[pyrnet] Hello

[Jessica Crouch <jrc@cs.unc.edu>]

Hi everyone.  I have been lurking on this list for about six months, and
thought it was time to introduce myself.  My husband and I have an 8 month
old male pyr, Isaac, who we've had since he was 12 weeks.  This is the
first pyr we've owned, and we absolutely love him.  He's very gentle and
affectionate and has never shown any signs of aggression.  After hearing
all of your stories and warnings about young males, I consider myself very
fortunate not to have that problem, at least so far.  In fact, I don't
think I have even seen any guarding behavior from him.  Whenever we have
people over to the house, he is very friendly and doesn't even bark at
them.  He does sometimes barks outside in the yard, mostly at rabbits and
birds, but if neighbors, strangers, or even other dogs come over to the
fence then he walks over with tail wagging to visit or be petted.  I am
wondering if this is typical for a pyr his age.  Is he likely to grow more
wary as he gets older, or do we just have a particularly easy going boy?

One thing he does do that annoys me is destroy the bushes in our yard.  I
know dogs in general and puppies in particular are prone to chewing, and
he has bones, toys, and sticks to chew outside.  I guess he gets bored
with those because he completely dug up one shrub leaving a 2 ft. hole in
the yard, and chewed off all its leaves, branches, and roots.  He has
chewed off the three lower limbs of our apple tree, and just yesterday he
got one of my rosebushes.  The rosebushes have been growing a couple
months and I thought they were ok because he had left them alone until
yesterday and they are now big enough that they have large hardened
thorns.  I thought the thorns would hurt his mouth and be a deterrent, but
I guess not.  I try to keep an eye on him while he's outside, but I can't
watch him all the time.  Does anyone know of ways to discourage him from
chewing up the rest of the roses and bushes?  Or should I just give up on
having any bushes in the yard?  

Thanks,

Jessica