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Originally Posted by Tracy in Idaho
I can see both sides of this one -- since I used to breed Anatolians, all my dogs were OFA'd etc. On the other hand, your typical homesteader cannot afford to throw out $500-1000 on a dog.
Interestingly enough, I have seen dogs who graded moderately or even severly dysplasic show NO signs whatsoever their entire lives. My own stud dog at 12 yr old, OFA Excellent is starting to gimp a bit....just arthritis at this point. But yes, you are going to pay quite a bit more for pups from OFA'd parents. And an awful lot of the real working dogs are neither papered or screened.
I think the absolute best way to keep LGDs out of rescue is to have them working. There is always a shortage of proven, good working dogs. You'll see someone on the lists just about every week looking for one. Kind of like the best thing you can do to for a horse is make sure it's broke to ride!
Tracy
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WE will be breeding our 2 yr old Great Pyrennees female about Feb/March. This discussion raises interesting points...such as temperament testing...This is very important in a large dog with the ferocious capabilites of A Pyr (or Anatolian) etc. Choosing a Great Pyrennes from excellent bloodlines (yes, even show quality stock!) my cost a little more up front, but be worth it.
Our first Pyrenees was from a backyard breeder who disdained "registered dogs"
Nice male, but did put his mouth on the children if they wanted to brush him or put him away and he didn't want to. Outstanding LGD, but then he bit both my daughter and myself when we moved him away from an in-heat female. You may say, "Well what did you expect...?" and we should have been more careful. On the other hand, my current dogs would NEVER dream of putting their mouth on any of us.
Our second Pyrennees, this time a registered female, was very friendly, happy-go-lucky but every time she got out of her goat pen, she would bolt. More than that, we discovered (we were naive) that she only had a single dew-claw on her rear left foot, a BIG NO NO for Pyrs. It indicates either accidental breeding somewhere in the pedigree or just very poor breeding. When she was 8 months old she began chewing on the rear legs of the goats. I had heard of other people having this problem, and now got to see it first hand for myself.
She would also kill the chickens all the time because she wanted to catch them. MY current Pyrs are fabulous with the goats, chickens, horses and mst importantly, the children.
My point, yes , I was getting to it! is that there is more to a dog than the color of its' fur or its' predominate breed type.
Find a good breeder who believes Pyrs should be working animals (many breeders of the "show quality" Pyrs don't want them on ranches and farms-poor bored creatures!) See if they at least temperament test them themselves.
Our dogs sell for $500-$1200.00 . You may contact me directly at
Blaiseo@aol.com if you would like to ask any more questions.
Camille
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