Belle is our Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dog. Her job, as I see it, is to protect our livestock…her job as she seems to see it is to bark, sleep and eat the barn cat’s food.
Sunrise begins with a serenade of warm up barking followed by mad dashing about our fence lines with full throated barking, Once that is accomplished, the neighbors land needs to be covered as well, with, you guessed it, more barking.
Now in fairness to Belle and to Great Pyrs in general, she is letting every predator within earshot know that this is HER territory and they better not come on it and so far this seems to have worked.
One of the best quotes I have read about this breed is from Don Schrider in his book Storey’s Guide to Raising Turkeys “A lazy looking, big, white dog that sleeps most of the day may be the best protector you poultry has ever had. Such a dog is usually up all night, patrols its territory, barks at anything that moves, even fierce creatures like deer and bunnies, and marks the territory by pooping and peeing along fence lines.”.
Belle’s job on the ranch in never done. One of her current favorite tasks is to sniff out and eradicate the menace of vicious ground squirrels.
A constant source of amusement is our Belle.