Emails from Pyr Owners

Here is the latest story from Rob Oct. 04

Hi Shellie, Wow, what a batch of puppies! I can't believe it's been almost a year since I picked up Scout, ewes are bred again and winter is on the way. I have to say that I have been tempted to get another puppy, Scout has worked out so well but I think it would be best to wait. We have had some trials while he's been growing up but I am very glad I have him. We have had no losses due to predators but they are around. Last summer a place up the road from us lost sheep to coyotes and there has been bear around too. We had a bear go up along side the electronet one night last summer. It was out of sight of the house and we had Scout in with the lambs. I heard him barking and knew by the sound it was serious so I put a spot light on and saw a bear walking along the fence and Scout at the fence barking at him, they were separated by about 50 yards. The bear made no motion to go toward Scout and Scout didn't back down either. I walked up with a flashlight and pistol to see if the bear walked through the ewes net and to make sure he didn't pull down the lamb's fence. While walking up the pasture I lost sight of the bear along a stonewall and Scout was barking all the while I was walking up. When I got to him he was still agitated so I pointed the flash light toward where his focus was and saw the bear just behind the stonewall about 50 yards away. Once I put the light on him he took off and inspecting the fences found that he didn't knock down any of them. Later I found out from the game warden that the bear I saw was a female about 250lbs and who had walked through several electric fences one surrounding corn and another surrounding a small flock of sheep. I don't think there were sheep losses but the corn was a mess. I have some more pictures I'll send along when I get the chance. Rob

This email is from Rob in New Hampshire, he got the last male pup from the 2003 litter, that makes Scout 5 months old.  This email is from Feb. 04.

Just wanted to give you a little update about D'Artagnan. I had him to the vet yesterday and he weighed in at 84.7. We are so pleased with him. He is turning in to a nice watch dog. I was on your web page and it is nice. I really liked the fiber section. Are you selling your products and/or wool? Hopefully, I will get my camera figured out soon so I can send you pictures of D'Artagnan. Nicole Molly is doing well. She is still very much a pup though. We joke that she has jaws of steel as she loves to carry huge tree trunks around. She is listening to me much better but she definitely has a mind of her own and pretty much does what she wants to ( A lot like my youngest daughter, LOL) She doesn't stay with the sheep much, since they are in the barn right now, but she does walk our property at night a bark like she is suppose to. She even comes to my bedroom window, in the middle of the night, and barks to wake me up if there is a ewe having lambs. Dave and I are amazed how she can be so dirty and muddy and then the next day she is beautiful and white again. She must take much pride in keeping herself clean. Whenever I'm in the field with the sheep, sheba does go with me. She just observes and sniffs them a lot right now. The sheep just look at her, once in a while they try to run her out of the field protecting their lambs. Dave starts a long break next week and we are going to allow Sheba to spend a little more time with the lambs, with our constant supervision of course. She seems very gentle. Sheba and Tom, the cat, have quite a relationship. It is hysterical, many times I have went to the barn and the cat willingly has allowed itself to crawl under the kennel to get in there with Sheba. I will keep in touch with you and send you some pictures soon. Take care. Mendy Hi Shellie I got the papers for Belle, thanks. I have some good pictures of her I will send either email or postal. She sure is a good dog, very happy with her. The cold weather doesn't seem to bother her either, got down to around 0 for a while. But she likes to hug on to me for a while when I get home from work. She is with her batch of lambs now 24/7 and no problems. thanks Have a nice Holiday Season Mike Wishneski Hi Shellie, It's great to hear from you and thanks for sending the pictures! Scout is doing fine. We really worked at getting an attitude change around the ewe lambs and for the most part he is much better. Around the pregnant ewes he is very respectful, he got rolled a few times by the ram and by a ewe I knew would go for him. We started lambing on Saturday and right now we have twins on the ground. I have had Scout around that ewe and her lambs and he is very calm so much so that the ewe doesn't mind him around her pen. He still likes run through thesheep and get them moving and he finds that fun, occasionally chasing one of them. But a firm 'no' from me or one of the ewes lowering her head usually stops that. Most of the time he likes to walk among the sheep smelling them and licking their faces. He usually backs off if one starts to stomp (the ram). He loves to play either by himself or with Jess our bc pup and they are great friends. Right now I don't leave him out if I am not there since he has found ways to escape and come over to the house. Mostly he climbs over the fence from snow dunes. I knock them down and he usually finds another one I missed. At some point soon I am going to rig an electric line on top of the fence and I think that will stop his great escapes. He still hasn't found his bark yet but I guess he is a little young-6-9months right? I just got a digital camera that I am learning to use and have gotten some good pictures of Scout and his flock. I'll send you some when I can figure out how to put them on the computer and down load them. Or I can just send them by the mail. Winter has been long in NH real cold and windy and lots of ice. The snow fall hasn't been as bad as last year and we are close enough to spring to hope we would get too much dumped on us before then. Looking forward to Spring, Rob

I thought I'd relate an incident that happened the other day with Scout that I found quite inspiring.
We are in the middle of lambing and I came home early the other day to castrate some ram lambs.
When I got to the barn Scout ran up to me then ran back to the three side barn and started barking.
When I got there I saw a ewe lying down who had already dropped two lambs and had a leg sticking out
of her vulva obviously stuck. She had been in labor for a while and was exhausted and it took about
twenty minutes to push back the lamb and re-adjust it so she could deliver it. While I was doing this
Scout was lying down next to one of the lambs she had previously dropped. Once I got the lamb out I
took it to a jug with the ewe following behind and Scout following too but distressed. As I started
into the barn Scout ran back to the two lambs on the ground and starting barking again. As I came out
he ran up to me and immediately ran back to the lambs. I picked them up and put them into the jug
with their mother. The two lambs were hypothermic and I had to warm them which took about two and
half hours. Scout had followed me into the barn and lay down and watched calmly at the side of the pen
as I worked on the two lambs, much to the distress of some new mothers. Happy to say that all three
lambs are doing well thanks to Scout!
Rob


I have been and continue to be quite impressed with him. While that was happening I knew I was party
to something that I would remember for a long time. Every once in a while I would look over at Scout
while I was working on that ewe and he just lay there with that lamb calmly watching me. Without
Scout alerting me to the situation, I don't know if I'd had noticed her until I put all the ewes away
later that night, she was so tired and quiet. He has really come into his own since we started lambing
a month ago. When something startles the lambs they all come running to Scout, ewes too. A couple of
weeks ago I was watching him from the house and he was sitting on some rocks and I noticed that he
was looking up at the sky. This was going on for a while so I stepped outside to take a look but when I
looked around I didn't see anything. When I looked again I noticed a Red Tailed hawk way up
high......that he saw! Some dog!