Fluffy is catatonic in the house if sheâs in during the day. Around midday is nap time for her, which seems to correspond with a low predator threat. If something catches her ear, like the other dogs, sheâll bark in the house. At night, her predator alert level increases. If she hears something at night, itâs bark, bark, bark, run around, bark, bark, bark. It is even worst if we are not in the room with her. In fact, when we go to bed, we crate her with the flock of birds. This tends to keep the barking
down.
Interestingly, my wife complains that Fluffyâs barking in the house is often out of control on nights when Iâm not getting home until late. Once, Iâm home, everything is OK with Fluffy. We guess she thinks she needs to be on guard, more, when daddyâs not home.
Jim
--- On Tue, 3/9/10, Gary Kaufman <gary@roadsendllamas.com> wrote:
From: Gary Kaufman <gary@roadsendllamas.com>
Subject: RE: [pyrnet] How do working LGD's cue in on predator activity
To: pyrnet-l@pyrnet.org
Date: Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 8:54 PM
So hereâs a question for those of you who have had Pyrs for a while. In reference to the sound issue when they are inside, our two pyrs and Anatolian come in the house on very rare occasions, usually when one of them is in need of bed rest or other out of the weather care. Once they are inside (which they enjoy to the fullest), they quite literally go âoff dutyâ. And by off duty I mean nothing once they are in the house that goes on outside seems to be of any concern or consequence. Someone coming up the drive will trigger all three of them to let us know someone is coming, and everything and anything in their outdoor world that is awry causes a response, WHEN THEY ARE OUTSIDE. We have had people drive up without any of them so much as lifting their heads from snoozing when indoors, and even have had friends drop by and come in
the house with them just looking up and going âoh wellâ, then promptly falling back asleep.
Anyone else experience this âitâs not my job nowâ attitude when they bring their working dogs indoors? Itâs really weird.
Gary Kaufman Roads End Llamas
Olympia, WA
www.roadsendllamas.com
Here's the order in which our Pyr, Fluffy, uses here senses when guarding the backyard and our flock of birds.
1) Sound. Anyone with a Pyr indoors knows that sounds outdoors are important to the Pyr.
2) Sight. Fluffy always takes the high ground to survey the area.
3) Scent. This is a closer range sense. Used often to track were the predator has been, not where it's coming from.
Regardless, we can often spot the fox before Fluffy does. We have a higher vantage point then her and a dogâs eyesight, oddly enough, is not much better than a humanâs, especially in decoding color differences.
Jim
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