five Things to Know Nigh Slap-up Pyrenees

ane. Shedding (Or, alternatively, I Hope You Never Want to Ain a Piece of Black Habiliment Once again)

Now, I know almost dogs shed. I've had four other breeds of dogs prior to Luna and Argos, my Great Pyrenees. I used to think my Chihuahua shed a ridiculous amount, with her little dust bunnies of hair tufts that would assemble in the corners of the business firm. Nosotros even had a Newfoundland mix, but he would generally shed his thick black and white pilus only during the summertime.

Here'southward the truth: I never knew shedding until we got Luna and Argos. They shed year round. They shed when it's hot outside and when there'south snowfall on the basis. Sometimes they shed enough that you lot can pull out fist-sized clumps of fur with your bare hands. If you don't vacuum for a week, there aren't merely hair balls in the corners—you lot've got a new carpet made of hair. They tin can't rub against you without a thick layer of white hair left along your pants. When yous exercise laundry, yous notice pilus balls interwoven in the cloth of your shirts and filling the dryer vent. You accept to proceed a lint roller in the car because you know you'll be covered once more past the time you lot make information technology from the bathroom to the forepart door.

Oh, and did I mention that Pyr hair is long?So long that my brother once pulled a hair off himself and thought it was one of mine. If y'all're a girl (especially 1 with thick hair), imagine that all of the hair that you lose in the shower ends up on the flooring of your firm and multiply that past about 1,000. That's the kind of hair-pocalypse that I'm talking about.

2. Cuddling

In my experience, "lapdog" is the most misused designation given to dogs past by all the handbooks. My Chihuahua, Tinkerbell, was supposed to be a lapdog. For the first ten years of her life, she refused to be held, much less lay in my lap (old age has made her go soft, and she now never leaves my side). Luna and Argos are classified as working dogs, bred to guard livestock and live outside—as far from lapdog equally they come.

When we picked up Luna and Argos, two big—big—wriggling puppies from a barn in Eastern Kentucky two years ago, the white fluff balls chose a person (Luna chose me, and Argos chose my brother) and immediately curled up in our corresponding laps and slept the whole ride home. As a  new puppy to our household, Argos whined and so much at night that I let him sleep in the bed, waking to find him cuddled confronting me, his head on my pillow. And these dogs never stopped being the biggest babies I've ever seen.

If y'all sit anywhere, Argos will immediately attempt to fit his entire 110 lb. torso in your lap and Luna will lean confronting yous until she falls to the flooring, curled against your side, with a hmph.If you lot're in the room with the puppies, in that location's never a moment where they don't want your attention. Argos will physically shove his head nether your hand, forcing you to pet him, and Luna will gently cradle your manus in her mouth and identify it on whatever office of her she wants you to pet. And this is in addition to the infamous "Pyr mitt." Argos' variation is whacking the full weight of his leg down on you after you've stopped petting him for a millisecond; Luna's is a dial to the gut that could probably concord upward confronting a boxing champion.

Great Pyrenees are known to be incredibly loyal, loving dogs—the definition of gentle giants. Once they determine you're a office of the family (my boyfriend is ever-grateful that Luna has accepted him and doesn't hide in the corner anymore) and that yous are their "person," they will guard you with an unwavering persistence—and yes, I do hateful guard. Luna and Argos' favorite formation is Argos on top of me and Luna laying by the entrance to the room.

3. Barking

Are you a jumpy person? Do sounds loud enough to hurt your eardrums erupting correct beside you at any given moment for seemingly no reason bother you? Then, I practise not recommend having a Swell Pyrenees. I love these puppies to death, but they are guardian dogs. When they were originally bred in France and Spain, they were meant to protect the sheep and goats from bears and wolves. They did this primarily by scaring the predators with their intimidating bawl (and aye, judging by the faces of unfortunate souls who become greeted by this bawl at doggie daycare, it is very intimidating).

Pyrs are also naturally nocturnal. Unless you accept them on a very good slumber schedule, they will stay upwardly barking all night long at things you lot tin can't hear or see, and information technology will bulldoze you insane. Unfortunately, Pyrs, as with other dogs, are first-class listeners. We live right beside a busy highway and the interstate, which means we have lots of sirens going by our firm almost every mean solar day—the howling attests to it.

At the end of the day, all you lot tin can really do is thank your Pyrs for doing their task and protecting you from potential invaders. I, for one, like being able to tell whenever my mom and blood brother come home by the celebratory chorus of barking.

IMG_7897.jpg

iv. Awkward Forced Social Interactions

This is a situation I believe that most people with giant-brood dogs experience (in fact, I know my best friend experiences this miracle, forth with #1 and #2, with her Slap-up Dane). Basically, y'all can't have them anywhere without someone either talking to you almost them or acting weird in reaction to them.

For case, concluding week I picked up Luna and Argos from doggie daycare, then needed to stop at a drive-thru to become some food for my mom and brother. I pulled up to the window and the teenager got through telling me the full before noticing Luna and Argos in the backseat. And then, his jaw dropped. He left and got a fellow employee, who approached the window, exclaiming, "There's two of them!" He so pretended to be agape of them, opening the window simply a sliver during the residuum of the transaction.

As an introvert, even an introvert who never avoids petting a stranger's dog, it pains me to accept Luna and Argos out in public because I know I'll exist stopped and questioned:What kind of dogs are those? How exercise yous keep them so white? How do y'all continue your house clean?Bang-up Pyrenees. Funny enough, they accept naturally clay-repelling outer coats. We don't.

Y'all tin can pet my dog, but delight don't talk to me about it.

5. Obsession

I have been obsessed with a fairly long list of things in my 21 years of life: Dr. Who, YA-dystopia novels, trench coats, We The Kings, British youtubers, John Green, Harry Potter, every song Lin-Manuel Miranda writes, etc. However, I don't believe I've ever had an obsession as all-encompassing equally I practice with Luna and Argos. My swain likes to joke that I dearest them more I love him (I promise, I don't, babe—probably). I'grand like a new mom who points at every single thing they do, from playing tug o' war for the get-go time, to Luna sticking out her tongue every bit she sleeps, and exclaims, "Wait at how cute they're existence!" I similar to take photographic show of their cuteness and send it to my same boyfriend 100 pct of the time that I am in the same room every bit them.

If yous look at my Instagram feed at any given time, iv out of v pictures are jump to exist from one of the numerous Pyr accounts I follow, and every time I spot a Pyrenees in a Buzzfeed Animals post or a random news story well-nigh a dog condign mayor (that 1 is real), I screenshot it and send it to my boyfriend with the accompanying text: "Look! It's a Pyrenees!"

Merely yous know what? My puppies practice things similar nudge open up the door to my bedroom in the morning and lick my face up before itch upwardly into bed and spooning me. At that place's zippo wrong with beingness obsessed with your dogs, particularly when they're two fluffy, cuddly, giant polar bears.

20161126_212156_1483760478563.jpg

Want to learn more most owning a Nifty Pyrenees? Become hither to read the rest of my posts well-nigh this amazing brood!