A Much Better Day - Pyr Stories

Thank you for taking the time to read my blogging of my first days as a Pyr mom! The first day was quite a challenge but I have to report that last night I walked a completely different dog on the lead! I put a smaller choke chain on Hooch (Turner & Hooch...get it?!) and he walked like a perfect gentleman! I was in shock! It wasn’t the chain, I think he just needed to know that I wasn’t trying to hurt him with that thing around his neck. He obviously has never had a collar on. But, last night was a completely different story and this morning, again…he walked wonderfully. Could he have possibly learned so quickly?! I had heard that the Great Pyrenees is a very smart dog, but I didn't expect success so quickly with the way he was carrying on yesterday on the lead. I spent quite a while last night grooming him and he LOVED it! It was funny. He would lean into the brush and lift his leg as if to help scratch. I'm sure it felt good on his skin too. Gracie enjoyed it but she still does not trust me 100%. She hangs in the background watching and wagging her tail but shys away when I reach for her. Not all the time…but most of the time. Hooch now gets to the end of the lead and stops to wait for me to catch up. I’m not trying to make him heal at my side or anything…just to walk nice and go potty outside. They stayed in the horse stall last night and are back in there while I’m at work. Yesterday, when I came home from work, I found that Gracie did not just lay and wait for me like Abby & Scruffy do. She found the remains of thier bag of dog food and tore that to shreds, chewed an old lead into about 8 pieces. Pulled the liner out of one of Jon's mud boots and attempted to chew the sole of it. She could have done much worse so I was not terribly put out by this. She could have snuggled down with Abby and Scruffy but I think she probably would have been happy in the stall with Hooch.

I’ve walked Hooch all over the property yesterday and today and he has bonded with me real nice. This morning, after our walk around, I put the dogs in the run where they will one day live (soon, I hope) and took the lead off of him and he never left my side. I tried to walk away to create distance between us but he would only follow right beside me. I hope he doesn’t get too attached to me and not want to guard the alpacas. Jon comes home tonight so I imagine tomorrow he will have to put some chicken wire along the fence to keep Hooch from trying to dig out…then we’ll watch him this weekend in there and see if that’s going to work. If not, I’m not sure what we’ll do next. Probably hot wire. They need to be outside.

I took Hooch into one of the boy’s pastures this morning to introduce him to them (alpacas) and he did fine…didn’t pay them much attention. But, Gracie managed to squeeze through the pipe gate and she chased after them. She's still a pup and I won't let her range with them for several months or more yet. I guess more chicken wire or hog panel wired to the pipe gates should cure that.

Until next time...