[PyrNet-L] CHAT: Pyr Hike, and dog act

[MagEBroD@aol.com]

  Saturday my pyr Albert, Mark (my 12 yr. old son) and I went to
Millersylvania State Park for our last Pyr Versatility Hike of the season for
the Great Pyrenees Club Of Puget Sound. Dave Miller and his pyr Oly were there
and , Veryl Ann Grace was there with her 3 pyrs: Pele, Maddie, and Karlo!! So
there were 5 Pyrs. Dave helped walk one of Veryl's Pyrs.
  The weather cooperated pretty well. It sprinkled a little is all. I forgot
my camera and wish I could've gotten some photos. We walked through the woods
and crossed many wooden bridges over various creeks. Walking more than one dog
does get interesting. At times the dogs do not always choose to go around a
tree the same way!! Also when we came to a few fallen trees across the path
that we could either go over or under the dogs did not always choose to both
go the same way!!  Veryl took it all in stride!! Something tells me she is
used to these types of occurances!!  
    At the campground a guy came up to all of us to see the dogs. Then he said
he had a Newfoundland and he pointed to his Newf. I had Mark hold Albert while
I went over to get my Newf fix & I pet and hugged his Newf. The Newf has been
in a movie, and is a search & rescue dog and also used to go to schools and do
programs there. He knows 102 tricks!! He can do math and algebra problems and
always barks out the right answers, no matter who gives him the problem and no
matter if he can see his owner or not. He also knows the complete alphabet!
He's so cute!! However he was in bad shape grooming-wise and had lots of mats
and was so grubby. The man is a Medal Of Honor vet and not doing so well
anymore and finds it hard to care for the dog anymore. After we finished our
hike Mark and I went back there and I left Albert in the van and I groomed his
Newf Dreyfuss for him, using a dry shampoo. Even put conditioner of ours on
him. It took forever to get through all the mats and tangles, but eventually
did and the guy was so thrilled!! He was on the verge of crying!! He liked the
company, too, I think. Tried to talk him into getting some Advantage or Bio-
Spot for the dog, too. Then he did his complete show for us and others nearby
in the campground. We had Albert and Dreyfuss meet and they got along really
well. Dreyfuss is 7 yrs. old. I told the guy if he ever needs a dog-sitter for
Dreyfuss, to let me know. He said he feared that he wouldn't be able to
continue to care for him for long. He said he'd love for him to eventually go
to someone like me who knows and loves Newfs and would take good care of him.
He thinks Dreyfuss would like to be with Albert, too. I told him I'd love to
have Dreyfuss!!  He said he comes from very good champion lines and he is
registered. I said that I'd love him even if he wasn't registered and take
good care of him, because he's a real sweetie. I asked him for some training
pointers on teaching tricks to dogs. He told me that he can now use mental
telepathy and get Dreyfuss to read his mind. For the math/algebra questions he
says mentally "Good Boy!" in his mind and then Dreyfuss barks one more time
afterwards. He can even be out of the dogs' sight and have anyone else give
the dog the problem, as long as Tom can hear the question, he can tell the dog
mentally when to stop barking. You can use very complicated questions, too.
Like "what's the square root of 81 plus 3 divided by 4 plus 2?" And the dog
will bark out the answer!! (5)  Then you can tell him a letter of the alphabet
and he'll pick it out and bring it to you. Then he'll get a rubber stamp with
a big pawprint on it and then you tell him if you want it black or red and
he'll take the rubber stamp to the correct ink pad and push it down and come
back and mark your letter for a souvenier!! This is one amazing dog!!   Anyway
we exchanged phone numbers. This is the dog that saved the little 3 yr. old
girl on Mt. Rainier this past year. He slept on her legs to hold her down and
kept her warm in the snow for 6 hours and kept her safe from a cougar that was
circling them for hours. When rescuers got to them they saw the cougar tracks
and heard girl giggling at dog licking her face!! She was hugging him and had
gotten so attached to him!! Dog has even been to Congress!! Tom showed me his
album with newspaper articles and photos in it. It was fascinating! Of course
my 12 yr. old's favorite trick the Newf would do is that if you either said
"Carwash" or even spelled it, Dreyfuss would shake his head and make the drool
fly all over!!!! And BOY!! Could that guy drool!!! Very sweet and intelligent
dog!! Great fun!!
   We told him that that is the big difference between Pyrs and Newfs: Newfs
are more eager to please. Pyrs might learn some tricks, but you cannot always
depend on them to do them on command anytime anywhere. I'm trying to teach
Albert to do a number of tricks, but I never know if he'll be cooperative or
not. Or how many times I'll have to tell him the same thing before he'll do
it. And he's especially uncooperative when there are distractions and other
people around. 
   What tricks do your Pyrs do?

:)  &  :)```  (me grinning & Albert grinning & drooling!)

Janice Vocke
MagEBroD@aol.com
Shelton, Washington