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The quest for the perfect family dog

kgranju — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:24:00 GMT

When Jon and I got married, we merged two households. His included himself, and his cat. Mine included me, three kids, our cat, two rats, a snake, and two dogs, Fiat and Mabel. Fiat and Mabel joined our family back in 2003. The kids picked them out at the animal shelter as tiny puppies. Fiat is an oversized Jack Russell terrier and Mabel is a black pug mix with a severe underbite

Fiat and Mabel, while we love them a lot, have turned out to be perhaps the two most obnoxious dogs on the planet. First of all, we happened to luck into two puppies who were clearly born with...."issues." Fiat not only has the natural high energy JRT temperament, he has it times 100. He is never, ever, ever still - ever - for even one second. He's also extremely neurotic. Mabel, on the other hand, is extremely lazy, grouchy and cantankerous. She is happy when she's with us, but she doesn't like anyone else much. Second, since they joined our family just as I was going through a divorce, starting full time work, and having to relocate several times over several years, they didn't get the training consistency they should have gotten. That means that Fiat and Mabel never learned their manners properly. Neither of them is reliably housetrained, so they can only be indoors when someone is giving them full attention, so we don't risk an accident. I did once enroll Fiat in a dog obedience class, but at the end of the six week session, the trainer told me that Fiat was "mentally unstable," and that I should consider him a "special needs dog."

Sigh.

Fiat and the kids, Christmas 2003.

Elliot, age 6, learns to knit with a little help from Mabel

So Fiat and Mabel are kind of difficult to deal with, and not exactly a lot of fun to live with, but the kids and I love them, and they love us. And we are stuck with them for the next 7-10 years.

Anyway, when Jon and I got married, he suddenly became the proud co-owner of two small, yappy, neurotic, wildly unappealing, semi-housetrained dogs. This was Jon's very first dog-owning experience; unlike me, who grew up surrounded by every kind of pet imaginable, Jon's family never had any pets at all - ever. He always wanted a pet, so a few months before we met, he had adopted his cat, but he had never lived with a dog until Fiat and Mabel.

After a few months of putting up with the two of them (very, very patiently, I might add), Jon suggested that at some point, he might want to add a dog to our family that could be "his" - a carefully chosen, properly raised, well-trained dog who would be fun to have around, and would calmly lie at his feet as he read a book, and go for walks with him. I was pregnant with C at the time, so I suggested we wait 'til after the baby was born, but we started talking about what kind of dog we would want. Jon had no idea, since he knew absolutely nothing about dogs. I told him that I'd like a big dog who would act as a family guardian, since we live in an urban neighborhood that occasionally sees some sketchy characters. But I didn't want a dog with aggressive tendencies; instead I just wanted a dog that would look and sound imposing. Jon said he wanted a very calm, laid-back dog who wouldn't always be bugging him for attention (as opposed to Fiat and Mabel). He also wanted to avoid ending up with a dog that wanted to play fetch all the time, as he has a friend with an Australian Shepherd that drops a slobbery ball in guests' laps over and over in an attempt to get them to throw the ball

Although there are many wonderful, adult rescue dogs available (I actually used to do rescue and foster work for various dog breeds back when I was a work-at-home mom, before my divorce), we decided we wanted to start with a puppy, so we could be really conscientious about raising our dog exactly right from day one (avoiding the numerous mistakes I now realize I made in raising Fiat and Mabel) and thus have the best shot at ending up with the adult dog we wanted. I suggested a Saint Bernard or a Rottweiler, but Jon gave these the thumbs down; he made the good point that we didn't want a dog that other people would shy away from because of the breed's reputation (deserved or undeserved). We thought about a Newfoundland, but they actually have a ton of energy, love to play fetch, and don't make very good watchdogs (they sort of love everyone). We are big fans of my cousin's absolutely gorgeous, oversized German Shepherd, but after talking to that dog's breeder, she told us very honestly that to get a German Shepherd of that quality, with that sort of wonderful temperament, we would need to spend far more than we wanted to. We also worried that even the highest quality GSD would be more rambunctious than Jon wanted.

My first choice was a Great Pyrenees, which has always been my favorite breed, and after Jon did some reading, he decided that this was his pick as well. Great Pyrenees dogs are a very old breed, originating in the mountains of Western Europe. They are bred to guard, as opposed to herd livestock. Their work requires them to be calm, serious and unlike many/most other breeds, they have a very low "prey drive." Since they are expected to act as protectors of farm animals, including baby farm animals, all of the instinct to chase and hunt and pounce has been bred out of them. For Pyrs who are pets, that means they have ZERO interest in playing ball or fetch. A well-bred Pyr is exceptionally laid back, watchful of his family without actually being aggressive, and likes to be very near "his" people, without obnoxiously drawing too much attention to himself. They are very large dogs without being truly giant like, say, a Mastiff or a Great Dane. And among the very large breeds, Pyrs are perhaps the longest-lived, healthiest dogs. They have an oddly low metabolism, which means they eat a lot less than you might expect for a dog that big. But Pyrs do have some negatives. First of all, they have a tendency to bark excessively because as livestock guardians, constant barking warns off predators. They are also very independent, meaning they aren't very interested in learning any tricks or doing actual obedience. They tend to wander if they are off-leash or not indoors or in a fenced yard, and many of them aren't great about coming when called. Their coats are gorgeous, but kind of a pain to take care of. And like a lot of breeds, they shed a couple of times a year.

After considering all the pros and cons, Jon decided we should go with a Pyr puppy, so about 16 months ago, we brought home our Leo. I have to admit that I was nervous about ending up with a third dog - this one weighing 100 pounds more than the others - who would be just as much of a pain in the rear as Fiat and Mabel are. But after years of dog ownership that has been more hassle than fun, I am now absolutely thrilled with Leo. He has turned out to be all that we wanted in a dog and then some.

He was super cute when we brought him home at 7 weeks, and all the kids loved him right away.

The Great Pyrenees experts out there say that just like if you were raising your Pyr to guard sheep, if you are raising him to guard humans, he needs to spend a lot of time with baby humans, right from the beginning, so that's what we did with Leo. He started having C climb all over him when he was just a baby himself, and he quickly learned to be tolerant and calm with "his" small charge.

Now, at 1.5 years, Leo is pretty much the perfect family dog for us. Yes, he does have a wee bit of a barking "issue," but only when he's left out in the yard. He thinks it's his job to patrol our fenceline and bark, or stand on our deck and bark to warn off the bears and wolves he believes are surely lurking around the 'hood. But that problem is quite simple to solve; he's mostly an indoors dog, and he rarely barks indoors unless there IS actually something to bark at, like someone on our porch. He usually stops as soon as we tell him to stop, although we continue to work on this.

Wherever C is playing indoors or out, he tends to settle quietly nearby, always watching.

When any of the kids play in the front yard, he's there, doing what he clearly considers to be his job. If someone he doesn't know approaches our front gate, or if someone he considers questionable walks by, he immediately hops up and stands at attention, letting them know he's on the job, but without getting agitated or showing any aggression.

He isn't playful in the way some people would want a dog to be; he definitely has no interest in fetching sticks or chasing balls; mostly he likes to take naps when he isn't busy keeping an eye on things, but he does enjoy accompanying the kids on excursions.

The only time I've ever heard him growl was once when I was pushing C in the stroller and walking him, and a very sketchy character walked past us, definitely getting a little close for my comfort. Leo just let out a low growl, and the guy sped up and walked away. Again, no dramatic aggression, just quiet, confident watchfulness.

And he's SOOOOO tolerant of the kids. My niece NC loves to use him as a recliner. He never even wakes up from his nap when she does this. Plus, he makes a good headrest.

Basically, he's just the perfect dog for us. And he doesn't even gloat about how superior he is when he's hanging out with Fiat and Mabel, who do things like jump all over him and try to steal his giant chewy toys, while ignoring their own.

He's a good boy. And we love him.

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