Yukon meets dogs and Yiska meets people

[mama23+pyrs2]

The pups are REALLY enjoying their evening walks with daddy. They are doing super well, and it's hard to believe just a few months ago they wouldn't walk anywhere at all. I'm not usually able to go since the kids are in bed, but the one day I could, it was fun. They walk so completely differently. Yukon keeps a real good pace, it's a good workout! but Yiska likes to take her time, check things out and walk beside. If they start slowing down and losing energy, a quick stop to give them some love and say 'good boy!!!' or 'good girl!!!' gets them sprinting and prancing again lol, it's so cute.

Anyway, apparently people don't come up to Yukon (poor Yukon) but I guess Yiska is much more approachable because she gets lots of attention. He's quite a bit larger and I guess more intimidating looking, she's a real gentle sweetheart, and it comes through. Yukon met a Chow yesterday and hubby said he went up to him and gave him some sniffs and a lick lol, the Chow looked like 'huh?' Apparenty it took all the girl had to hold onto him, meanwhile Yukon just thought he'd say hi. I've NEVER once seen Yukon not react to a large dog so I was shocked. Then I found out the Chow was a puppy also- 7.5 mos and that Yukon was bigger than him. I said ahhh, that makes sense then HA!

Do you think as he gets bigger, he will have less issues with big dogs? He seems to know when the dogs are smaller and he is comfortable around them. Dogs never seem to know their size so I don't know!

[mama23+pyrs2]

Kristina,
I love hearing the stories about your pups! They are so cute! If you're worried about Yukon around other dogs, you should start socializing him A LOT now that he's a puppy and smaller than he will be. I'm sure the walks are helping a great deal, but are there any doggie play groups or a friend that has a dog that you can bring him around? I would suggest a dog park, but I know some people don't like them because it can cause them to be more fearful of dogs in the end, depends on the park. The one around me sometimes has 20+ dogs in a small area and so obviously there are bound to be some fights and problems. If you have a more laid back dog park in your area that doesn't get too crowded, maybe that could be helpful. I look at it this way: it's a lot easier to work with a 40? lb puppy than a full grown 100? lb dog.

They are both darling!!!

You're right. I admit they haven't gotten the socialization they should have. They are doing excellent with people, no matter who they meet and especially kids. I wanted to get them in the puppy classes when they were small but a bunch of things came up and it never worked out. They need to get into some training and I still plan to do that, pregnant or not! I wanted to wait 'til they were around this age to really start working with them- outside of the house I mean. Now that I'm not puking my guts out, I will be able to do more. ;)They are so good, they aren't even mouthy eventhough they are deep in the throws of teething.

I've never been able to find a dog park- I'd love to. I also have zero friends. The only 'friend' I have and never see haha has a yorkie. My inlaws have a couple maltese. I hardly ever see big dogs around!

Yiska hangs back a lot, I guess that is just her personality. She waits for Yukon to take the lead every time, she's rather shy and quiet, and doesn't seem to care about any dog. She gets interested and playful with the little ones. Yukon's issue is that he gets this, I guess macho attitude when he sees one. He looks all of a sudden like he's on guard and he's got a big problem with the dog being around. He's acted that way since he was much smaller. He will just keep all his focus on them and bark at them and is content and relaxed when they leave. I don't know what it means exactly.

[mama23+pyrs2]

Oh yeah and I wanted to add that the only 'smaller' dog he acted that way with was a Pitbull that he was around when we went to get his shots. He was larger than the Pitbull but he didn't like her from the second she walked in. He never once took his eyes off of her, even when he layed down, he layed down facing her. Her demeanor was very on edge, very hyper and unstable and I am thinking that is what he didn't like. There was also a man that day that walked in and he noticed him right off the bat and had the same behaviors, ears perked, focused on him and barked at him until he left. What's funny is I had noticed the man walk in when we were outside letting them potty. He looked very irritated and impatient and stormed through the door. He was waiting in line when we went in and Yukon noticed him.

Perhaps he views all these things as threats? He was only about 4 months old then but he's started acting protective early on.

[mama23+pyrs2]

Yeah I understand what you're saying. I guess the best thing is just to keep working with them on training and socialization. I truly believe a dog can never get enough socialization. I think the daily walks you're doing are probably REALLY good for them. And obviously having kids in the house is great for them too. We don't have any kids yet and try our hardest to get the dogs around some kids. We want them to learn how to be gentle around them so everything goes smooth when we do have kids.

Maybe if you find a dog park in your area, you would not only help out the dogs, but probably meet a few new people yourself. Helps to make it all more enjoyable. If you let me know your town (or PM it to me), I can try to do some searches to see if I can come up with any in your area.

Glad to hear you're feeling a bit better, I remember a few weeks ago you posted about not feeling too well when you first found out you were pregnant. Are things going better for you?

ps: the avatars of your kids are too cute!

Yeah things are going much better for me these days. I think I'm just about completely over the morning sickness and I can't believe I made it through once again lol. The dogs are good with the kids but since they are pretty small, they tend to knock them over just giving them a kiss you know lol..that doesn't go over too well with the kids. Yiska gets much more affectionate and excited around them and will kinda knock them down and lick them to death and I have to come rescue them because my son especially freaks out and gets upset. Still trying to train them to not get so excited around them.

I will PM you. Thanks so much for looking for me!

[GoldenPyrs]

There was also a man that day that walked in and he noticed him right off the bat and had the same behaviors, ears perked, focused on him and barked at him until he left. What's funny is I had noticed the man walk in when we were outside letting them potty. He looked very irritated and impatient and stormed through the door. He was waiting in line when we went in and Yukon noticed him.

Perhaps he views all these things as threats? He was only about 4 months old then but he's started acting protective early on.

Agh, I typed all of this once and lost it, but I'm going to try again.    Sammy is our first male pyr, so I can't speak for male pyrs overall but Cara, our first Pyr, was an particularly wonderful judge of people.  She was super socialized b/c we got her before we had kids and we had lots of time to spend with her and we took her out a lot.  She loved everyone and was a big hit wherever she went.  She was a big, soft, sweet teddy bear except for:

1. A Fed Ex guy came to our door very early one morning,  Cara & I were home alone.  He was lost and looking for a particular address, but he was clearly very impatient & angry.  Since he was probably 6' 3" and 250 lbs, and obviously really mad he was pretty intimidating.  I answered the door holding Cara's collar.  Typically she'd just stand there and observe people, but not this time.    She stood on her back legs and growled and barked like she was going to take his head off.  He stepped back a good 4 feet, asked his question and left in a big hurry.      
2. We were traveling and sightseeing.  We had the kids and Cara in the van and we turned down a dead end street just before dusk one night.  We passed a man getting out of his car and he stared at us in a very weird sort of way.  Not something that you can really describe, but something felt very wrong.  Cara started barking like mad and hitting the car windows with her feet.  I was driving, and hubby wanted us to turn around and leave, fast.  I wanted to see the pretty Victorian homes that we'd come to see.    Well, after some arguing I turned around and we drove back past the guy.  He gave us the longest, really nasty stare.  We didn't think anymore about it until a few months later when we saw a TV news story about a mass murderer that had been arrested.  He was found in that same area that we'd been visiting and the photo looked very much like the man that we saw.  Of course, we will never know for sure, but we suspect that it was him.  Hubby said that though he didn't like the look of the guy, it was Cara's reaction that really made his hair stand on end and made him want to leave.

In any case, I learned to trust Cara's opinion of people, especially since she loved everyone else.  I know that it's tough to walk & socialize especially two puppies when you have little ones and a baby on the way, but I agree that it's so important and I think that it's great that you and your hubby are doing it.  Good for you!    They will not only learn to be better with people in general, I think that it helps them to be even better judges of people and in that way better protectors of your family.

[mama23+pyrs2]

Wow! Those are some good stories. That one about the dead end street gave me goose bumps, EEK- how freaky. What a reaction from Cara. It's definitely things like that, that you can't ignore when it's not just anyone that act that way with. They're so interesting. I got a real weird vibe from the guy too, especially after Yukon just didn't seem to want him there. I'm excited to see how they are when they're grown, I know Yukon is going to be a wonderful guardian..I would think Yiska too, she just seems to kinda be in a shell. I'm wondering if that's because of her place in that she's under Yukon, not sure. She's the sweetest thing ever, just more withdrawn. Yukon is very confident and outgoing, but she is pretty much completely opposite.

Thank you for sharing that with me! It helps me understand them more.

[GoldenPyrs]

Oh, you're very welcome!  It was very long (sorry) but I'm glad that it helped.  The gentle guardian aspect is one of the things about Pyrs that I particularly love.  Our dogs are very sweet, friendly and nice to everyone that they've met so far, but I know that if they sensed that something was wrong that I could count on their intuition. 

I think that you two are doing the right thing by walking them seperately.  It may be that Yiska defers to Yukon when they are together, but that she will get to be more confident with more time walking as the only dog.  I'm sure that much of this is simply their own personalities, and I love how they seem to be such individuals, but it sounds to me like what you are doing will help them both so that's great.  When you can, (I know, ha ha!) I think that some obedience training is really good, too.  It will help with rank (particularly while they're "teenagers") and make it more comfortable to control them on walks and all when they are grown, beautiful moose-y's.