Our Livestock Guardians

We have fallen in love with our Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dogs.  We purchased our first pair, Remington and Hailey, in 2019 and began introducing them to our stock.  They bonded with the animals almost immediately, with Remington letting a young bottle calf suck on his ears.  We primarily use them to protect our sheep and goats, although they also are good with our cows, chickens, ducks, barn cats, our smaller household dogs, and children.

When they were only 6 months old, we were privileged to watch as they ran a coyote off who was trying to get to the sheep pasture.  Since then, we have had many more opportunities to be impressed with the pyrs protective instincts.  Several times we have watched them as a rainstorm begins.  The pyrs will stand on either side of the barn door and wait as the sheep walk into the barn, then Hailey will go into the barn while Remington goes back out in the rain and runs in a wide circle around the field to check for any stragglers before going inside himself. 

Remington tries to keep peace among the sheep.  When we turn our ewes out of the barn after lambing, the mothers sometimes will be overly protective of their babies and start butting heads with other sheep.  Remington will go and stand in between the sheep and try to prevent them hitting heads.  The sheep will circle around him and try to go at it again.  He keeps trying to prevent it, and once we saw him put his paw on the back of one of the sheep to try to stop her.

The pyrs also are extra watchful for sick or small animals.  Once when we had an orphan lamb, Hailey took on the lamb as her personal responsibility and would curl up with the lamb tucked up against her.  If there is a sick or injured animal, one or both dogs will stay close to it until we come and take care of it.  

We have since added 2 more girls, Savannah and Sophie. For our farm situation, we have found the dogs work best in teams of two, so the extra girls allow us to have guardians for both flocks when we have to separate rams/ewes, sheep/goats, etc. This has also given us the opportunity to start raising puppies!

When our puppies are ready for adoption they will have been dewormed regularly, have had their first shots, and have been checked by our vet (we can provide vet records on request). They are born in a pen in our sheep barn and are exposed to sheep from birth.  We continue to introduce them to other livestock as the puppies develop. 

While we will do our best to get the puppies ready to go to farms to work as LGDs, it is the customers' responsibility to continue training.  Puppies and young dogs still like to play and need to be watched carefully so they do not chase/injure stock.  As we have raised our puppies, we have found that slow introductions to farm animals have worked the best, with verbal reprimands as needed to correct unwanted behaviors.

Please be aware that a full grown pyr is a LARGE animal! They are not meant to live in small places. If forced to live in a small space with nothing to occupy them, they will become destructive, NOT because they are ”bad” but simply because they are bored. We ask that you please carefully consider if you have the space and time to invest in your dog before you purchase. We love our dogs and want good homes for them, not staked out in a backyard somewhere!

That being said, if you feel you are ready to commit to a great pyr and feel you can provide a good environment for it, we welcome you to give us a call or send a message.  We will be happy to work out a time for you to come visit, or simply answer any questions you may have.  We certainly don't have all the answers but are glad to share what we have learned through our experiences. 

*No Sunday calls or sales, please!*