My Great Pyrenees Maycee At 10 Weeks

Life has certainly changed around here the past week with the addition of Maycee, our now 10-week and two-day old Great Pyrenees.

Wednesday we went to the vet for our nine-week’s shots. Our wonderful breeder had said she might have weighed about 8.5 lbs when we got her. No. She’s up to 16. Or was on Wednesday. She weighs more by now I’m sure.  She’s clearly bigger this week than she was last week and over the next nine weeks or so will double in size and weight, easily.

Walks/Drags

We’re settling into a morning routine. The crate training is progressing. When she gets out, we head straight to the “spot” and she does her business. Then we get a little play and exercise, a little food, and then it’s back in the crate. The more we can acclimate her to the crate, using the command “Kennel” the better off we’re going to be in the long run.

Each morning we’re going for walks.  The first portion of them tend to be “drags.” She resists walking on a leash, particularly if we’re going up hills. Once she’s been dragged to the top–I say that loosely, mind you, she does some walking, but she’s in large part resisting following–she walks fine going down hill. I need to be more insistent on her walking immediately to my left and heeling, but I’ve not been doing that so much.  I’m going to give it a few more days.

But good for me and for her, we’re increasing the length of our morning walk.  Before bed time we take another walk to tire her out in hopes of her sleeping through the night.  So far, this strategy is working supremely.  There’s not been any more mid-night whimpering nor crying nor barking.

Feeding

I’ve read different tips about when and how much to feed a growing Great Pyrenees. So far we’re doing a cup of food per meal. She gets one after our morning walk, one around lunch time, and then one around dinner time.  I let her have something of a smaller meal/snack around bed time.

In her crate, I found a bowl and a water spout that attach to the cage and so she can get water while she’s in there, but it’s sips.

She has several toys we’ve been insisting she play with. In the picture to the right, you will see she’s taken that to an extreme by capturing the mop. She’s done really well with tennis balls, those fake bones you can get at Walmart, and I’ve even given her a couple beef rib bones to gnaw on.  This dog is SPOILED.

Training

We’ve got the command SIT down.  We bought a clicker the first week and a bag of Milk Bones treats. We’re now working on SHAKE.

The other major thing we’re working on is crate training. She won’t go in it without being placed, gotta work on that. When she weighs 75 lbs it’s going to be a little more challenging. My last Great Pyr didn’t learn to use the crate until she got older and it never worked. It was too late. And she was so powerful by that point she even snapped off some of the vertical wiring she was so strong and so ticked about being put in there.  For Maycee, we’ve made it her’s from Day 3 of being here and I intend to stick with it.

She’s in there a good bit and if we leave her here, we do not make a big deal about coming in or going out in order to reduce the anxiety or fuss about our being here.

Another thing I’ve been doing is turning on Sounds For Life Ocean Waves from iTunes when we’re not here and at night and turning it up just enough to create white noise cover. Great Pyrs are known for barking at real or imagined things at night, so I’m hoping the practice of the ocean waves will give her a safety feeling like she’s still in a womb, and add cover for the comings and goings outside. So far, it’s working.

Ice

There apparently is an urban legend about the dangers of feeding dogs ice. I found a couple sites citing vets who say not giving your dog ice because it’s dangerous is nonsense.

I can go into the kitchen now, open the freezer, move a piece of ice out and tap the tray and then close the door. When I do, if she’s not in her crate, I have a white fuzz ball sitting, literally sitting, in front of me waiting for the cube. Here in Texas, where it’s been toying with 100 degrees in the daytime, Maycee already has come to appreciate ice.

Car Rides

My last Great Pyr, Molly, did not ever do well in cars. A couple of times she left me big presents in the cloth seats of my Armada.

Not so with Maycee. We’ve made sure that she goes for at least one car ride a day. Sometimes I put the windows down.

When we got gas this morning, the windows were down in the front seat. As I was pumping gas I heard a voice from the other side of the car, “Alright sir, what kind of dog is this sweet thing?”  And Maycee had made two more friends.

Socialization

I’m trying to let Maycee meet as many new people as we can, see as many new places as possible, and hear as many different sounds as possible. The more of that she can do now, the less she will be afraid of it later on, and hopefully, she will have less of a desire to growl or bark at whatever.

Today’s walk included a trek around City Lake Park in Mesquite. We saw ducks, geese, fishermen, walkers, pigeons and more.

And while I had to drag her along for the first part of the walk, she pretty much got with it the further we advanced.

Life has certainly changed the past week for us. Maycee has been a good addition and a good fit. It’s added to the stress around here a little, but most importantly, we’re finding love in new ways. In addition, we’re all walking more and we needed a catalyst like this to make that come to be. I’m quite thankful for this new, sweet dog.

God is great. Good just doesn’t say enough about him.