Re: [PyrNet-L] Roaming night Pyr and quirky dog bone behavior

["tmseller" <tmseller@gateway.net>]

Hi everyone,

I just joined the list and have been reading the ongoing conversations for a
couple of days.  Thought I'd get a sampling of who y'all are before I
pitched in.  I want to send a special thanks to several people that are part
of this list that responded to me personally recently about my own young Pyr
and the weird behavior she'd been displaying (from a guestbook registry).
Things are much better now.  Bonnie's settled down and mostly it's like she
never had a problem...

In response to your question Tania...
Although others are clearly more experienced with Pyrs than I, all the
literature I've read says that Pyrs are naturally nocturnal.  This has been
suggested as a breed characteristic that supported the original use of the
Pyrs. Their job was to watch the herds, which  meant the Pyr had to be awake
to watch over the flock at night.  I have a hard time buying the idea that
this is now an instinctual behavior, but every source I've seen says the
same thing.

Bonnie sure is active at night.  At first I thought this was because I keep
rather late hours myself.  Then I read about their tendency to be nocturnal.
Bonnie likes to lay around all day and sleep.  She'll get active and want to
play usually early in the evening, then take a nap and be ready to play hard
between 1 and 4 am.  By the time the sun has risen, she's mellowed and
looking for a comfortable place to sleep for most of the day.  Hopefully
some of the others may have suggestions for you on how you could lower the
nighttime restlessness.  I'm assuming the best thing to do would be simply
to wear her out more in the evenings before you go to bed.

I've got a question about Bonnie's behavior I'd like to throw out for
others...

Bonnie has recently gotten into a habit of taking the treats she is given
(dog bones primarily) and either hiding them somewhere else in the house for
later (what she does most of the time), or if she decides to eat the bone
immediately, she will only do so if she finds a spot where there are no
other dogs around (I've got 2 other dogs).  I've started trying to keep my
other dogs in the room with me while they eat theirs, so Bonnie can go and
hide or eat hers with less frustration.  It's been amusing to watch her go
from room to room (especially if we've got other dog company -- it's not
unusual to have 5-6 dogs here at once), looking for a room with no other
dogs in it, so she can safely hide her bone for later.  The majority of the
time when I give my dogs a bone, Bonnie gets VERY picky on which flavor
she'll take (I'll usually pull out one of each flavor and let Bonnie choose
first since she's the only one that really cares which flavor she gets) or
she just turns away showing a lack of interest.  I've never had a dog before
that didn't like bones!  I've tried several kinds, such as Milk Bones
(regular and flavor snacks), Old Mother Hubbard, etc.  When she was younger
(between 4 and 8 months) she gobbled down every bone you'd give her on the
spot, regardless of flavor.  But suddenly this behavior changed into that
described above.  Does anyone else's Pyr do something similar?  Bonnie is a
rescue (found wandering, hungry and dehydrated), but this behavior is new
and seems to have appeared rather suddenly.  It seems to be a pack behavior,
but I don't understand the lack of interest in the treat she shows most of
the time.  I'm careful that each dog gets a treat and no one  takes someone
else's, so I don't think her behavior is related to her role in the
hierarchy around here...  I don't understand this behavior.  Anyone got any
insights to help me with this one?

Sorry if my message is long.  I do have a tendency to write longer messages
than I've seen from  most of the people posting over the last few days.

Is anyone else on this list from Arkansas, preferably the Little Rock area?
I know no one else with Pyrs and would like to meet some others.  Everyone I
know is getting tired of hearing me talk about Bonnie and I'd like to know
how much of her quirky behavior is characteristic of the breed and how much
is just her.

Curious in Little Rock,
Tammy and Bonnie (9 month old Pyr) and Sadie (7 year old, 70 pound
Rottweiler(??) mix) and Gooser (15 year old Keeshond)
tmseller@gateway.net


----- Original Message -----
From: Xerri, Tania (2318) <txerri@baycrest.org>
To: <pyrnet-l@pyrnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2000 10:28 AM
Subject: Re: [PyrNet-L] Roaming night Pyr


> Hello, Just have a question
>
> Is it common for Pyr's to constantly roam the house at night?
>
> My 10 month old female is awake all night, she brings her toys to our room
> to play with them,  bounces her balls down the stairs, wakes up the cat -
I
> hear the cat cursing at her, demands entrance to my daughters room (the
door
> is closed because the likes the stuffed toys). She is not destructive,
just
> awake.
>
> Any insights?
>
> Tania
>
>
> *********************************************************************
> Tania Xerri
> Behavioural Neurology Research Program
> Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care and
> The Rotman Reseach Institute
> 3560 Bathurst St.,
> Toronto, Ontario
> (416) 785-2500 ext 2318
>
>
>
>
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>