Lgd battle of the sexes

[Blue Sky]

My two pyr girls are getting on in years and today one was quite lame. Got me thinking about acquiring a pup. Once the girls are gone I'll have two three year old pyratolians all males with my sheep. Do I need a girl to balance things out?

 

[BrendaMNgri]

@Blue Sky how old are your Pyrenees females? My 9 year old Petra has been diagnosed with
osteosarcoma - cancer - in her right knee. She's been on the retirement dole for some time now anyway, but
now spends most of the time in the house, on pain meds, sleeping. Amputation is out of the question on a 153 pd dog per my vet.
I can't afford taking her to UC Davis for $4000 in medical procedures so my vet said, pain meds - rest - when the pain meds no
longer work we will put her humanely down and she'll join my other dogs in the graveyard.

Depending on the amount of work your dogs have done when younger, keep in mind,
what is old for one dog may not be so for another. So much of it depends on the stress they were under as youngsters, and how much
and how hard they worked. But if your old timer is already going lame, well then yes, time to bring in more young reinforcements and let the
elders retire. You can 'wean' them off full time work by bringing them in closer to your house with some bummer lambs, goat kids.
Use your imagination. Even the barn corral. But give them a warm bed and comfort for the coming winter as their old bones can't take the cold
like they did when younger. You may want to consider supplements - Dr. Harvey puts out a Golden Years flake powder that I sprinkle on
my old timer's kibble.

If I were you I would be bringing in two pups not one (siblings….two sisters) to bring up the slack and let your young males
train them. The boys are at the ideal age to do that. Let your old timers retire. The admins won't let me post the link here but Sheep! Magazine has a
current issue out with an article in it I wrote about how to care for older, retirement age LGDs. It is on their website. Go check it out
and read it.

I do think both genders bring unique plusses to the table and it can be a plus running boys and girls together. Just make sure you get
the girl(s) spayed when she's old enough. When a female is in heat, you lose your males to love. All they want to do is hang out around the
female and fight each other over who gets a date lol....

 

[Blue Sky]

Thanks for the information. The older dogs get to choose their activities and down time. The lameness is much improved. Probably due to rough housing. That gal appears to be aging faster and something tells me I won't have her as long as I'd like.