Training or Introducing a Pyrenese puppy

[marlowmanor]

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How cute!

 

[Bbutter]

Well I learned my lesson the hard way. I left Shep unsupervised with the chickens for a few days because he seemed to be doing great. And the first few days he really did do great. But I later found him chewing on my last Easter Egger. (The rest had been killed by predators, hence the reason for Shep.) She died a few hours later. He didn't attack her, just used her as a chew toy. He had loads of other toys out there, but I guess nothing compares to one that moves on its own.
Back to square one.

In the meantime, has anyone had success with scarecrows against hawks?

 

[Southern by choice]

sorry about your EE

Geese and goats made a huge difference in our fields, now we have the dogs. A few years ago we lost quite a few to hawks then we got our geese then the Nigerians. The only hawk attacks after that were outside of the fields.

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

Around my parts, moving people don't even scare hawks, never mind a scarecrow.

So sorry to hear about your hen. That is sad.

 

[Grazer]

I'm wondering how everyone else is doing with their GPs? We are keeping our girl completely separate from the chickens, we now have a goat and keep her separated from the goat so far, will introduce her slowly on a lead.

I'm really walking on egg shells with the training thing. I thought I read before to get these dogs out in the community as pups to socialize them. I'm feeling now that this is incorrect (feel free to correct me, those with more experience). She's not aggressive at all with company, and is totally freaked out when I take her away from the house. I'm feeling like I should support her need to be at the house 'overseeing'. She is definitely more of a 'watcher' than a 'patroller'. I'm walking the perimeter with her everyday at least once and sometimes she will not accompany me. Drags way behind continuously looking back over her shoulder at the house. She's set herself up on the porch....I'm not sure if this habit should be broken or not.

Thank you all for any input.


Grazer, I SOO wish I could speak and understand more than one language. What a blessing.

Thank you Blarneyeggs, it sure does come handy

Your pup is so fluffy and adorable.

It sounds like she's a little timid right now.
So it's best to take things very slow with her at first.
Our vet for instance advices not to take puppies to dog parks or any similar environments until they've had all their shots (which is usually at around 16 weeks if you don't count the rabies shot which is often given at 5 months).
Because of the parvo cases they keep getting every year. I don't know if that's a good advice or not, but I think the vet definitely has a point there.

Also...every time we would get a new puppy, we wouldn't take that puppy anywhere (except for a vet check up the day after) for about a week or two. That way the puppy would have the time to adjust to their new environment.

So anyway, you'll want to take things slowly and try keep all her experiences as positive as possible until she's about a year old.
It's important not to overwhelm the puppy.
While you are at the vet's office for instance you can have people pet her one by one and you should teach her to ignore other dogs. And then reward her with perhaps some cooked boneless chicken.

It is also important to ignore any fearful/anxious behavior so you don't end up reinforcing it by accident.
You need to gain her trust and you can already teach her to sit and then have her sit before every meal.
Puppies need structure.

When you take her outside, allow her to investigate and make sure you praise her a lot for even the smallest progress.
Work with her for short periods a few times a day and in the beginning any trips to the outside world should be very short.
And as she gets older you can have her meet more strangers.

When you walk the perimeter you can again have cooked boneless chicken with you (works better than regular treats IMO) and while she follows you, you can then give her the reward and praise her.
If she all of a sudden gets fearful you can try to distract her with that chicken or with a toy. If she regardless of all that runs back to the house, just ignore her and start again later or tomorrow.

Shy and sensitive pups are a lot of work but with patience and time this can all be resolved.
Again the most important thing is for you to praise and reward her for every little progress, take things slowly and ignore any fearful/anxious behavior.

I hope that will help a little..

 

[CocoNUT]

I just wanted to pipe in here...My pup was PERFECT at 4/5 months...THEN the TERRIBLE TWEENS started! Gus was perfectly happy to patrol the yard, check out the birds, mind the goats....THEN the hormones started! She started barking around 8 months...and it seems she hasn't stopped since! The chicken-chasing gave way to chicken STALKING! We've reinforced our chicken runs MULTIPLE TIMES! We correct her EVERY TIME we catch her doing "naughty" things...such as chewing on hoses, chickens, pieces of wood, tree branches, need I go on? Oh yeah...she has a swimming pool she's chewed up and a GAZILLION toys! Kong puzzles, treats puzzles, chew toys, rawhide tubes, all kinds of fun stuff.

Now when we tell her to "leave it"...she WILL drop the chicken! She has a feather fetish tho...Just LOVES the feathers!

Since she's gone into heat...she has found her way OUT of our yard...bent the fence down....and the goats, of course, followed her to our pasture...while she stalked our pastured birds! (she DID drop them when we caught her in the act...and she immediately came back into the yard...through the hole in the fence!) She'll have her WONDERFUL days...then her seriously naughty days! She still patrols with me when I do my chores...and she doesn't chase or harass the goats...who are a little smaller than her at this point. I do have hope for her...with consistency she has shown that she KNOWS to "leave it" and come back into the yard. She follows our basic commands.

Remember each dog is an individual and is different. I'm just sharing my story to let you know what COULD happen! (My 8 year-old human child is just about as predictible as the dog at this point!) They have those sweet little furry faces that say "mommy...i could NEVER do that!"...then you catch them...feather-faced! Then they give you that "what? Me?!" look and you TRY to not melt...you TRY to remember they just had your FAVORITE hen in his/her mouth...you TRY to remind the cutie pie WHAT their job is...their job is to PROTECT mommy's birds....NOT eat them! They give you their best chastized look...and you remind them AGAIN to NOT chew on the chickens! Don't I feed you enough? Don't you have ENOUGH toys? Don't I play fetch with you enough? Maybe I should've gotten another one...so they'd have each other to keep busy.....but MY luck...they'd work together to "play" with the chickens! :h

So the training continues...for another year....hopefully only another year....