Re: [PyrNet-L] A Nasty Encounter(long response)

[PyrsR2Neat@aol.com]

About two months ago we took our female Pyr, Shiloh, camping for the first 
time.  She is now 18 months old and this was our first chance to take her in 
our new pop-up.  I was a little bit worried because I wasn't sure how she 
would react to the other dogs I knew would be at the campground.  I had 2 
chains.  I put one in the little yard area that was for our site and the 
other I put back by the campfire where I knew we would be at night.  I walked 
her so many times during the day that she was quite exhausted at night. (The 
weather was very nice and cool for us too). She did fantastic!  Everyone that 
walked by our site was mesmerized by her!  All the children that came by just 
fell in love with her!  Most people had never seen a Pyrenees so it gave me a 
wonderful chance to extol the great characters of the Great Pyrenees breed.  
(We live in Louisiana)  

It seemed as if everyone that was camping there that week had a dog.  Some 
medium sized but most of them were small.  Shiloh did fantastic with the 
other dogs.  Only once did she growl and that was when the other small dog 
growled at her first.  The problem I had the most was when we would take our 
walk and the dogs that were in their own campsite were not chained and would 
come running out at us.  It got to the point that if I saw a dog that was not 
chained, I would ask the people in the campsite to hold their dog so I could 
walk past their site.  Not once did Shiloh try to lunge or hurt any of the 
other dogs.  Not once did she bark at any of the dogs or people which 
surprised the daylights out of me.  I really thought we would have a big 
problem with the barking.  Even at night when we were around the campfire and 
people would walk by, she did not bark.  We did keep her in the camper with 
us when we went to bed.  Her favorite spot was under the table, just like at 
home.

The last day we were there, a family with two dobermans and a husky crossed 
with a wolf pulled in two sites down from us.  In the four hours before we 
pulled out, those three dogs had barked more than all of the other dogs 
combined in the campground had in four days. As the man was looking at sites 
he started to pull into the site directly across from us.  Then he saw Shiloh 
and made a comment: "I don't think we'll pull in here, don't want to be by a 
vicious dog."  When I found out that he had a husky/wolf mix, I was quite 
thankful that he was not very close to us.  It was as if Shiloh could sense 
something about that family.  She didn't bark or growl, but her behavior was 
more on guard.  Needless to say I was glad to be leaving as I didn't want to 
see what would have happened if any of the dogs had gotten loose.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if a person cannot control their dog 
and be considerate or other people, try as best you can to get out of that 
situation.  People that don't control their dogs should not have them, 
especially a type that is known for causing injuring to humans or other 
animals.  Those are the kind of people that give dogs, especially large dogs 
a bad name.  Granted Shiloh is our first purebred Pyr that God gave us from 
rescue, but she is the perfect dog for us!  

Jean in Louisiana