Hank the cow dog, er Hank the livestock guardian dog
Hank, the dog of all dogs, the patriarch of the ranch. Hank is the reason Scott and I even met in the first place. Let me give you a little side story in this main story here. As I told you before I am/was “a city girl” I was living in town doing my in town stuff. One day on the facebook, I received a friend request from some cowboy dude. Obviously I needed to stalk him to make sure he was not some weirdo I should block. I scrolled through his pictures and was like “ok this guy is normal enough” So, I accepted his friend request. Over the next few months we would like each other’s posts and pictures. It wasn’t until one night he posted a picture of Hank on his timeline. Asking if anyone wanted to come wash his stinky dog. I wasn’t doing anything, so sure I will bite. I commented “sure I will do it”, a few comments back and forth between each other and basically the rest is history. Plus I don’t want to bore you all with a sappy love story. In short, when people ask me how we met, I always give Hank credit for our meeting.
Now, back to the real story about Hank. Hank is a five year old Great Pyreenes. Also known as a LGD or livestock guardian dog. They have a heavy presence on farms and ranches. Primarily guarding sheep in the pastures, but they will also be seen on the ranch looking after the other livestock. Having their bright white fur lets them intermingle within flocks of sheep, becoming a camouflaged guard. Scott has had Hank his whole life. Picking him up as a tiny sickish five week old puppy. Nursing him back to health and growing him up big and strong. Now weighing in at roughly 130lbs. He is a big boy. Hank has had the sheep protectors title before. He defended his flock, even taking on coyotes and killing them in their tracks. One reason why ranchers like these dog so much, they kill coyotes and will take on just about any predator.
Great Pyrenees have thick white coats, allowing them to survive in all types of temperatures. Hank totally hates being in the house. He will come in to say hello for a bit, and possibly pee on every surface he can mark, but soon after he will start to pant and will want back outside. There are a lot of people who have Great Pyrenees in the house. My two females live in the house, but ultimately they like to keep to their instinctive lifestyle and live on the land.
One time Hank had an accidental liter of puppies with Scott’s black lab. This resulted in a breed of dog called a Pyrador. They pretty much looked like giant black labs, with white patches of fur. All of the puppies found good homes, some became city dogs, some even live on ranches. I stay in touch with a few of the puppy owners and have got to see them grow up. One of the male puppies took after his dad Hank, and accidentally got a black lab pregnant as well. They ended up with a litter of puppies that looked identical to Hanks puppies. However there was this one puppy, he turned out brindle. Looking nothing like any of the other Pyrador puppies. Knowing I had the chance to have one of Hank’s grandchildren, I jumped on the opportunity. And just like that, I have Gunner. He is typical of the lab personality. He is small, but stocky, extremely loyal, and wants nothing to do with being a guardian.
Hank is an incredibly friendly beautiful dog. He takes his guardian job very seriously. He will bark and alert us if anything is out of the ordinary. Quite frankly, every ranch needs to have a Hank living there with them.
