I am so excited to kick off our new series, “Meet the Giants”. Each week we will share information about a giant breed from someone very familiar with the breed
So, let’s kick it off with the Great Pyrenees! I’ll be handling this post 🙂
Do you currently have a Great Pyrenees?
Yes! I have two amazing Great Pyrenees – Mauja, our female who just turned 3, and Atka, our male who just turned 2. If we didn’t live on a military base, we’d have many more fluffies!
Are there any other names/nicknames for Great Pyrenees?
The Great Pyrenees is known by this name mostly in North America. In most of Europe, he is known as the Pyrenean Mountain Dog or Chien de Montagne des Pyrénées in France. For those of us that find “Great Pyrenees” too long to say all the time, “pyr” works just perfectly.
What are 3 words you would use to describe Great Pyrenees?
Protective, loyal, and gentle.
What is the average size of a Great Pyrenees?
Height at the withers is 27-32 inches for males and 25-29 inches for females. Weight should be proportionate to the size and structure of the dog. Typically, pyrs will range from 90-150 pounds at a healthy weight
The Great Pyrenees is considered a medium boned breed (for reference, a Newfoundland is well boned and a Mastiff is heavy boned). That means that a
What are the acceptable colors of a Great Pyrenees?
The Great Pyrenees is predominately white, but various shades gray, tan, and brown can cover up to 1/3 of the body. Most people refer to these markings as “badger marks“.
The face can be slightly colored or fully masked and the body can have a few spots. Typically the undercoat is white, but it can be shaded or marked as well.
What is the average lifespan?
Pyrs typically live for 10-12 years, but I have seen several reach 15 or beyond.
What was the Great Pyrenees bred to do?
The Great Pyrenees is a livestock guardian dog. They protect livestock from predators such as coyotes, wolves, and bears. I have heard of several fending off mountain lions and moose as well; they’re tough dogs
How much exercise do Great Pyrenees need?
They tend to do well with a brisk 30-60 minute walk each day. They are not particularly active dogs, so you won’t spend time running with them for hours on end 😉 Great Pyrenees are also fairly inactive indoors, but most prefer to spend their time outside patrolling their territory.
What are some common health problems?
Great Pyrenees are one of the healthiest giant breeds, but they do still suffer from issues such as hip displasia, bloat, patellar luxation, and osteosarcoma. Minor issues can include skin problems, entropion, and ear issues.
How much grooming do Great Pyrenees require?
Brushing will be the most important thing for maintaining your pyr’s coat. Ideally, brushing should occur at least 2-3 days per week. The outer coat of a Great Pyrenees is mostly mat resistant and self-cleaning, so baths are only needed a few times a year. The double dew claws should be trimmed regularly.
What do you wish people knew about Great Pyrenees before bringing one home?
Well, I wrote an entire post with my top 5 things I wish people knew about them. To sum it up – they bark a ton (like, endlessly), they shed, they dig, they’re independent thinkers so training isn’t a priority for them, and their guard dog nature needs to be seriously considered.
Another big consideration is fencing. The territory of a Great Pyrenees is as far as he can wander and a small fence won’t stop that. Most pyrs will need a minimum of a 6′ fence.
Why do you love Great Pyrenees?
Oh my, I could go on and on here. I think that, for me, their devotion to their family is the most wonderful thing. They are incredibly loyal and would fend off a grizzly without thinking twice. The bond between a person and her Great Pyrenees is unsurmountable.
I also love their independence. There’s something fun about the challenge of training
While they’re not the perfect breed for everyone, they’re the perfect breed for me <3
Anything else you want to say?
Please don’t go home with the adorable, fluffy puppy without doing research and talking to individuals knowledgable with the breed. Their quirks can be unacceptable to many people who aren’t prepared.
So there you have it! Our first Meet the Giants post featuring the Great Pyrenees. Stay tuned for next week when we’ll introduce our next giant!
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They can be extremely protective of children, so one needs to be very observant when other children come to play. An innocent rough house play date could become a protective issue to your pyr. They don’t understand the difference. I have older children so it is not an issue. Again do your research before you adopt any dog. Just because they are cute, fluffy, and totally beautiful doesn’t mean they are the right dog for you.
Completely agree!
They’re protective of everyone. My Pyr used to go shopping with us, and he would not leave a store aisle if my girlfriend was still shopping in that aisle. It’s one thing to have a protective 20 pound lap dog. It’s quite another to have one that weighs in at 100 – 150 pounds.
These dogs are NOT white, fluffy Neufs. People need to seriously research the breed, and consider the ramifications of having one of these in your world. If a plumber enters the house, and the dog thinks that the plumber means to harm the family, really bad things are going to happen.
Research, research, research.
this is so true and not just to little ones mine are in there teens and are very protective of there friends
Totally agree. We just got a 3y.o. G.Pyr that had been abandoned. She got spayed 3 days ago and is going to be my shadow for a few m o re days until we get stitchs out. She is like a pre-teen kid. ‘I have to think about it, Mom.’
Oh yes.. I’ve had many Pyrs — my husband will call Sally stupid, but she’s not — she just needs to think about it, …. before she obeys. Best dogs in the world, SO sweet. I didn’t begin with Pyrs because of their beauty, but because of their sweetness. I met 3 therapy Pyrs in a month, and all of them were wonderful. (they are also gorgeous — those eyes make you melt — and you will do a LOT of vacuuming or sweeping). All my Pyrs (all my dogs, period, are rescues) are from Great Pyrenees rescue groups — don’t buy. Too many dogs need homes.
Love this series you are starting! I can see this as a great tool for people wanting to learn more about the giant breeds. Thanks for sharing your Pyr knowledge with us!
I’m excited to learn more about all the giants as well! There are so many that I have minimal knowledge on.
Great information on this lovely, unusual, giant breed! I acquired a hybrid puppy a few weeks ago—mom is a Great Dane, Dad is a Great Pyrenees—so Lucky Penny is called a Great Pyredane. The litter was accidental after the owner’s female was let outside and the intrepid Pyr male who was being boarded jumped a barrier and found her. 😉
I am much more familiar with the Dane side of Lucky Penny’s lineage, so it’s a pleasure to find this blog by a passionate and knowledgeable Pyr owner. She has the Pyr double dew claws on her hind legs, although there’s only a bone in the first claw; the second claw is floppy. I was thinking of having them removed, but not after reading the posts here. They will be her “badge of honor” to show her Pyrenees lineage. Other than being a prodigy at digging craters in my yard and having a fondness for rolling around in dirt, she seems to mostly exhibit the Dane temperament at 2 months old.
I will be looking forward to the next installment of “Meet the Giants,” and hoping you cover Danes. Will post about Lucky Penny if anyone is curious about how the Pyredane mix is working out.
Very informative for a person who does not know this beautiful breed
They truly are beautiful <3
Kelsie is also the other very active member of Great Pyrenees Rescue, Montana and as such has invaluable knowledge about the breed…. plus she is always ready to hit the road to rescue a needy Pyr.
🙂
Nice guide to Pyrs! I learned a few new things.
There’s always so much to learn about any breed!
Great info! Love the pyrs, such a great creature. Loving, loyal bankers 🙂 that can’t be stressed enough that they bark, alot
People always say to me, “my dog barks a lot so that won’t be an issue”. Then they get a pyr and realize their dog really didn’t bark all that much 😉
What a cool series – learned a lot of info about this beautiful breed. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
Great series! I love my Pyr, and do recommend people do research first. We didn’t my husband fell in love with the fluffy white puppy and I went to work ensuring we knew what to do to make a good home. It wasn’t hard to love him but you do have to adapt to lots of hair, slobber and barking. ?
You’re right – they aren’t difficult to love at all! You just have to be prepared.
I too fell in love with a fluffy white puppy. I ha d recently lost my previous dog and fell in love with a gorgeous fluffy. My vet asked what made me pick a Our and I sheepishly admitted. Well he rolled his eyes and recommended a book. Regardless this has been one of the best companions of my life. But they are definitely not for everyone.
Looking forward to seeing and reading about the other giant breeds you are featuring. I love huge dogs, but they just don’t fit my lifestyle too well right now.
That’s always such an important consideration. Things such as travel are much more difficult with giant breeds.
This Is a great idea. It’s so important for people to understand the breed before bringing them into their life and home. I can’t wait to see the next post in the series. I thought about adopting a Black Russian while searching for a new addition to my family. Is that a giant breed? If so hopefully you include that one because I would still like to know more.
You know, I’m really not sure how they are classified. I’m going to do some digging and see if I can find someone knowledgeable in that breed!
It’s impressing to see them the furst time in pawson. Easy and his silly vizsla-frenemy barked like crazy as they dicovered a GP who walked in their direction at a show. But the two troublemakers turned into mice as they noticed how big this guys really are :o)
Haha! They can be quite intimidating. Many people were surprised at how big they are when they got to meet them at BlogPaws. They’re not even full-grown yet 🙂
This is a great article! Looking forward to the next installment!
You forgot to mention, though, that unless you have a couple hundred acres, they need a VERY high fence. They can be escape artists and will expand their territory to the next county!
You are SO right! I’m going to edit that in somewhere. As you well know, an off-leash pyr is a disapyr 😉
Great info and your pictures are amazing!!!!
I have Pyrs, not as farm or flock guard dogs, but as family dogs. By socializing them from very early on, you can minimize the barking issue. As puppies, I would carry them down town and walk them for 15 minutes and then sit with them in front of a store or on a park bench. They’re like movie stars, attracting all sorts of attention. They eat it up, while they get to know people. That helps with the barking. Be cautious with exercise, however. Pyr pups should not get more than 15 minutes of activity (walking) per day. They need their little joints to grow slowly to fuse together, or they can have issues by a year old.
Our Pyr (Opie) was being socialized with other dogs And people in the neighborhood at 10 weeks old. We already had a year old Golden Retriever (Midas) when we got him and it really helped having an already well trained dog to help train him. Midas is not a small dog at 85 pounds of pure muscle, but at 8 months old Opie is already 25lbs heavier. People need to make sure they do their homework when choosing this breed. I can speak from experience saying there is a world of difference between training a Golden and a Pyr. They are smart as a whip but stubborn as all heck. They are very sensitive and should be trained with positive reinforcement rather than being scolded when they are being less than obedient.
Pyrs also really hate car rides. We love them but they do jump fences a lot!!!!! Our fence is 52″ cattle panels, it’s not tall enough. We are on our second pyr, there probably won’t be a third as they are very strong and I’m not as strong as I used to be.
I am going to have to disagree on the car ride part of your post, as soon as they hear me pick up my car keys, they are at the garage door demanding if they get to go.
I have two Great Pyrenees both of them I recused. One of them was part of a hoarding case where the woman had 42 of them living in a house and never let them out. The other was from a family that got this cute fur ball that did not know what they was getting them selves into. My recommdation to any first time owner was to see the movie Jurassic World and ask yourself do you want a Raptor living in your house. They are great pets, but not a breed for everyone.
Gret site but just a few comments. What happened to the link to the Badger Markings page? Misinformation: Pyrs bark all the time. Wrong, I never met a Pyr that barked when sleeping. We have two Pyrenees with dwarfism. The older one (8 years old), Connor is also deaf (common with dwarfs). The Badger marked puppy (Britta) is only four months old and has normal hearing. They are both rescues. Breeders tend to euthanize them to keep anyone from finding out that there might be a genetic defect in their line. You can see pictures of these little giants on my Facebook page.
I have a sheep farm on 6 acres in Southern Wisconsin, and I have been thinking about getting a Great Pyrenees for the past year or so. I have a 2 year old border collie, but I cannot leave him in with the sheep for too long because collie’s tend to gnaw on the sheep when they get bored. I have a 48 inch mesh fence with electric wire a foot off the ground and another that runs along the top of the fence. Would this be adequate fencing for the Pyrenees?
I just got a Great Pyrenees mix puppy who I named Commodore Scrimshaw. He has already doubled in size (I got him at 8 wks and now it is 4 wks later). He is so much fun, but is teething, so he likes to bite things a lot with his needle like teeth (including me) 🙂 So besides him biting my nose occasionally when he is giving me kisses, he is just a wonderful dog. My two other big dogs, a Corgi/Lab mix and a Terrier Cow-dog mix have gotten used to him and his playful ways. Yay me!!!!
We have a beautiful dog that we just adopted and he is a border collie/pyr mix named Mammoet (Dutch for mammoth).
The day we picked him up, his extra-large, calm (mainly black) border collie father (with ice-blue eyes) was tethered to the farm and on alert. Our puppy’s mother was a large/medium beautiful white pyr that ran away when we drove up to the home.
His original human Dad put Mammoet in the back of our truck and kiseed him on his head and said “be the good boy I know you are”. He gave us vet papers, dog food and said his name is “Junior”. There was a definite misty cast to his eyes as well.
We left quickly because all of Mammoet’s original family (human/dog) seemed to be in distress. As we were driving away his beautiful pyr mom started to bark a great deal and then she raced back to his border collie dad and attacked him. Upon hearing this, our new puppy started to cry and climbed on to my lap in the front of the truck. We had no clue what to expect from this whole scenario but we were in it deep and we knew it. For the next 2 hours Mammoet slept on my lap and tried to fight off motion-sickness.
The 2-hour drive took all of us to my husband’s son’s place. It was here, Mammoet met 2 dogs, a fully entrenched adult dog and a brand new puppy (they taught him a lot that night/day). He tried to fit in, climb the stairs, play, get a bath (he was flithy from his original farm home in Stettler, AB) etc. At the end of the night, he finally hide away behind a table, furthest away from all of us and seemed so sad. All the scents of his original home was gone after the bath 🙁 and he slept the entire night in a coat closet, after a meal though.
After driving him to our home (12 hours away on Vancouver Island, 7 weeks ago) his wonderful personality is amplified every day (it was always there). We don’t know what to expect.
His border-collieness is there but what about his beautiful pyr Mom, it seems to come out. We don’t know much about this breed but he is displaying more and more I think. He has very stubborn moments but also we see his guardian side. I am very excited to know more about his breed and newly-formed characteristics.
We love him very much 🙂
We kennel and foster dogs, including an older Great Pyr, ANDY, and now 8 more – parents plus 6, just turned 6 weeks old, puppies. We’ve pinned your site for folks to reference in considering adopting one of these dogs. Sure, they’re great looking dogs and adorable puppies (“pupcakes” and “puppy bears” come to mind…), but not for those just wanting any old dog. Folks definitelty need to know beforehand what they’re getting into!
About Andy: he’d been left to roam on a property and had never been inside when he came into our care. He wasn’t used to people or much of anything. He was all mats, had heart worm and was malnourished. My daughter spent half her time at the veterinary just loving on him and pretty much baby-ing him back to health. Now, well now, he loves couches and would sleep on my daughter’s bed if she’d let him! He is the biggest baby. He does like to bark, but usually a gentle word or two in a firm voice is enough to nip it in the bud. We train most of the dogs in at least AKC puppy school manners and beginner “tricks”. ANDY is NOT food motivated and definitely has a mind of his own. Slow, but steady is the name of the game with him. It’s all about RELATIONSHIP – he minds me because I love on him and for no other reason. (He will sometimes take a treat, then drop it a few feet away.)
We’ll be starting much sooner with the puppies. Right now they’re learning their names (recall) and being pad trained, along with socializing with both people and other critters (it’s a very busy place). I’m looking forward to working with them, as I am finding Pyr’s to be a very different sort of breed.
One question I do have is about summertime puppy cuts for the older dogs – have you tried it? They are not a common breed in this area – summer’s are hot – and none of our groomer’s seem to know. (We ended up getting Andy his own fan in addition to the A/C.)
Thanks for all the info!
Do not cut. Their coat helps them regulate their body temp, And their skin is pink, susceptible sunburn. Trim the hair between pads and trim the double dew claws regularly.
Hi, we live in Destin, FL and have two pyrs. It is very hot nine months out of the yeat here. We DO NOT shave our pyrs as the fur actually keeps them cool. The undercoat wicks the heat from the skin and it is dissipated at the tips of the topcoat. We do however, have their coats layered more in the hot months. Pyrs have very pink/light colored skin and will sunburn easily if shaved. Their fur is a very important part of their skin’s protection as well as insulation from the heat. With this being said, be very careful when the humidity is high as pyrs can overheat quickly. Humidity is definitely their biggest enemy. Our pyrs are house pyrs and are in an air conditioned environment most of the time. As for exercise, when it is hot or humid, we walk or take them to the dog park in no more than 30 minute sessions usually late in the evening after the sun has set. They also have indoor play dates with other pyrs and giant breed dogs, go to a climate controlled indoor doggie daycare a couple of days a week and we take them shopping with us at dog friendly stores such as Lowes, Home Depot, Old Time Pottery, Home Goods, Ross Department stores and Barnes and Noble Book Stores and. Bass Pro Shoppes. And of course, you can take them inside most pet stores and farm stores like Tractor Supply. They love going to all of these businesses and love the attention they get from everyone there. Even though it is hot, socialization and exercise can be done in creative ways indoors. Just Google pet friendly businesses in your area and you will be surprised how many places you can actually take your pyrs.
No, to cutting a pyr’s hair EVER! They need it to maintain proper body temperature. Please don’t. Any reputable groomer should know this.
I just brought home a Pyr puppy. I am having the most difficult time getting him to alert me when he needs to go outside. But he will go upstairs and bark to be let in to my son’s room to poop. So he is clearly smart enough to know he needs to go but refuses to go to the outside door. Is this something that will get better with patience? Any tips on house breaking would be appreciated.
I have a Great Pyrenees/Maremma mix. 1st time owner. Currently she is 7.5 mo old and weighs 92 lbs. Not spayed yet, has not been thru heat cycle yet. We have no live stock she is our family pet. It’s just myself, husband, 18 y r old son. I have taken her to 2 puppy classes at 6 weeks lesson each class. I live in Alaska so we do walk outside me all bundled up, take her to stores like Home Depot etc on a weekly basis to train her. I used to take her to work with me in a doctors office 3 x week. I take her to dog parks regularly and she has played with many dogs. She never fights any other dogs EVER. 9 year old girls can lay all over her and she just takes it. I read people comments on how their dog barks a lot and people complain. Mine NEVER barks at strangers other dogs nothing. She only barks so I can let her go outside to potty or just to be outside and let her back in. We don’t have a Fence we trained her using the invisible fence. Half the time we don’t put the proper collar on her and she still stays home. When someone knocks on my door she just gets up to look at them and sniffs them. Never growls. Never barks. Other people say they have to crate there dogs during the day or they do some damage. Mine has only ripped up toilet paper. She does not counter surf. I am just wondering will she change as she gets older as in will she bark at some point? Will she misbehave badly at some point? I spend a lot of time with her. She has been a really good dog since we got her at 8 weeks old. She even sleeps in our bed we love her so much. I am waiting for her to act out badly and she is not. I’m not complaining I’m grateful because my last dog of 13 years was a Yorkie male. He was very naughty from day one and I cannot handle another one. So I am very grateful. But any comments or am I just one Lucky girl with my Lucy. Sorry for the book read. Thanks you.
Sarah. Just so happy with Lucy
I have had pyrs off and on since 1978.
WE now live in south Missouri and have had trouble with critters getting into our livestock’s we found sisters but at just under 1 year the fighting began and became so vicious I feared for the life of one of my precious girls. A friend with 90 acres wanted one and promised a first choice of a male puppy from a litter. Our they both are loving animals that won’t trade. But my male is a drool machine. I have never owned or worked with one that drooled like this. I can’t be near him until I change into grubby clothes. I have to prepare myself to slimed. Slimmer should have been his names
At 5 months old he is over 75 lbs and follows every command and is fantastic on a leash.
He is also my mud ball. Haha