ToeGrips create a “Grip Zone” to provide traction where the toenail meets the floor.

Product_Fam

Helping to move a senior giant breed dog around the house can be quite the difficult task. Not only do they weigh more than most of us are capable of lifting, but you also want to try to avoid hurting any aching muscles your dog has. If your dog is struggling, I highly recommend giving Dr. Buzby’s ToeGrips a try.

Do you have any advice for making senior giant breed dogs more comfortable?

Pin it!

Is your giant breed dog starting to slow down as he gets older? We have 5 tips to help your senior giant breed dog live a long, pain-free life.

Meet Link – The Wheelchair-Bound Great Pyrenees

3 Comments

Great Pyrenees

One of the first things I do every morning is to check my email. I quickly peruse my inbox to see if there’s anything urgent I should reply to immediately. I learned long ago not to respond to the majority of my emails first thing in the morning – they don’t tend to be the most coherent emails! This morning, one particular email caught my eye.

The subject line showed that the Great Pyrenees Rescue of Oklahoma filled out a contact form here on It’s Dog or Nothing. I love working with rescues, so was eager for what they had to say.

The message stated that they have a wheelchair bound pup named Link in rescue and included links to his bio and a few videos. I immediately clicked through to both.

After reading Link’s bio, I was heartbroken. Link was abused by his former owner and suffered substantial injuries. Link suffered a lower back injury that caused him partial paralysis, the left rear leg broken in two places, and right rear leg was mangled beyond repair. The right rear leg had to be amputated.

I then watched the video and sobbed the entire way through. I started crying because I couldn’t believe someone could do that to such an innocent animal. Then I cried because I was blown away by how resilient Link is. Animals are truly amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4RiQnA5mTA

Even through all the horror he’s been through at such a young age, Link is just the happiest boy. While he’s doing great in his foster home, Link really needs a place to call his own – his furever home.

Friends, let’s help find Link is furever home. If you think you could be that home or know someone that could be, please contact the rescue. If not, please share his story so we can get Link home <3

Great Pyrenees: Myth or Fact?

68 Comments

When it comes to the Great Pyrenees breed, do you know what's a myth and what's a fact? Here's the truth behind seven common statements about pyrs.

When you walk around with two big, fluffy, white dogs, people are bound to stop you and ask questions. I always love chatting about Mauja and Atka, but I tend to hear several comments over and over.

Can you determine which of these statements are Great Pyrenees facts?

  1. Great Pyrenees eat a lot of food.
  2. Great Pyrenees should be shaved to keep cool in the summer.
  3. Great Pyrenees can live happily in a small house/apartment.
  4. Great Pyrenees are massive dogs.
  5. Great Pyrenees need to guard livestock.
  6. Great Pyrenees can be colors other than white.
  7. Great Pyrenees are easy to train.
[Read more…] about Great Pyrenees: Myth or Fact?

My Great Pyrenees Won’t Come When Called!

34 Comments

I hear it all the time, "My Great Pyrenees won't come when called!" You're not alone. While you'll probably never have a 100% reliable recall with your pyr, there is another way to ensure your dog stays safe.

Today, we’re joining the Positive Pet Training Blop Hop which is all about recall this week.

[insert exasperated sigh from all the pyrents out there]

If there’s one thing a Great Pyrenees does exceptionally well, it’s NOT coming when called. It should really be a pyr super power. The ability to tune out any sort of come command unless the word treat, walk, hungry, or ride is included in the statement.

Some pyrs don’t even care about the extra word. Nothing you can offer is going to make them get off their fluffy butts. Nothing.

Great Pyrenees Tricks
The accuracy of this is beyond hilarious.

If you share your life with a pyr, you are fully aware that an off-leash pyr is a disapyr. There are a few exceptions (I could probably name the pyrs that I know that can be off-leash on one hand), but the vast majority cannot be trusted off-leash. They immediately become deaf and roam to patrol their territory, which they believe is everything the light touches (yes, that was supposed to be a Lion King reference).

From here on out, I’m going to generalize all Great Pyrenees. There are pyrs that can be trusted and I don’t need a ton of comments telling me that pyrs can be trained because yours is. I know that some can be, but they are the exception, not the norm. So to save myself from saying, “the vast majority”, 17 billion times, I’m just going to add this disclaimer here 🙂

Moving on.

You can be an all-star trainer, but you will never be able to train a Great Pyrenees to have a 100% reliable recall. If anyone wants to accept the pyr recall challenge, let me know and I’ll let you borrow Mauja. However, you must allow me to supervise all training sessions so I can make a video at the end. You have to laugh or you’ll lose your mind with this breed.

Best breed ever, but such stinkers.

Now, all hope is not lost! While training a Great Pyrenees to have a 100% reliable recall on a day to day basis just isn’t realistic, a recall can be literally life-saving. It’s definitely not a skill to neglect.

In working on recall with your Great Pyrenees, it’s important to remember why they typically won’t come when called. The Great Pyrenees is an extremely independent breed. Pyrs are a livestock guardian dog (LGD) and work independently from humans. No one is coaching them through their job day and night.

The lack of human direction made it absolutely necessary for them to be able to function on their own. Even if your Great Pyrenees isn’t working the farm, he will still harbor this instinct. Don’t fight it, embrace it, or you will set yourself up for a lifetime of frustration with your pyr.

I hear it all the time, "My Great Pyrenees won't come when called!" You're not alone. While you'll probably never have a 100% reliable recall with your pyr, there is another way to ensure your dog stays safe.

While I knew exactly what I was getting into when we brought Mauja home, I was confident that I could train out the barking and build a reliable recall. I had done it with tons of dogs before and had an awesome trainer backing me up – there was no reason I couldn’t do it.

Yeah, I was a complete fool.

Mauja challenged me in ways I never thought possible (and I thought our husky mix was a piece of work!) and taught me so much. Most importantly, she taught me to not only accept, but love breed-specific traits.

Let me tell you, I’m obsessed with all things Pyrenees.

Rather than fighting her and ultimately frustrating us both, I opted for a much more realistic recall for her and Atka. The emergency recall.

The Emergency Recall

While living in California, our trainer suggested teaching the emergency recall so we had something in case we ever had a life-threatening situation. We never let Mauja off-leash anywhere that wasn’t fenced, but accidents happen and we wanted to be prepared.

Since training the recall, we’ve only had to use it once for Mauja and it worked like a charm.

Before we started using a harness for Mauja, she slipped out of her collar after being spooked by something. She then heard a dog bark and sprinted across the street toward the noise. After brief panic, I composed myself and yelled,

“Mauja! PRONTO!”

She immediately stopped and happily pranced back toward me. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. The training had paid off.

The emergency recall is a skill I will teach all of my dogs and recommend that everyone, especially those with a Great Pyrenees do the same. The best part, it’s a surprisingly easy skill to teach.

I hear it all the time, "My Great Pyrenees won't come when called!" You're not alone. While you'll probably never have a 100% reliable recall with your pyr, there is another way to ensure your dog stays safe.
“You want us to do what?”

Training the Emergency Recall

  • Come up with a command for your emergency recall. Make sure it is something you can easily remember, yet isn’t likely to be used in everyday conversation. We use the word “pronto”. You can also use a noise – Maggie from Oh My Dog! uses a two-note whistle. I’m not talented enough for that, but it’s a great option if you can whistle!
  • Grab plenty of high value treats – something your dog doesn’t get in usual training sessions. You want this treat to be extremely special! Perhaps some cooked chicken or lean hamburger meat.
  • Start off in an easy location (e.g. your house) and stand just a few feet away from your dog. Say the command, “pronto!”, in a high-pitched voice with happy, excited posture to entice your dog to come to you.
  • When you dog makes it to you, reward him/her with treats for 20-30 seconds. Don’t just open your hand and let your dog snack away. Reward treat by treat for the full length of time. Endless, single treats are perceived to be a higher value than a pile of the same number of treats. You want it to feel like your dog hit the jackpot!
  • After you’ve finished with the treats, let your dog go back to whatever he/she was doing. Often, “come” is associated with fun ending (coming in from outside, leaving the park) so let the fun continue as it was.
  • Practice, practice, practice!

Once you have a good hang of the emergency recall in the house, it’s time to start adding distance and distractions. We used a long line in open areas and gradually worked our way up from there.

It is important to avoid using the emergency recall in non-emergency situations. Repeat usage in everyday situations (other than practice) will reduce the overall strength of the recall. You never know when the emergency recall will save your dog’s life, so be sure to keep it to true emergency situations.

If your Great Pyrenees won’t come, you can still train this life-saving skill.

Does your dog have an emergency recall?

Positive Pet Training Blog HopI hear it all the time, "My Great Pyrenees won't come when called!" You're not alone. While you'll probably never have a 100% reliable recall with your pyr, there is another way to ensure your dog stays safe.

Should Your Dog Try a Homemade Diet?

4 Comments

There are several reasons for wanting to switch your dog to a homemade diet. Do you think your dog would benefit from a homemade diet? Click through to read the rest.

Miss the start of our adventure into homecooked meals? Catch up here and here!

We’re nearing the end of our third week since making the transition to homecooked meals. I will say, things are getting much easier. We still haven’t perfected it (we’ve run out of protein on more than one occasion), but progress not perfection, right?

I know I should be happiest that Mauja’s tummy has been normal for almost two weeks now, but I’m most excited about how much the pups like their food. I know that’s a selfish reason – but it gives me the warm and fuzzies to know how happy they are and I won’t hide it 😉

Anyway, back to Mauja’s tummy.

Her stools have been firm and we haven’t had to hose down her hind end after she does her business. Even with a sanitary trim, we were still having that issue because of her upset tummy. Super gross, I know, so we’re glad we haven’t had to do it in awhile!

Mauja is too – she always finds that process degrading.

I don’t blame her.

Unfortunately, Atka is still itchy. However, he is showing improvement! We haven’t experimented with proteins very much since we are just trying to get the hang of things, but that’s next on our list. I’ve actually created a log to track when and where he is itching.

Crazy dog lady or studying efficiently? 😉

Great Pyrenees
Umm… excuse us. Where is our Veg-To-Bowl?

Today, I have a question for you: Should your dog try homecooked meals?

Here are a few signs you may want to consider the switch:

Your dog is overweight. It’s really easy to overfeed your dog when he’s looking at you with those sweet eyes, insisting that he is starving. Even though you just fed him, how could you resist that face? Veg-To-Bowl provides a hearty base of vegetables to your dog’s meal so you can fill his tummy without all of the calories.

Your dog is experiencing digestive issues. If, like Mauja, your dog is having a bit of tummy troubles, you may want to try a homecooked meal. We varied brands and proteins with Mauja for several months without any success. She would be completely fine for a week, then would have a bout of really loose stools. We could never trace it to her eating anything. Since making the switch to a homecooked meal, we haven’t had any instances of loose stools (two weeks strong!). It may be helpful for your dog with digestive issues to simplify his diet.

Your dog has kidney problems. If your dog has kidney problems or is experiencing renal failure, a homecooked diet is ideal. You can easily monitor and regulate the amount of protein your dog is getting. No more guesswork about how accurate the back of the bag is!

Your dog has allergies. This is probably the most common reason for switching to a homecooked diet. When you prepare your dog’s food yourself, you have complete control over the type of ingredients used. No more wondering if an ingredient snuck in that you weren’t aware it. This makes it easy to rotate proteins to determine if your dog is sensitive to one of them. We’re still working on things with Atka, but I’m confident we’re moving in the right direction.

There are several reasons for wanting to switch your dog to a homemade diet. Do you think your dog would benefit from a homemade diet? Click through to read the rest.

After next week, the fluffies will have been on a homecooked meal for almost a month. I’m really excited to continue to track their progress! Do you think your dog would benefit from a homemade diet?