Last July, after Sam's (our Great Pyrenees) untimely death, I wanted to wait awhile before getting another Pyr to replace him. After all, I felt too sad and thought it was too soon to find another Livestock Guardian Dog (LGD). But within a few days, I realized I needed another dog. For the first few mornings after Sam died, I led the sheep across the creek out to the big pasture. As soon as I starting walking back, all the ewes came running after me. I realized they knew it wasn't safe without big Sam to protect them. The lambs, having much less sense, were happy to stay out there by themselves. I trusted the ewes' good instinct and brought everybody back into our small pastures near the barn.
My choice to replace Sam would be a known LGD, adult Pyr that was in rescue. I could buy a puppy but not all Pyr puppies turn into good LGDs, and besides, my sheep needed protection right now. I found "Moses" in rescue from a family in Tenn. that felt like they had too many other large dogs to care for. I was told that he might have some slight hearing loss. We made the trek to the mountains and brought him home. After a few days we found that Moses was a very sweet Pyr but was also completely, totally deaf. A LGD's most important sense is probably hearing. However, since Moses seemed to get along well with the sheep, didn't try to escape (which is a known Pyr trait), and did everything else a LGD should do, I thought maybe we could get another Pyr to be his ears and they could work together. So back we went to the NC mountains to pick up "Thomas" from an animal shelter. Thomas was another beautiful and sweet Pyr, but within a few days was demonstrating his skill at climbing fences. So eventually Thomas went back to the shelter (where an elderly lady was waiting to adopt him) and Moses went back to his original farm.
My sheep will have to live in our small pastures for awhile longer and I'll have to start feeding them hay a lot sooner. I'll continue the search for another Great Pyrenees, but this experience has reminded me how lucky we were to have Sammy and how much I miss him.
My sheep will have to live in our small pastures for awhile longer and I'll have to start feeding them hay a lot sooner. I'll continue the search for another Great Pyrenees, but this experience has reminded me how lucky we were to have Sammy and how much I miss him.
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