Boone

This is Boone. Isn't he cute? (some don't think so, but I do) anyway, beneath his cuteness he is the oddest dog I have ever met. Really.

Boone is a Pyrenean Shepherd, or Berger Des Pyrenees if you want to get official about it. He came to me through a friend in Calgary. She had heard about the dog from a breeder friend of hers. He has some serious baggage and issues that have been ongoing. His name was Blair. He is four years old.

When he came off the plane in Calgary he bit the luggage handler. He stayed in the crate for two days before my friend finally dumped him out. After that he hid under the sanctuary of the kitchen table. She emailed me to see if I knew anyone who would be up for the challenge of trying to bring this dog back to normalcy...I am a sucker. I said "I will!"

I have had him for about 4 weeks. He is not normal, and never will be normal. But he is doing MUCH better than when I first got him. It took him 2 weeks to learn to "just be" in the house. In that he wouldn't just hang out in the living room and you would almost never see the little guy. I started closing off the crate when I was home- he wasn't allowed to hide. He was rewarded when he stayed in the same room with me, and was given a jackpot if he came near me. Now he follows me around and I reward him when he moves away from me :o)

This dog had a lot of work done with him in the beginning of his life- he did Freestyle, Agility and Flyball. He has a few Q's in AAC agility (he is already out of Starters Snooker....Wicca!) and I have seen his freestyle video and he's pretty good. He knows lots of tricks and is pretty motivated by food. Boone's problem is that he couldn't possibly do any of those things if there is someone watching, or if it is in a new scary place, and oh my god what if the sky falls while I am shaking a paw :o) He is a worrier, and I am working hard to change the way he thinks about things...It will be an ongoing battle I think...but one that so far I am enjoying.

Once you get past his freakiness he is a pretty neat little guy. He has just been allowed to be a worried dog- one that previously could never be loose in the house with company over, one that couldn't go for a leash walk because the boogie man might get him and a dog that would either melt to the floor or bite you if you make him do something he doesn't want to. In the short time I have been working with him I have discovered a few things about him-

He really likes to rough house with you- pull on his chin hair and he goes loopy :o)

He prefers women over men, and has shown no aggression to women at all (well, except the nail trimming incident)

He has a hernia...something that I will be looking into getting fixed. He is VERY reluctant to show his belly so to fix that I am making it a trick- with lots of reward.

And Finally, this dog is VERY, VERY clever...you just have to show him what you want in a way he understands. :o)

oh, and he and Wicca are best buds...Boone and Vito not so much....and Sam well, he is happy playing by himself :o)

Here are some links to information about Pyr Sheps for your reading enjoyment!

http://www.geocities.com/pyrshepclub/

http://www.geocities.com/pprincehouse/pyrsheps.html