Our Livestock Guardian Dogs:
Solomon is a Great Pyrenees/Akbash mix that I got in January 2015. He patrols the whole property and keeps all of the predators away. He is huge! He has the muscle to back up his bark and no predators want to mess with him.
I purchased two new puppies in January of 2020 named Monty and Carlos – they are Great Pyrenees/Akbash with a bit of Black lab/Golden Retriever in the mix. Sadly Monty was hit by a car and killed when he was just a year old. Carlos is a very gentle dog.
In May of 2022 we got Sophie, a Pyrenees/Anatolian Shepherd mix. Sophie is amazing! She lives with the sheep and she won’t leave them. She can jump fences easily and she will jump from pen to pen but she won’t jump out of the sheep pen, she stays with her sheep family. Sophie is a firecracker and she means business! She aggressively barks at and confronts anything she sees as a threat to her sheep. She is extremely loving and affectionate towards people but she is very independent and enjoys doing her job.
I really love the Great Pyrenees breed as a guardian dog and they’ve worked out great for our small hobby farm situation. They protect my family and all of my animals and they do their job very well! They protect us from the local pests like coyotes, raccoons, foxs etc. They also keep birds away from the farm, including geese, doves, hawks and eagles, but they don’t chase or hurt my chickens. They are gentle enough to sleep in the barn curled up with the cats and they’ve been known to share their dog house with a chicken or two. I love these dogs!
The hardest thing about owning Great Pyrenees dogs is keeping them home. They love to roam. The only thing that has worked for us is an Invisible Fence system. I love that it gives them the freedom to roam our property and it keeps them home and safe. Solomon has always wanted to run off, but Sophie stays with her sheep no matter what, she doesn’t run off ever, we don’t use the invisible fence system with her.
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