I have a 9 month old great pyrenees puppy that we bought when he was 4 months. he constantly barks all day. i know that he is a guard dog and everything, but he barks at every thing that passes our house. we work from 6:30 am to 5 pm, so we aren't home to control him. we are part of an HOA housing program, and our neighbors have been complaining. we also have a golden retriever, who is 7. he will sometimes bark but according to neighbors, is not a major issue. its mostly the great pyr. we have tried first a bird house that emits loud noises when he barks, but it didn't work. then we moved on to a low shock collar after several complaints from neighbors. we have tried training and a high shock collar for large breed dogs, but nothing is working. after his training, a long walk, and a high shock colar, i stayed home sick one day. he barked non-stop until i let him inside. the neighbors have contacted the HOA, and humane society. they have sent us letters threatening us with 6 months in prison, and fines up to 100,000 dollars. i am in a money budget right now ,too, and cannot afford the fines. letting him inside is also out of the question, for he chews everything he sees and cannot hold his pee in for that long. i have no other ideas , PLEASE HELP
Nedra E2010-12-21T09:20:11Z
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You need to join a pyr group to ask your questions so you don't get rude, stupid, inappropriate answers.
In you are in HOA housing, and noone is home from 6:30 am to 5:00 pm, then you might need to rehome him if you can't get this under control. You waited WAY TOO LONG to ask this question. You should have dealt with this LONG ago.
You should have read up on the breed BEFORE you got your pyr and learned the breed traits. Pyrs BARK! They are guardians, rather than guard dogs. There's a difference. A guard dog guards by watching carefully, and attacking when intruders come into their territory. A guardian BARKS to scare intruders away by intimidating the intruders with their booming bark and lunging at the intruder, snarling and threatening them.
His chewing things up is a sign that he's BORED. He doesn't get enough exercise or attention from you. If he cannot hold his pee, either he has worms, or a urinary tract infection, or some other illness because PYRS CAN HOLD their pee for 8 to 12 hours EASILY!
You need to take a day off work and go to the Humane Society office, and talk to them and ask them for help and guidance. Explain your financial bind and ask them for help in getting the dog evaluated by both a vet and a behavioral expert.
Pyrs are a working breed. They need a job to do. They need to either be guarding livestock, or family/pack members. My pyrs guard my 2 cats, me, and the cattle.
I'm not sure why your pyr and golden aren't entertaining each other. If they are together, that should have satisfied the pyrs need for companionship during the day while you work. Pyrs tend to bond closely with other dogs in the family, and greatly enjoy the companionship. His barking till you let him inside, is because he was trying to communicate with you that he wanted to be WITH YOU! And you had NO IDEA what he was trying to communicate because you have apparently not learned much about pyrenees.
The bird house thing doesn't do anything for the dog.
The shock collar requires that the fur be trimmed short so the prongs make contact. Most pyr owners don't approve of them. There are also citronella collars, I believe. They emit a scent when the dog barks.
The "approved" collar someone mentioned is not one I have heard of before, so I cannot comment on it.
Obviously you live in a city if they're threatening you with 6 months in prison and fines up to $100K. Pyrs can live in cities and in apartments IF the owner understands the breed well enough to give the dog adequate time, attention and exercise. To be honest, if you're not giving the dog enough attention and exercise, I can understand why they are accusing you of being abusive to the dog and likely to be imprisoned and/or fined. You are NOT treating the dog right. You are NOT giving him what he needs from you.
Go to the ASPCA, Humane Society, or a rescue group and ask for advice and assistance in correcting how you interact with your dog. That IS your BEST possible solution. If you don't change how you interact with the dog, and make sure he gets what he needs from you, then you should rehome the dog. REMEMBER... at 9 months, he's getting close to his adult size, and he'll still be a puppy till age 2. If he had the attention and exercise he needs. he wouldn't need to be barking so much.
You may be able to rehome him through a good Yahoo pyr group, so I'll add the link below. -!-
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Since it is obvious that you do not have a clue about obedience training, your services should be for free. You cannot train even an adult dog for 8 hours a day. About the most that can be done at any one time is 10 - 20 minutes and that is with an adult dog and not a puppy. The attention span on this baby is extremely short and training session should be no more than 10 minutes and twice a day. Additionally, there isn't going to be much learned if you will only be training for 5 days. Obedience training is cumulative and is done over a much longer period of at least several weeks to several months. What you can charge is determined by your experience, reputation, and accomplishments and in a case like this, should also include guaranteed expectations. Just working with dogs over several years, is not the experience that is necessary to be a dog trainer. There are too many people who are putting that title to their name and fleecing the public. Don't be one of them.
The owner of the dog needs to know how to "operate" the dog, same way you can get into a car that's in perfect running order but if you don't know how to drive you won't have much luck making the car go anywhere. If the owner doesn't know how to maintain the training, the dog will soon become untrained again. Read more here https://tr.im/H3J67
People seem to think that once a dog is trained, that's it. Not true. You must reinforce the dog's training every single day in some way. It's best if the owner and the dog go together to get trained. As a professional trainer once said to me "We can train any dog in 2 days. It takes longer to train the owners
This dog is a working dog breed, it needs a job to do. Unfortunately for you these dogs do not bond with 'their flock' unless they are brought up with them from a baby age. I would contact your local Pyrenees rescue org and re-home him. He needs a job to do. Ps Shock collar will only fix the symptom, not the cause of the barking, if you really care about your dogs' mental wellbeing you will address the cause.
If you had properly crate and house trained right from the beginning, this wouldn't be an issue.
The fact that he's outside, misbehaving, with no correction all day every day is your answer. I would suspect there's also a major boredom issue as well.