Just introducing ourselves...mydogfred.

Looking forward to being a member here. Not sure why it had not occurred to me before... My pyr is getting older and changing a bit, makes me wonder sometimes, have questions and it came to me - I bet there is a pyr forum out there and here we are.

Fred is a gorgeous 140lb. male and is about 8 - 8.5 years old. He is a funny boy. Like many pyr's he just kinda does his own thing and we just love him for it.

Anyway...glad to be here and look forward to getting to know you guys.

rad

Hi there,

Its sounds like Fred has a very similar personality to Monty too. You'll have to post some pics so I can see him. Monty is getting rather large now too. He is 17 months now and starting to put his weight on. They are wonderful dogs though arnt they. :D :D

Hi and welcome. :)

Fred is the same age as our Troy. Troy is 8 this month.

Vera

just updated with an avatar - as you guys can probably make out, fred looks alot like monty with all his orange.

He is such a mellow guy - the cat is "Sassy" cuz she is one sassy cat! He was about 2.5 here, tolerating the kitty. He's a good boy, always has been that way; we got very lucky.

Just reformated my comp and need to reload pics and will post some soon. Got this one that I use at another sight as my avatar.

rad

Hi and welcome!!

Hi and welcome aboard :D

Fred is gorgeous and just because i am such a nosey person , is he a rescue and can we hear some more about him please ?

I love hearing about how Pyr's came into our life and changed it so much :D

Fiona xx

Yep, Fred is a rescue. When I found him he was still getting teeth, the very last ones, the ones some dogs never get, we estimated him at about 1 year.

I have a long history of rescuing and fostering dogs and all my dogs have been rescues, including the pitubll I have now as well.

In my neighborhood in Houston over a period of 5 years I rescued 3 Pyrs, Fred being the last one before we moved. The first was a 10 yr old female and located her a wonderful home where she lived another 3 years. The second was a 80lb. 6 month old female and I turned her over to the Great Pyr rescue league of Texas where she became a working dog in north Houston, they boarded her with miniature horses :P and she loved it. But Fred was a keeper, I could not part with him. I think there must be a horrible breeder in the area; all we can figure.

I found Fred in an intersection in the rain in January. He was frozen in the middle of 4 lanes with cars at a stand still honking at him. Although, I was quite a distance from him, I was able to get his attention and he bolted to me, relieved to have an out from that situation.

I imagine he escaped an outdoor kennel. He had very bad heartworms and weighed 80 lb.s at the time. Of course he had no collar and it was apparent he had never been on a leash. I had a hard time getting him into my truck(extended cab), but luckily a nice guy stopped and we shoved him in ;) .

We were in the middle of a crisis as my daughter's best friend was dying at age 7 from cancer and rescuing Fred was tricky at the time. He stayed in my truck for a couple of days and slept there and went to work with me during the day, riding around with me. I didn't put him on a leash initially and he never left my side. I was landscaping and outside and he tagged along. Finally, as Ellie became sicker and I became very consumed with her passing, I placed him at the S.P.C.A. and had a special deal with the director, that I would be back in 5 days and adopt him out from there. We were not sure if he had a home or not, was lost or not, etc...

It was only after having him that it became apparent that he had been neglected. His heartworm test initially was negative ( I think they made a mistake...S.P.C.A) and he was so matted that after adopting him, I immediately took him to my groomer and let them shave him down. It was then that we realized how truly thin he was.

He promptly put on 60 lbs. and has been a constant 140 lbs. and we got rid of his heartworms. He did everything we asked of him in regards to house behavior, except he would get anxious when I left him during the day and he would chew. Finally, he realized I would always come back and this in time stopped as well.

The only lingering trauma Fred has incurred is his phobia of houseflies and I can only imagine that he was kenneled outdoors and in filthy conditions as he just freaks out if we get one in the house.

I just fell in love with him when I saw him. His size is massive, his color is quite unusual and within his eyes you can see and feel his intelligence and honesty. He is a wonderful dog. I named him Fred after the first dog I ever had; the one dog I thought could never be replaced ;) .

For much of Fred's life I was single with 2 children until just recently and Fred was hand's down the man of the house. He has guarded us and has always been well mannered. We have never had any behavior problems with him. He has never been aggressive or unnecessarily defensive even with a doberman chomping at him. He is a regal and confident dog; he knows he is king.

He guards in the way of Pyrs with warnings and communication only resorting to aggression as a last resort or for defense and he has only once been in a fight and that was after I was attacked by a rottie(another rescue).

With the house he is always polite, but once when I locked myself out and asked my foreman to get me back in with a screwdriver at the back door, after he got the door open, Fred would not allow him any further. I was shocked! Fred had known him for about 1 year, but knew this was weird and strange behavior for a human friend B) . Fred is very confident and calm; he always makes sound decisions.

He has been so intelligent that I have not tried much training with him. His intelligence and choices have always been so reliable that I just adore him the way he is. He has been 100% reliable in any situation and one of a kind. At his age now he understands English it seems. I don't need to tell him what to do, but I do ask him what he wants often and can even get a head nod for a yes out of him.

My husband is from Denmark and grew up on a farm with German Shepherds and Fred has converted him to a forever Pyr lover and he has made me promise that we will always have one :P . But, I truly can not imagine having one as special as the one I have now. I have never had to train him and luckily he loves us so much, he is quite cooperative and does what we ask of him, although it is always apparent that this is a choice he makes :D .

At age 8 we are beginning to wonder how we will ever get by without him; we can't imagine. My children have grown up with him and he is so loved by all, including my kid's friends and parents as many of them have known him since they were toddlers. We have so many pics of friend's children with Fred and parents used to get such a kick out of how gentle Fred was and how much the little ones just loved him.

Anwyho.....just waking up - there's some of our story, Fred's story. I will get some recent pics and post em soon.

Awww what a sad story and Fred sounds like a wonderful boy who knows he landed on his furry paws finding a loving home like yours :wub:

Fiona xx

Yeah, it was a sad time in our lives....very sad for little Ellie. I just wanted to share that bit because if things had been different I would have never turned him over to the S.P.C.A. . I also did not realize how neglected he was until after we brought him home. At the time, we weren't exactly sure if someone had lost him and thought it might be possible. He was not in such bad shape that it was obvious to the eye. I suppose it was because he was so young; he literally had not had the time there to become obviously neglected in a sense of it being visual. You could not look at him and see it immediately. But, after shaving him and seeing how rail thin he was it became apparent and within a month, he started to cough from the heartworms. We thought he was negative.

If I did not have the relationship with the director of the S.P.C.A. that I had through volunteering, I would not have felt safe leaving him.

And with Ellie's passing our grief was so overwhelming during those few days.

I needed a safe place for him for a few days and they helped me out; they were kind enough to bend the rules for me. Not something you hear of often with organizations like that.

We were fortunate, not something I would recommend for someone or a potential pet.

rad
and thanks for the comments, we do love our boy tremendously. He is lucky to have survived the heart worm treatment as well, because they were pretty advanced when treated.

I was not ignoring the part of your post about Ellie but it might have looked that way, sorry , it is just so upsetting to think about a wee one like that losing her life before it had even started but i just read back my post and it seemed a bit rude to not comment on such a tradgedy :(

Fiona xx

Fiona,

not at all girl...I totally got what you meant and didn't think you were rude at all, not in the slightest. Not sure how you saw it maybe - I didn't :D . No worries please. When you mentioned that it was a sad story in your first pot, I assumed you were speaking of Ellie. I wanted to explain the situation at the time because I normally would not have handled a rescue that way. So, I explained the story and included Ellie as her passing that week shaped how we brought Fred home.

This is way off topic, but yes it was so extremely hard at the time and was for years following. Only very recently has our grief for her changed in some way, a less painful way.

We celebrated her 14th birthday October 21st, last month and we go to visit every year.

We have been able to continue to remember her through her art and other ways. She was an artist and some of her drawings have been made into jewelry and even some fantastic ornaments that we have on display all the time in our home and we use one at Christmas, they are really super fine.

When she died it was so tragic and horrible, but now we see her leaving us on earth spiritually and we know she is always with us, and one day we will see her again. I have dreamed of her and I can't imagine her gone; it does not feel that way.

What was so terrible was that she had brain cancer at the age of 3 and it did not return until the spring of Kindergarten and during a visit, they found 3 tumors that had sprung up overnight. This child was closely followed. It was so shocking and terribly sad that it returned this way and within about 8 months she died.

My daughter remained her best friend to the very end and we packed in as much time with her as possible, doing all sorts of things. Many parents realized that she would likely not make it and they put some distance between their children and her or at least did not make the effort to spend as much of that precious time as we did, because of course, they were very concerned for their own child's wellbeing. And this I understood, so did her mother, we all had to come to terms with our limitations, etc...But, my daughter had been best friends with her since she was 2.5 yrs old, many of our children attended preschool together, then elementary and now many of them are still together at 14 - we have a special community, which is neat in a city this size. But anyway, where I am going...my daughter really suffered when she died, she even went as far as to develop OCD (washing her hands) and this lasted for about 1 year following her death; it was terrible. I asked myself over and over 'had I made a mistake' and will my daughter ever be okay again? Well, she is fine and she grieved and thinks of her often to this day. And we are so grateful that we had the special time with her that we did.

Additionally my daughter and I planted a butterfly/hummingbird garden at the cemetery and we continue to look after it annually. Every year we bring a new piece of garden art, something small, something original and sweet.

Anyway....I really got way off topic here. I realize this should go under another section of the forum, but since it evolved here, I wrote it here and I think you Fiona maybe the only person I am really sharing it with, so hopefully nobody minds my way off topic in the wrong place.

It has been a long time since I have shared so much about Ellie and I find that I could go on and on remembering her.

She was such a good kid, such a sweet girl, a truly wonderful child and a best friend to my daughter; they had fun for a while....I don't usually cry anymore, but am now and it is not so much a sad feeling as a missing her feeling.

No worries Fiona, never thought for a second that you were rude, never.

Just went ahead and shared this with ya as I see you here and wanting to visit
;) like yesterday :D

And by the way, nice to meet you and my name is Rachel or rad(initials of course) :D