Welcome

General Information About Rescue

Welcome to the Oklahoma GPCA Great Pyrenees 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 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 either a descriptive picture or pictures of the dog or AKC registration papers as we accept only pure bred Great Pyrenees or those who would seem to be by visual inspection.  The pictures must be emailed to bountiful@hughes.net before any action will be taken by Oklahoma Great Pyrenees rescue.  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.

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.

Volunteers

Any people who would like to become involved with Great Pyrenees Rescue of Oklahoma are welcome.  We are in particular need of foster farms and homes.  Those who foster must meet the same requirements as a person who is adopting in terms of security for the dogs.  The only people who can foster dogs in training to be LGDs are those who have working farms and are currently using LGDs.  We also will be very happy to have people help with transportation or anyone who would like to donate dog food.  The brand we feed to all the dogs here is Diamond Sporting Dog Mix in the purple bag.

 

Thank You

Finally but certainly not last in our thoughts are the "Thank Yous"  we owe to Dave and Sharon Hayes, GPCA Central Region Rescue Coordinators for their continuing mentoring, Catherine De La Cruz for both her warnings and encouragement as well as permission to use materials developed by her and the Great Pyrenees Rescue of Northern California Inc, and to Dianne Kratville,  Great Pyrenees Rescue of Iowa. Inc, for sharing her forms with us and which we used extensively.