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Roman, our Great Pyrenees pup has arrived. He is pictured here at four months of age and about 45 pounds. It is hard to believe that this gentle and playful little fellow will soon be a key member of our alpaca team.
This is our first livestock guardian dog and he constantly delights us with his natural tendencies to look after our family and property as well as the herd. He gets quite a bit of exercise trying to be in three different places at one time. He follows along as we do chores and loves to sit by the gate to greet visitors (or maybe keep out intruders).
Roman has a lot to teach us but we are sure that as time goes on he will get us all "tuned up" to his way of doing things.
The adult weight for a male Great Pyrenees is about 130 pounds. Although the breed is not aggressive by nature they have been known to fight off bears and certainly do a good job at keeping stray dogs at bay.
Roman is now more than five years old. We have totally adjusted to how he runs our farm. When we first got him in December of 1998, he was so little and so cute and it was so cold outside that we let him live inside our house for a while. Consequently he bonded with humans and not the alpacas. That is not to say that he is a problem with the alpacas. Infact he is very tolerant with them. When we let them out to mow his lawn he just takes it in his stride and ignores them.
Roman is very protective of us and our property. Whenever we go out the door he runs and barks to chase all the alpacas away from us. I am sure they all think he is "nuts" as they are behind fences and couldn't come near us if they wanted to. He then positions himself between us and where we are going. I have read that livestock guardian dogs place themselve between their herd and the danger so we think may this is what he is doing. Most dogs come along beside you but not Roman. He stands squarely in front. A few kind words and some petting encourages him to let us pass.
Roman doesn't come into the alpaca pens with us but he does have the run of the whole farm. He has now learned not to go out the gate when a vehicle leaves. This was a problem at first as he loves people and wanted to follow everyone. We live on a hill so he usually stays by the house when visitors leave but follows the family to the gate.We often find him sleeping just inside the gate when we return. At night Roman cruises the fence lines to keep away any unwanted company. We have come to depend on his vigilance to protect our livestock and our home.
Last summer we had Roman sheared for the first time. His coat had gotten quite matted as we had illness in the family and were not able to keep up with his grooming. It doesn't take long for matts to appear if combing is not done on a regular basis. We could tell that Roman was very, very hot and we were concerned for him.
Our shearer had done a number of LGD's so was not the least bit concerned when we asked about shearing Roman. Stew held Roman's head while the shearer went to work. We were amazed at the great job he did as Roman has very loose skin and we were afraid of nicks.
Although it was very warm when we sheared Roman, we noticed that he was trembling. We were not sure whether it was the shock to his system or he was a bit chilly so we kept a close watch on him and made sure he was warm at night for the next few days. Once his skin adjusted to the feeling of a breeze you could tell that he was much more comfortable. He had more energy and was more playful than he had been for a while.
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If you would like to know more about this fascinating breed, check out the publications listed on our books page.