What Does A Livestock Guardian Dog Do?

I know people look at the large sleeping pile of white fur and wonder just what exactly does she do around here?

Kiah’s responsibilities are many and mostly of her own making. Great Pyrenees are somewhat nocturnal so if you come over to the house you will see her sleeping quite a bit through the day. Over the course of 24 hours her life looks a little like this:

6:00 am – Sleeping, snuggled tight up against my back. Once the alarm goes off and I’m up she’ll usually follow me downstairs.

7:00 am – First check of the yard in the daylight. A bit of barking ensues. Check on the chickens, walk the perimeter, settle down in the middle of the yard; guard position.

9:00 am – I usually have the morning routine finished and work on the computer has been going nicely for about a half an hour. Kiah comes into the office to check that all is well. She needs a little attention and a quick snack.

9:15 am – Cold winter months has her stretched out on the sofa downstairs. During the summer, she prefers the hardwood floor on the main level. A two-hour nap is in order now, considering how fast paced her morning was. Sometimes you can hear her snore.

11:15 am – I admit, I’m starting to think about lunch already. Once I’m out of the office, she’ll follow me around the house hoping for another treat or a little love. I think she secretly wishes I would sit with her on the sofa and pet her while she takes another nap. On most days we all go out, look for eggs and give the chickens a bit of a treat in the hopes they’ll reward us with a better output. Kiah stands guard, running to the fence line and barks at things of which I have no knowledge.

12:00 pm – Since she’s already up from her nap, she might as well make another perimeter check of the back yard. Half way through this check she finds a cool place in the grass where she can see as close to 360° as possible. Time for another nap.

3:00 pm – Another perimeter check is in order before she comes back inside to check on her favorite human. Generally, I’m at the computer and she’ll come up to my chair and either give a soft “huff” or put her paw on my leg to get my attention.

3:15 pm – Back to the sofa for another nap. The life of a Great Pyrenees is tough.

5:30 pm – SUPPER!!! She’s waited all day for this. Generally, she’ll be polite and wait until her Golden Retriever “sister” has eaten, but there are days that waiting’s just not possible. Maybe supper is especially tasty or all the hard work has her appetite really worked up. Both dogs will be going back and forth through the doggie door as they seem to prefer eating outside. Then they’ll settle in to watch as the skies darken into evening.

8:00 pm – I’m pretty much done with work for the day and we all pile onto the sofa to watch TV. Under normal circumstances, Emi (Golden Retriever) takes one end of the sofa and I take the other. Shortly Kiah will come down taking up the middle with part of her laying on Emi and the rest of her on me. She spends a lot of time actually laying on top of Emi, and not politely. There have been times I worried if Emi could breathe as Kiah was squarely on her head.

8:30 pm – Brushing, petting, scratching, sleeping. Her favorite evening activities.

11:00 pm – Bedtime for all of us. Both dogs allow me a tiny corner of the queen sized bed to call my own. Whether or not I get coverings is a hit or miss thing that depends on who gets to the bed first.

11:30 pm – Emi will be sleeping by  my legs and Kiah will be on the pillow just as she has seen the humans do. Both will stay with me until they think I’m asleep. Emi will move to the floor to guard against monsters under the bed and Kiah will be outside barking a warning to all things unseen and unknown that she is on duty and death to anyone who tries to breach her domain.