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.