Roxie our Great Pyrenees rescues my 13 year old son

[ridurall]

Scotty my son was checking fence lines the other day making sure the hot wires were all in place and my daughters horse for some reason decided to run him into the wire and rough him up. As he was knocked onto the hot wire yelling like any of us would with a 50 mile charger on 20 acres of wire, Roxie our 110 lb Great Pyrenees heard him and came running and the next thing he saw was Missy's horse wearing a big white dog. She was latched onto Montana (the horse) with all her might and getting kicked quite hard but she wouldn't let go until Scotty got away from the horse. He was pretty shook up and as he walked back to the house she made sure that the horse didn't bother him any more. As soon as he got back to the house he was pretty shook up but headed for the fridge for some good leftovers to give Roxie a treat for what she did. Normally it's her job to protect the chickens and we never would have thought of her going after a horse to help one of us but instinctively she did the right thing. I'm surprised that she isn't even acting sore from getting kicked. She can kind of be a knothead when it comes to stealing tools out of my garage and digging holes in the yard but I have a whole new respect for her now.

[Dubhan]

Great story, glad your son is okay. Great Pyrs are great dogs. Had one for years. Vigilant and protective as hell. Unfortunately, too vigilant for the city, and they like turning yards into moonscapes. When ours passed, we had to move on to a new breed. Newfies are great dogs, but they suck at keeping tweakers out of the yard. They are too friendly, and their aggression mode doesn't kick in until their owner is in actual physical trouble. I think in a perfect world, my wife would prefer one of each, but we would need a LOT of land.

[ridurall]

Dubhan you nailed it when you mentioned moonscape. Roxie can out dig our bulldozer and not only me but I've had a neighbor step back into one of her holes and end up busting his butt when he fell. We were lucky that he was not hurt. I've got several of those 4"x4" cattle panels covering areas where she likes to dig and also have an electric collar so I can make her do a flip when I catch her digging. Although right now I would kind of feel like a heal zapping her for digging after helping out Scotty. She started out as an 8lb ball of white fluff and grew like a weed. Her natural instincts are pretty interesting. She does not like bullsnakes and goes out of her way to keep them away from the chickens but the smell of a rattle snake just plain freaks her out. If I have the smell from a rattle snake on my hand I cannot pet her.

[Nathan]

Great story, Ron!

[Rodeo Mike]

Great story man, working dogs are great no matter the breed. We have 6 australian cattle dogs aka "heelers" we have 3 blues, 2 reds, and 1 white. The wife uses them for sheep herding, they make excellent hard dogs also.

[riadat]

Glad your son and dog are OK.

[ramjet]

We just use the neighbors Golden Labs. Great breed. The oldest is the pack leader and is very protective of my kids. Keeps the coyotes out of the yard and lets the UPS guys know not to mess with the children. My nephew is autistic and they keep him out of trouble too! Great dogs. I'm just glad the only thing I have to do is clean up the poo in my yard! Feeding those dogs and cleaning the hair must suck! lol.

[ridurall]

Roxie sheds like terrible in the spring. That coat of her's will fill several paper grocery sacks of under coat fur when we brush her. But she never tries to come in the house summer or winter. She is perfectly content at taking care of the chickens, property and her people. She sure is great about keeping the riff raff away. That 110-115 lbs can be very intimidating.