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Border Collie/Great Pyrenees cross?

If you are wondering what is the right dog for you, this is the place to be. In this introductory forum we talk about topics such as breed vs. mix, size, age, grooming, breeders, shelters, rescues as well as requirements for exercise, space and care. No question is too silly here. This particular forum is for getting and giving helpful, nice advice. It is definitely not a forum for criticizing someone else's opinion, knowledge or advice. This forum is all about tail wagging and learning.

  
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Member Since
11/16/2011		 
 
Barked: Wed Nov 16, '11 7:15am PST 
Hi...looking at bc/great pyr mix....can you share more about your experience? I am told that the pup we are looking at is alpha female, foster says she has more pyr traits, bark, roaming......he roaming concerns me as we have partial fenced in yard, two acres, abut town forest which is good for supervised romps......any photos you can post.
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Foxxy

Pocket Wolf		 
 
Barked: Wed Nov 16, '11 7:28pm PST 
long story short, I hope you have ranchland in Montana for a mix like this. This sort of mix would be perfect in a ranching environment with sheep or cows, and acres of land in which the dog must protect the herd/flock from wolves, coyotes, bears, lynx and cougars. Both dogs are suited to the highlands. BC is from Scotland, and GP is from the mountainous border of Spain and France. BC is a grand mix of whatever the brits and scots had on hand that was intelligent and capable of handling LARGE flocks of sheep. Other collies and herding dogs could handle smaller flocks, but the BC is meant to work singly or in pairs to herd huge flocks across vast amounts of land. Though the BC is really a glorified mutt, it is nonetheless a refined collie type dog.

GP on the other hand, is meant to handle much bigger and more prevalent predators, and more reasonable flocks of much sturdier, more ancient breeds of sheep, cattle, and goats than is common in the isles. GP is related to the Akbash, ovtcharka and similar ancient herding breeds. With the GP, expect power, size, and grace as well as an ability to size up a situation and act on it, not necessarilly on command. It's something ancient shepherds have in common with ancient spitz types like Tibetan Mastiff and Chow Chow.

In any case, both handle elevation, they handle temperature extremes pretty well. From a mix of these, high inteligence, high drive that can be trained to work, a keen understanding of every movement you make, a perceptive watchdog and territory guardian, and of course, lots of shedding. You may or may not get drool. GP dogs drool. a. lot. think strings of drool on the ceiling and tops of doorframes. That's a possibility. You might get lucky and get more of a BC head.

Be prepared for dewclaws on the hind legs, which is a pyr thing. they can generally be removed, as they usually are not connected structurally by more than skin.

What I mean by a keen knowledge of your every movement is this: you must be consistent in your movements in this dog. It will understand all of your nonverbal communication that you may not even realize you are telegraphing. It will know when you are serious about your commands, and it will know when a situation is tense or casual. Both breeds are very perceptive communicators. Understand your body language, and learn to understand this dog's. It will save you quite a bit of trouble in the obstanance department.

I think a cool look in a mix like this is the badger colored GP with a standard BC look.
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Member Since
02/25/2012		 
 
Barked: Sun Feb 26, '12 4:08am PST 
We have a BC/GP mix and she is a wonderful little dog. We started fostering her initially and ended up adopted her officially! We have a full Border Collie, Jim, and have always had a BC or BC mix, but Sally is different. This prompted me to get a doggie DNA test done and it came back as border collie/pyrenees mix. She is small, around 40 pounds, has coloring of border collie but the temperment of great pyrenees. She doesn't have the BC 'eye' or intensity/fixation on the toys that our full BC loves - frisbee, balls, etc. She knows everything that moves outside of the dogs area (about 1/2 acre) and alerts (barks), whereas Jim rarely barks. She is a digger, which is common for GP. She and Jim both absolutely LOVE kids, even tho we don't have any. They get all squirmy if they see a stroller!! She chased our cats initially, until she was told not to and hasn't since. In fact, they go up to her now. We are still learning about Sally, as we have had her only since Dec 2011. The more she knows and trusts us, however, the more 'guardy' she is. She won't let a man near my car if she is in it, and I believe that there is a bite behind her bark. She does very well (top of her class) in advanced obedience and is now in 'Sniffer' dog training where she is excelling! She loves people, children and most other dogs, if introduced in a neutral area. She loves to be on my husband's lap and is very affectionate. The BC/GP combination seems to work well in Sally, and we feel lucky to have this little Sprite in our lives! I am going to keep her in various classes as this helps her use her mind and keep socialized to different people and dogs. She came from a kill shelter in Idaho to Herd of Wyoming rescue where we fostered her from. She is around a year old.
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Member Since
10/20/2012		 
 
Barked: Sat Oct 20, '12 1:46am PST 
I have a BC / Pyreneese mix and he is absolutely perfect. I rescued him from the shelter at 3 months (now 1 yr and 3 months) and he is the best dog I've ever owned. He is as smart as a BC and can still be as lazy as the pyre. He knows several tricks and listens very well. He is exceptionally well with all other dogs and cats. He's very loving and very intuitive. He does bark (guard) at people or dogs when he is on his property, but off his property, he is very well mannered. He does not chew things around the house and doesn't care much for toys, but does love chews like bones or bully sticks. The single most challenging flaw of his is the shedding. His coat must be groomed and brushed regularly bc he will shed EVERYWHERE. However, drooling has never been a problem. The only time he may drool is while sleeping, but even we humans do that. I never saw myself with this breed mix, but I couldn't be happier with the outcome. I trained dogs for 2 yeas and after coming across so many personalities traits and issues, I feel truly blessed to be able to come home to a dog that is very loving and obedient.
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Squ'mey

too old to eat- any more KD		 
 
Barked: Sat Oct 20, '12 7:54am PST 
Why do newbies always resurrect zombie threads? This one is 2 years old.. shrug
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Samson

Work? What's- that?		 
 
Barked: Sun Oct 21, '12 3:30am PST 
Samson is not too far away from a Great Pyr/Anatolian outcross. Both of these dogs are livestock guardians.

He got a LOT of the genetic behavior of both, from what I've read about those two breeds, and talking to people who own them.

They are very difficult to make good family dogs. Livestock guardians are bred to see anything "different" as a threat to the flock. From about one to six or seven months you have a window to safely introduce anything - after that, you're looking at weeks or even months of steady, constant introductions to an element for it to be a "normal" part of the dog's live. Any disruption in Samson's routine puts him in a bad mood. If I don't arrive home from work at the same time, etc, little things like that.

I would never recommend a livestock guardian, or any dog mixed/crossed with one, to any dog owner that isn't already experienced with more difficult dog temperaments. Samson's temperament isn't the full-blown livestock guardian temperament, of course, but enough of it is there to have made things difficult at times.

~

DERP. Didn't realize this was a necro.

Edited by author Sun Oct 21, '12 3:31am PST

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Member Since
11/18/2012		 
 
Barked: Sun Nov 18, '12 3:30pm PST 
I have GP/BC and he's three years old, named Maxx. He is the BEST dog I have ever owned. I got him when he was 6 weeks old and it took he me 3 weeks to house train him. He's incredibly smart, and so laid back. He loves chilling with me for hours while I do my homework. He is great with my four year old girl and other kids and pets. So loyal. I got lucky with this dog. I was afraid because of his breed that he would be a hellion, but I was pleasantly surprised. My husband got for me as my Christmas present. He was the cutest little white fluff ball, now he's a longed legged 75lbs baby. We live in an apartment, so the only draw back is that he's working dog so he has to walk every dog, but he keeps me active. When he was a pup he liked to chew, but that is normal. He doesn't chew now and he doesn't need a ranch or farm; he does try to roam when we go to the park, but I keep him on a leash and he does shred A LOT. He doesn't like baths, but loves getting blow dried. He amazing. I LOVE this dog.

Edited by author Sun Nov 18, '12 3:49pm PST

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R

1278405		 
 
Barked: Tue Dec 11, '12 9:39pm PST 
We got a pound special, Border we thought for sure, weren't sure what else, thought maybe Golden, but once her coat grew out weren't sure. Have had a few people suggest Pyrenees and after seeing more of them I tend to agree. She is a beautiful dog, to the point we have had passing cars slam on the brakes and back up to ask what she is. Super sweet with kids, intelligent, active, but not hyper. Would clone her in a heart beat! Best dog I have owned!

Plays well with other dogs, best friend is a Maltese. Will go for a run with me, but stamina is not throught the roof. Does like to keep an eye on things (the herd), but is not overly protective). Has on a couple of occasions shown some backbone when being bullied at the dog park, but never any aggression to a human, especially kids. My daughter (now 11), since day 1, has been able to take food out of her mouth without an issue.

Edited by author Tue Dec 11, '12 9:53pm PST

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Sassy Pants

I will get to it- as soon as I- want to.		 
 
Barked: Sun Jan 13, '13 2:45am PST 
I have a 9 mon Border Collie/Gr Pyrenees mix. Father was a full blooded Pyr, mom was full blooded border. Her BirthDay was 3/19/12. She is 9 mon old now. I did use a crate to keep her in until the complete babyness left and I didn't have to hide my dishtowels.

She will be 10 months old in a week. Let me tell you some of her great and not so great attitudes.

She is extremely intelligent (BC) Stubborn (Pry) wants to please both breeds. She was totally house trained by 5.5 months. She obeys these commands: comes, sits, lays long down, jumps up high no hands, stays, release, leave it and a couple more. She loves to run and jump some pretty high picnic benches.

She loves to go worming. After a rain or a snow thaw this dog gone dog goes worming.The worms come out for a visit and both dogs want to chase the worms. When they don't catch it, they did big holes trying to get to the worm. The back lawn is a mess from she and my daughter's dog (a mixed bull dog and black lab)have been running through the ground digging it up both by just running then by looking for worms.

Yes I know that as soon as Sassy touches the worm with her nose, the worm dives into the ground. Sassy then proceeds to dig a big enough area that with a few of them together I can plant fruit trees.

She listens well at every other time except to leave the worms alone. Oh and another thing. On a leach she acts like a lady. When she got out of the house into the front yard, she kind of flipped us of and ran so fast down the street we couldn't even see which way she went.

No this time she didn't come when called. We had to find her.

So, the Border Collie likes to herd (she taught my daughter's lab/bull dog to herd too). So they herd each other around the yard which is great, except when it's muddy!! That's what it is now.

But she is an amazing dog with love, respect, and guardian properties. AND her biggest purpose--Making us laugh. She keeps me in such a great mood watching her find new things to do and to watch.

I wouldn't trade her for anything.
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Member Since
05/06/2013		 
 
Barked: Mon May 6, '13 11:13pm PST 
My Bailey is a GP and BC cross. She looks like a big black Pyr. She's incredibly gentle with all creatures big and small. She listens almost perfectly to our commands... You have to be firm or she tends to ignore you. Whenever she is around an animal or person in distress she tends to seek them out to give comfort. She has been a truly amazing companion for 10+ years and it has been out privilege to have her as a part of our family.

The mix is not at all scary and we have had countless people tell us if they could get a dog just like her they would. She lives up to the "Gentle Giant" name in all ways.
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