RE: [PyrNet-L] If Pyrs were easy to train...

["Colette and Warrick Wilson" <warrickw@bond.net>]

Cathryn Lundberg wrote:
>I want to hear your observations and comparisons. I know there are a
few of you out >there.

Ok, here is my shot at an answer to your questions.  First of all, some
background...
I have had at least one dog in my life since 1980.  I have had Pyrs
since 1994.  I currently own 2 Pyr bitches (ages 3.5 years and14
months), 5 Pyrenean Shepherds (ages 4.5, 4.5, 3, 18 months, 9 months)
and a Newfoundland dog (17 months).  I have taught conformation handling
classes and puppy socialization for our kennel club.
My first Pyr, Sam, was profoundly deaf from birth.  He was trained using
obedience hand signals as well as a few adapted for our own purposes.

All of our dogs have had at least one session of formal obedience
training.  Depending on need and aptitude, some have had more.  I have
competed in obedience on a limited basis.

My Pyrs have all been compliant with my requests of them.   They will
heal and walk nicely on lead.  They understand commands of wait, stay,
easy etc....  If I ask them to sit, they will, BUT, they do not do it
with lightning speed.  It is subtle, but everything they do, they do
very deliberately and it seems, not without some thought.  They have
been quick to learn anything they are taught, but ask them to do it
repetitively and I find myself meeting greater resistance and less
co-operation from them.  In a competitive environment, Blossom our 3.5
year old Pyr can be trusted off lead. That is, in a ring etc.  She is
training for her Draft Dog title.  The entire competition is done off
lead.  We train this way and she has never broken away or given any
indication that she would.  Put her in another setting, say perhaps our
yard with the gate open and she'd be gone....the Pyr instinct would
simply take over.  Staying with me during competition and training is a
matter of knowing my expectations and my not providing the opportunity
for anything but co-operation on her part.

I have trained a Pyr Shep in competitive obedience and in a matter of a
couple of months took her from lap dog with aptitude to High In Trial
dog at the National Specialty with a score of 191.5 of a possible 200
points.  A different type of dog, a herding breed.  Very quick to pick
up what is being taught, very eager to please.  In fact, so eager that
she will do sit, down, stand, sit, down, stand over and over and over
simply because I ask her to.  The fact that I have chicken weiners in my
pocket (her training reward) helps greatly.

We have very recently added a young Newfoundland to our household.  Yet
another breed....  He is considered one of the working breeds, but
intended for different work than the Pyrs.  He too learns quickly.....
in a week, he has learned leash respect, to sit and down on command,
housebreaking rules, shake a paw.  Not bad for a dog that was banished
to the backyard for his entire life.  He will be a carting dog.  I have
never seen a dog his size respond so sharply to commands.  You tell him
sit and his butt hits the floor immediately and with a thud...the same
is true of his downs.  Bang, he is on the floor.

Three different breeds, all quick to learn.  All could be trialed in
obedience. The Pyrs would take the most work, simply to attain the
sharpness that is expected in the obedience ring by judges.  Immediate
sits, fast recalls, attentive healing and reliability on NOT leaving the
ring during competition.

Why haven't I trialed my Pyrs?  Time.... I don't have the time to train
that it would take to do it well.  They are wonderful house dogs and do
as I ask.  Right now, I'm satisfied with that.

Despite the differences in the three breeds, I love them all.   I
respect them for what they are.  I don't expect them to react in the
same way....other than to respect me as Alpha and  mind what I (or any
of the other humans in the household) say.  I haven't been
disappointed...

Regards,

Colette Wilson
Avignon Reg'd Kennels
Great Pyrenees & Berger des Pyrenees
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
mailto:avignon@bond.net
http://www.bond.net/~warrickw/avignon/avignon.html