Great Pyrenees: A Dog Barking Machine!

You bought a Great Pyrenees probably because you saw something cute and fluffy like this:

And now, six months later, you’re lying awake listening to the deep resonate barking coming from your backyard and wondering what you did.

What Your Great Pyrenees Research Should Have Told You

The number one complaint about the Great Pyrenees is their constant, sometimes non-stop, barking. Other common complaints are:

• A predilection to roam the neighborhood without your consent.
• Their insistence on digging a world-record-size hole, usually managing several attempts at the record simultaneously.
• A need to chew on everything as puppies.
• Their deep-seated stubbornness, which is actually independence, but most often seen as either stubborn or outright dumb.

Let’s deal with the barking, though, OK?

Why is my dog barking non-stop at everything?!

So, you’ve joined a Facebook group to try to get some more information about your Great Pyrenees. That’s wonderful, there’s a lot of active informative groups dedicated to the behaviors and idiosyncrasies of this breed. Reading down through you see a lot of humorous comments like “They’re barking because that leaf looks sketchy”, or “My pyr is barking, probably because a gnat farted.” While funny, on the whole, these comments are not true. A Great Pyrenees almost always has a reason for their barking. I will grant that you may have no earthly idea what that reason is, but there is one.

OK, so what are they barking at?

The more you study the behavior of the Great Pyrenees, the more you will understand, and hopefully, appreciate, the service they give you.

Your dog is part of the Livestock Guardian Dog breed or LGD for short. It is their mission in life to keep the charges they are bonded to safe. Regardless of whether this is chickens, sheep, goats, or you and your family, they will defend what they consider theirs.

Their line of defense has several stages. The first thing my pyr does after the sun sets and darkness falls over her yard is to bark a warning to anything listening that she is on duty and defending her property. As with all good rituals, this has to be performed to all four cardinal points to be inclusive to the entirety of nature itself.

She is extremely aware of her surroundings and if anything is out of place or different, she will sound a warning bark. Basically, she wants me to know that the neighbor has their flood light on and it wasn’t before. Maybe she sees a movement and wants me to know something is out there. Sometimes she will hear a siren or other noise pitched way out of my range and will let me know she something is going on really far away but that she’s on it.

Can I do something to make her quit barking?

In these situations, I can generally acknowledge and thank her and she will stop, satisfied that she has done her best by me. Other times, especially with movement that I can’t see, she will continue to bark a warning to convince whatever it is to stay on their side of our fence.

This isn’t always effective, but more times than not it will satisfy her enough to come back in the house. The problem is that she is the sole assessor of threat level and if she deems that additional deterrent is needed, no amount of cajoling will make her stop.

I should warn you, I am totally against shock, spray, and e-collars as I believe they could damage the sweet, co-operative temperament of these dogs. It’s a little like being told to shut-up every time you speak. Barking is the dog’s communication. They are trying to warn you of a perceived threat.

So is there a solution to dog barking?

In the case of a Great Pyrenees, probably not a good one. Let’s think this through just a minute though, OK? If the dog hears something and warns you ahead of time, that’s a good thing, right? Your dog is barking to protect you and your home.

There Was That One Time…

Knowing that my Pyrenees would bark at anything new in her environment, I went to introduce myself to my new neighbors and explain why my dog barks so much.

It went well, she barked at all of them like crazy running up and down the fence apparently hoping to impress me with her diligence.

I went to follow up about a month later. My neighbor tells me that my dog barked so much one night that it got her dog to barking. (Uh-oh) Unable to quiet her dog from the house, she went out to check on him. As she was strolling across the yard she saw her young child at the edge of her yard near the tree-line.

My pyr knew something was out of place and barked until it was corrected. Good Dog!

So What Can I Do About My Great Pyrenees’s Non-Stop Barking

Honestly, why do you want to?

This is what they do.

Over the years humans have bred dogs to perform specific tasks. Herding, hunting, retrieving, and protection are just a few of the jobs we give to our dogs.

The Great Pyrenees is a member of the Livestock Guard Dog breed and has been tasked with guarding and protecting livestock for over 3000 years. Asking them to change all that over a week-end is futile.

I will tell you, though, after I have checked and re-checked, praised and petted, and she is still barking non-stop, I occasionally bring her into the house to quiet her down.

But really, I don’t want her to stop barking. She is being true to her lineage, her heritage, and she is making sure my small piece of land is well protected from any and all threats. And she takes her job very seriously.

My Nocturnal Peace of Mind

Left to her own preferences, which is what she prefers, Kiah will start the evening, just after dark, barking a warning to anything within the range of her voice. Generally, she will remain near the house as I don’t have actual livestock, barking toward the empty field that is just outside my fence.

This continues as long as there are lights on in the house. If I stay up until 3 a.m. she will she will be outside barking. She’s out there now, telling the neighborhood that she’s on duty. I love it.

I love the soft growl in the middle of the night that tells me she might hear something. I love the attention I get from her. And yes, I love the barking.