pyrless

i know who WoC is, who is CP? yeah, you see that in the paper all the time too (i am always on the lookout for somedog that really needs us)..."will hold for christmas, perfect christmas puppies..." on a related note, i saw an ad for a Canary Dog that said "Like a black Lab"...now even I know better than that and i only have a cursory knowledge of breeds other than the Pyr! Poor dogs. :cry:

you are welcome! and yes, sometimes white dogs have more sensitive skin, too, like pale skinned people! i hope she is ok-the extra bonus to the olive oil is they think it is yummy... :D

sending hugs and pyr power...

the drooling smiley-lovely! :lol: Those are absolutely gorgeous dogs. I never really noticed how pretty they are!

hi! it could very well be the shampoo. to me it sounds like extreme dryness, which my dogs get in the winter and if the groomer doesn't use oatmeal shampoo (big ol' working dogs with sensitive skin! :lol: ) I would definitely go to the vet to be on the safe side, but I put a teaspoon of olive oil in the dog's food once a day all winter and it works like a charm (if what she has is dry skin). Is she double-coated?

Try a white vinegar soak before washing. For what it's worth, I have used the Nature's Miracle stain and odor remover for carpets AND their skunk odor remover and both products are excellent.

I like the part about "giving a life".

i voted for #3-and what a doll!

I agree. We have a rescue Pom. There are A LOT in rescue, unfortunately because of the puppymill business. They are often oversized and thus less fragile, too, which I found to be a bonus. Muffin is about 12 pounds.

Yes. Report them. Since it is not only cruel by normal human standards it is also cruel by the standards of the Michigan penal code, you have more than a leg to stand on.

woo-hoo matty! yaaaaay!!!!!!!! it is sometimes better knowing than waiting, yes? :wink: I know you will continue to take GREAT care of those dogs-it's obvious how much you love them! glad i could help some!

oh, honey! good luck! Any dog with a deep chest can be prone to bloat, so don't worry about that so much-it's not so much a breed thing as a build thing. All of your ideas are possibilities, from my layperson's point of view, the vet obviously will be able to answer more specifically than I. It can't hurt to at least look into pet insurance, i don't think it would be considered hereditary at all-this can happen to any deep chested dog at any time in their lives. It might help to start eliminating what you think the causes might be, one by one, and carefully watch his physical reaction. Best of luck for a pyrfect solution! :wink:

Hi Matty, wow that is scary! :o I was going to suggest an elevated food holder as well. I do not know about one type of food vs. another, and I have never heard one way or another on that from any experienced Pyr person. However, some things you can do to help prevent bloat: Split up their food into two, or three if you can do it, smaller meals per day. Do not exercise them strenuously for about an hour before or after meals. (like your mom always said about swimming! :D ) Try to limit extreme intake of water all at once, this makes them swallow alot of air. HTH!

i agree that some dogs can't be crated too, but for a sixteen week old pup, maybe he is just resistant to it for now. I have heard that small dogs can be difficult to housetrain exactly because they DON'T give good signals when they have to go out. Anyway, it is hard to ignore a crying dog but the main thing you have to teach a puppy is that you will come back, and that nothing bad will happen to them while you are gone. The best thing is to start very small, literally minutes at a time, and leave the dog with something extragood like a Kong or a real bone. I hope this helps, welcome to the board by the way!

WOW!!!!!! i thought my house was fuzzy!! Here are mine: [b]Taz:[/b] 3 year old Norwegian Elkhound/Collie mix, grey sable, who constantly gets mistaken for a wolf, thinks he's the boss, loves beer... [b]Muffin: [/b] 10 year old orange Pomeranian who my big tough, ex-Airborne, steel worker husband (see "Dave" , below... :D ) absolutely adores and fawns over every second! [b]Sasha:[/b] 18 month old Great Pyrenees, all white, oozes attitude and loves nothing more than a nap with me after digging back to France in the backyard... and [b]Harley:[/b] four year old, tabby DSH whose favorite things to do besides sleep the requisite 18 hours a day are harass the dogs, try to escape the house, and play with rawhide bones. And of course, my favorite... [b]Dave:[/b] 39 year-old Irish alpha male, ALSO thinks he's the boss and loves beer! Just recently got county license this past June! :D

I KNOW!!! :o basically just asking for a whole lot of hell. hee hee-border collies! i've never had one (clearly i prefer a slower-moving dog! :lol: ) but from what i have seen you need a working farm and a couple hundred sheep to really keep that dog's mind out of trouble!

Pyrs, too, actually, can come up with quite a bit of slime! But it varies from dog to dog as well. Matty, I think you are right, there is a danger sometimes with rescuers who want to "save them all". A good friend who does Pyr rescue refused to place a dog for an owner who didn't want him anymore because the dog was dangerously aggressive. These people ignored her concerns completely and set out to place him on their own-in a home with children.

i am glad you brought this up! A lot of people have the misconception that the Great Pyrenees is just a big fluffy teddy bear and while at some times that is true, this breed retains the ferocious instinct to protect its flock that the Pyrenean shepherds relied on to keep wolves and bears away from their sheep. (Bears! :o) In the case of pet Pyrs, (many are still used for LGD work) this translates into an instinct to protect their human "flock" and home, as a result they are wary of strangers and [i]will[/i] make a big scene of warning barks and growls if anyone approaches the property. They are territorial by nature as well and will not tolerate strange animals on "their" property, which is why you cannot have a Pyr and an invisible fence, chances are they will seriously injure the intruder. They often do not even tolerate other pet dogs in their home, especially those of the same sex. They are also extremely powerful, some weighing in over 120 pounds. They are independent, bred originally to roam over thousands of acres and take care of hundreds of sheep. They are not going to always come when called or listen to every word you say. Now, when trained and socialized properly they are wonderful, loyal and yes, even cuddly house dogs, submissive to people. They love their human families. They move slow and have a gift for taking naps! They will not jump all over you, demand to be walked sixteen times a day and can be housetrained in a matter of days. I cringe though, when people see my beautiful white girl and say "where do i get one of those?" Thanks for the opportunity to say a little about my favorite dogs!

i just saw a national geographic thing on the new guinea singing dog which apparently [i]has[/i] been allowed to evolve on its own although there were a few in captivity in the southern U.S. They really do "sing" which is kind of wild!

Cassie, i do not disagree with you at all :wink: , I was just using the elkhound to illustrate that some dogs are closer to the naturally evolving, pariah-type dog than others.

Cassie, I would have to disagree with you about our modern-day purebreds being artificial and recent developments. The Norwegian Elkhound has remained for all intents and purposes, unchanged for six thousand years.

Kaiser is a great name for a Rottie, too! Like I keep saying, the only pit bulls i have met have slobbered me with kisses and tried to sit on my lap...

Although I can see the point about the shelters being horribly overcrowded and those folks really do have to make some difficult decisions about those animals every day, if a dog you [i]own[/i] is food aggressive then I think it is a workable situation, if not fixable. Sasha is food aggressive towards other dogs but not people. So she eats in her crate and must sit before she eats, etc. etc. She still makes a scene if the other dogs walk by. The difference is, I was prepared for this to happen, many Pyrs are food aggressive, and took steps to manage it. An unsuspecting person who has no dog experience would find Sasha's outbursts quite frightening, I would think.

Thanks ladies! Alas, no more Victoria's Secret undies for me! :wink:

(divineoblivion-re: inspired by the thread from gigishiba about her dog pooing behind the xmas tree, it was kind of gross and funny at the same time, like this one is! :D ) anyway, phew! it is so good to know i am not the only one who goes through these things! the last time taz did this we were at thanksgiving dinner and the dog sitter came over to find my drawers in the living room! :P