Great Pyrenees Rescue

Welcome

General Information About Rescue

Welcome to our rescue opening page. Before we begin helping you to navigate this section, there are some general things that should be discussed about rescue in general and Great Pyrenees Rescue in particular. Rescue is necessary for every breed and dog and mutt throughout the country for a variety of reasons. We feel the over reaching reason is our society's consume and throw away way of looking at things, including dogs.

Great Pyrenees are some of the cutest puppies in the world; unfortunately they grow up to be BIG, sometimes slobbering, digging, barking, independent, shedding dogs from hell if you are expecting a Great Pyrenees to be just a little larger version of the cute little puppy you bought knowing nothing about. Buying a dog should mean making a commitment to that dog for life if possible. Breeders who bring puppies into the world should provide a home for any of their puppies that needs one; it's their dog and their responsibility. Buyers need to do some homework about a dog breed before they buy and buy a well socialized dog, not one that has lived in a retail store since 4 weeks old and knows little about how to be a dog and nothing about socializing with people.

Many people buy a Great Pyrenees to perform as a Livestock Guardian Dog and then neither monitor its behavior nor correct its misbehavior until it finally kills a stock animal and then it is obviously the dog's fault so they throw it away and buy another, making the same mistake over and over while switching breeds trying to find a "good one". The number of Great Pyrenees that have been "thrown away" because "they" did something wrong is phenomenal. There are multiple independent rescuers and two large groups that rescue Great Pyrenees. The Great Pyrenees Club of America Rescue organization, of which we are a part, and the National Great Pyrenees Rescue. For the sake of the dog and the adopting person, we recommend you contact the most local rescue available and see if they have the dog you want. Many Pyr rescues are mixed breed dogs that may or may not look like Great Pyrenees and these are rescued as well as purebred Pyrs so when you look for your new dog, make sure you get what you want, not what's available right now, right here. For those of you who are looking for a Livestock Guardian Dog (LGD), we recommend you only adopt a dog that has been evaluated on a farm by a working farmer using LGDs. This guarantees the dog has had a tryout, bad habits have been corrected, and you have a mentor in the evaluator to help you over any rough spots there may be.

As is usual, not all people agree with us but if we make sense, we have LGDs in evaluation for Oklahoma and the surrounding states and we have begun a list LGDevaluators-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to begin to provide a national list of real evaluators around the country. We're not there yet and we need people who can evaluate LGDs to become a part of the effort. If you live elsewhere than Oklahoma or close to it, we'll try to help you. If not go to LGDevaluators and see if there is anyone close who evaluates. If not try regular rescue groups and ask for a proven LGD but they are few and far between.

This Section and How it Works

This section includes pictures of dogs currently in rescue and whether they are to be companion dogs or LGDs with comments on their status. It also includes copies of all the forms needed for you to understand how to apply to adopt a Great Pyrenees, the requirements the adopter must meet with the physical layout of their home or farm for the safety and well being of the dogs and how to turn a dog in to Oklahoma Great Pyrenees Rescue.

Any of the forms may be downloaded to your computer and filled out, then returned to bountiful@hughes.net by email.

Every person who needs to turn in a dog should first check with the dog's breeder and see if they will accept the breeder's responsibility to accept the dog back to the place where it was bred. This should be included on each turn-in form. The person turning in the dog must have a descriptive picture or pictures of the dog as we accept only Great Pyrenees and Great Pyrenees mixed with another Livestock Guardian Breed and that would have an excellent potential to become Livestock Guardian Dogs. We do not accept unsocialized dogs nor do we accept any primitive breed guardians. The pictures must be emailed to bountiful@hughes.net before any action will be taken by us to rescue the dog. When the dog is turned in, the registration papers (if available) and the dog's medical history should accompany it as any comments about the temperament of the dog or any information that might possible be useful to rescue or the new owners. If possible, the dog should be spayed or neutered prior to being turned in and the financial burden on rescue of spay and neuter for turn-ins can become excessive. Any dog that refuses to work as an LGD will be returned to the owner to re-home. The main reason we stopped formal rescue is that we are not equipped to deal with large numbers of companion dogs. Owners who have their dogs returned to them will be required to reimburse us for any medical expenses including spay and neuter. DO NOT consider asking us to accept a rescue unless you can also explain why you think it will become a working guardian!

People are welcome to initiate either turn-ins or adoptions by telephone by calling 1-918-649-0494 but that will not circumvent the need to fill out the appropriate forms or sending pictures.