Great Pyrenees Puppy Adoption---folks with Pyr exp?

umm..no. Adult dog that's grown up around kiddos would be highly preferable...OR an older pup...like past 4-6mos.

Hope they are ready for BARKING...Pyrs are big time barkers...esp nighttime...they do patrol barking from what I hear. Puppy left alone might get a really...really good start on that habit...LOL. If they have neighbors...telling them that might alter their course?

 Family with two kids under age 6 - families with kids get dogs all the time

* Puppy is maybe 9 weeks old - I see absolutely no problems with the age

* Puppy will be left alone at least 9 hours a day during the week---although someone may be able to go home at lunch, I would not count on this every day. - People work and have dogs. It's not a big deal, especially if they can go home at lunch.

* Dog experience is very limited--no experience with BIG dogs, no day-to-day experience with puppies. - The is the only issue that I see. Great Pyrs are not for a first time dog owner.

rwbeagles

Hope they are ready for BARKING...Pyrs are big time barkers...esp nighttime...they do patrol barking from what I hear. Puppy left alone might get a really...really good start on that habit...LOL. If they have neighbors...telling them that might alter their course?

I didn't know about the barking. They rent a duplex, so they have close neighbors. The houses are close together...

Plenty of well exercised, well stimulated, well loved Pyr's don't bark their fool heads off. BUT a puppy of a breed prone to barking..left alone all day? LOL...I see it becoming an issue sooner than later...

Might this be the thing that can change their mind? LOL,,,I wish you luck convincing them...sometimes it seems to pointless to educate folks.

 I know of a few LGD's (not Pyrs, similar breed) who barked so loudly inside a closed house when a stranger was on their property that said stranger drove off with the driver's side door and the boot (trunk) of his car open.  Just because they saw him through a window.  They WILL alarm bark and they will NOT stop until told to.  If no one is there to tell them, they will continue.

LGD breeds need a lot of guidance, guidance they can't get from a human that is not there. 

 * Family with two kids under age 6

No big deal for a decently bred Pyr.  They are big squooshy dogs normally - the important thing is the age of the pup when exposed to the kids. 

* Puppy is maybe 9 weeks old

Perfect to start training.  I'd prefer working lines though.  As I just said in another thread - Pyrs can be so unpredictable. 

* Puppy will be left alone at least 9 hours a day during the week---although someone may be able to go home at lunch, I would not count on this every day.

This is a big problem.  As Kate mentioned, Pyr pups need training.  Pyr puppies who work are not alone - they are with the flock all day!  They learn from what works and what doesn't with the livestock, mostly.  Without that experience to guide him or her, this puppy left alone will have no limits to the trouble it could get into!  As Gina mentioned, there's barking, but holy cow, that's just a drop in the bucket.  Pyrs are huge chewers (literally), love to disassemble things, have the strength to get into any cabinet, through any door, or break out of any crate.  As for fencing, I tell people to build the tightest fence possible and then throw a bucket of water at it.  If water can get through to the other side, so can your LGD breed.  the only thing that holds a companion LGD breed to any place is a sense that they belong there.  Being left alone during the formative months is not the way to develop that sense.

* Dog experience is very limited--no experience with BIG dogs, no day-to-day experience with puppies.

That's not giving me warm fuzzies either.  If they are dedicated they can get over the lack of experience, but it's going to take an investment of time that it's not really sounding like they are committed to make - at the very least a nine week old Pyr pup is going to need lunch breaks - and they won't commit to that? 

They could go both ways on this.  In one way, they are right in that a Pyr is going to do what a Pyr will do, without a huge amount of input from human training.  But, on the other hand, it takes a small but very consistent amount of input to make a LGD breed of any kind socially acceptable - even a working dog needs help learning who the bad guys are, when it's time to shut up, and how to handle their charges (they need to be reminded to not be rough, and that will be true of a pup raised with human kids too).