Re-Homing Deuce
We are making the decision to re-home one of our guardian dogs, Deuce.
She is a wonderful dog, but will need the right situation in order for it to be a good fit. Please read the following carefully and make sure you are familiar with guardian dogs before contacting us.
Our background with Deuce:
We have had Deuce since Spring 2023. She arrived as a ~9 month old puppy with her brother. Deuces's breed is Great Pyrenees x Anatolian Shepherd. As a guard dog, Deuce's presence alone has been a wonderful deterrent to all predators even though she is not super aggressive or chasing anything down. Just her presence and her bark have been sufficient.
Deuce is a super friendly dog and seeks out human contact. This makes her easy to manage in some ways (she is not aggressive at all and comes when called). However, it is also sometimes that she wants to get out of her fence to come find us when there is a lightning storm.
Deuce is not great on a leash, but she is familiar with one. She wants to drag you.
Deuce is excellent in a car (she is used to being driven around the farm).
Deuce has been exposed to a few other dogs: she co-guards with her brother, and they have sibling spats but nothing alarming. She has met several other farm dogs, including chihuahuas, when she is out of her fence roaming around and she posed no issue (more interested in the humans). I have not and would not approach her "guard zone" with another dog.
Deuce experiences anxiety with thunderstorms, and our inability to fully manage this with her is our primary reason for re-homing her. In the past, we have had issues with her losing weight or getting a hot spot related to her anxiousness. We have also gone months-long periods with no issues on this front. When we do have issues with her, we are able to get her back to full health in a short timeframe with extra attention, good quality food, and staying on top of her anxiety meds.
Compared to her brother, Deuce's fear of thunder motivates her to escape the most "secure" of situations. In our opinion, managing her anxiety is the key to managing her, and we think that a family-owner will work out better than our situation here at Bellair.
Deuce's Ideal New Home
Deuce's ideal new home would be a small, medium, or even large family homestead/farm with good fencing. Guard dogs are known to roam when given the opportunity and she absolutely will.
She needs a job guarding livestock and she does well with poultry here at Bellair but would probably guard just about any farm animal, including sheep and goats and more.
Any new owner of Deuce should be aware of her high anxiety around thunderstorms. Her anxiety is mitigated significantly with trazadone given ahead of the storm. I believe the right shelter set-up "near humans" would also reduce this issue for her. Many times her escapes are tied to thunderstorm activities and we are not able to keep on top of this issue with her at Bellair.
As it sits now, Deuce has never been inside of a house and that should not be an expectation of her at the beginning. However, in working with her over time, she is human-centered enough that I believe she might be able to be an indoor-outdoor dog. Please be advised that this type of relationship with her may change her effectiveness as a guardian animal.
As with any guard dog, you can expect this to be a working dog relationship, not a pet. She will bark consistently at night when she senses animals/predators nearby. She can live outside in all temperatures. She will get burs if burs are present in her environment. She should be on an internal flea and tick preventative due to her outdoor situation.
If you have any inquiries about Deuce, please direct them to the Bellair email. From there, we will connect you directly with our livestock manager Nathan Ratchen.
