We now have a new puppy. We decided now was the best time to get one if we want it to be old enough to defend the flock next spring. There was a guy living about an hour away who had a littler of “ooops” Great Pyrenees puppies. They were so cute and really inexpensive. I wanted to get a puppy from a rescue center or shelter but we aren’t exactly the prime candidates for them. Even though we are building our home we don’t actually own our own home yet, we rent where we are staying. We don’t have a visible fence because the fence is around the 75 acres. We also plan on having the dog sleep outside when it gets older. It wont be chained up but it’s going to be a farm dog with a job and many of the shelters and rescue centers think dogs should only be inside companion dogs. We aren’t going to lie to get dog either. We chose to look at the dogs this guy had because they were inexpensive and they were also ooops puppies. I would much rather get a puppy that was an accident than give money to a breeder who obviously does it for profit.
The puppies were a little over six weeks old. They had three boys left, although one of them had some pretty severe hip dysplasia, which C taught the guy about and showed how you can feel for it on the puppies. We got the alpha male of the group. He was definitely larger and had eaten more than the others. C said that we wanted some alpha qualities in a farm dog, not for him to be the alpha because that’s us, but to have alpha over the other animals.
He did really well on the drive home, looked out the window a lot, and even slept some. He went potty outside before bed and held it all night. He did have accidents on the carpet this morning though, but he’s still very young so I don’t expect him to be as good as he has been. He’s a pretty chill puppy too. He sleeps a lot (which is expected for being so young), plays, loves his chew toys, and is so far pretty good with the kids. He slept with our 5 year old all night. He also follows me around. He’s really cute. We have yet to come up with a name for him. We were thinking either Sampson, Thor, Bear, Sue, or Baron. I am really liking Sampson. We are going to give it some time before we chose a name, see what fits his personality best. Oh, and he’s also afraid of the chickens, although they are bigger than him at the moment. He’ll get better.
