[pyrnet] Definitely here

[Rhonda Collins <rhonda@castlepublishing.com>]

At 12:00 AM 11/08/2001 -0500, you wrote:

Barb asked:
> Anyone out there in Pyrnet land?
> Things have been soooo quiet lately.
> Doesn't anyone have a cute Pyr story to share? <G>

Hi, Barb! Yup. Newman and I are here. He's just as feisty as ever, and
after his episode of "artistic zeal" in painting the bathroom
with mud, we've had several other episodes of his also painting the
curtains in the living room and the couch. Hubby is working on a water
leak out in the back yard, and although he has it blocked off with that
white vinyl latticework stuff, Newman still seems to find his way inside.
REALLY...<rhonda sniffing in disgust> if he is dissatisfied with
his color, all he has to do is ASK, and I'll DYE him any color he wants,
but MUD is not an appropriate hair color and is terribly messy
besides!  He has also eaten two shirts, another pair of thong
sandals, several pieces of my underwear, and another one of my shoes. Do
you suppose his diet is deficient in some obscure manner?
<sigh>

> Hermit in the Woods, singing,
> "If It's Not a Pyr,Dear; Might as Well Buy =
> a Steer,Dear!"

LOL. Well, I THOUGHT of buying a miniature horse. At least that way I
could make use of the overgrown grass in the back yard and have an excuse
not to mow....

Welcome Michelle Donald Calgary Alberta! What should we CALL 
you?!!!
Congrats on your new Pyr pup! 

We brought Newman home at eight weeks, and he was already on dry dog food
and water. We started him out on Science Diet puppy, but he didn't like
it, and now he's on Professional Large Dog Puppy and seems to be doing
very well.

We keep Newman in the bathroom at night, and have since the first night.
That's his sleeping place. At the time, we didn't have the kennel, and we
STILL use the bathroom more of the time than we do the kennel, though we
still use that at times. He cried and kept us awake the first couple of
nights, but after that he settled in quite well. Now, at almost 7 months,
he sleeps in the bathtub (or upside-down under the vanity, which is kind
of like a cave for him...that's really funny!)

Newman is partial to his rope knot, which he slings around like a whip
and knocks things over (stay out of his way with that one!), but he LOVES
anything that makes noise, and has never been very interested in his
Kong, oddly enough. His favorite toys, though, are anything that belongs
to us that he can chew up, unfortunately. I bought him a stuffed
basketball at a garage sale once, and he adored that (until it fell apart
from "adoration").

We started working him with the lead right away, though we didn't go very
far.  When he got tired, he'd lay down and refuse to move, and
carrying him, even at that age, was VERY tiring for ME, since I only
weigh about 130 lbs.

I don't know which collar or harness is best. We have a regular collar
AND a Halti head collar. My husband likes the head collar, and I don't,
although I do use it when he's rambunctious and not minding, because he
will definitely pay more attention to me with less work on my part with
the head collar...however, I've heard that it's better just to train them
to MIND no matter what kind of collar or harness you have on them, and
generally Newman pays attention to me fairly well and doesn't pull.
People are always asking me how we got him trained so well so young...ah!
if they only knew! Mostly, it just takes constant working with 
them.

We got Newman a large crate, but lo and behold, it ain't gonna be big
enough for him when he's grown.

We feed him 3-four times a day, but I don't know if that's the right
thing to do or not...it just seems to work for us and him.

---

And on another topic, a temporary worker at the office saw Newman's
picture on my desktop and said, "Oh, a friend of mine had a dog like
that, but when it was two years old, it got killed by some larger
animal." I got to thinking about that, and wondered what kind of
animal it might've been. Great Pyrenees can kill bears, for heaven's
sake. Whatever killed it had to have been pretty big, I would 
think.

Anyway...see? I'm still around, and just chock full of useless
information....

Rhonda