Monday, May 23, 2016

Microsoft’s Fetch! App Is Terrible at Identifying Dog Breeds. That’s What Makes It Great.

In April researchers at Microsoft released How-Old.net. Using machine learning, the software guessed the age of people in photos. The results were, ahem, not very accurate, but people loved submitting photos of themselves and their friends. Now a new project through Microsoft's experimental program Garage is doing a similar thing for identifying dog breeds. And it's terrible in the best way.

You can use Fetch! through a website, What-Dog.net, or an iOS app. When the service evaluates a dog photo and settles on a breed, it provides a rating of how strong it thinks the match is, and also lists runner-up breeds that it considered. Then it lists characteristics of the breed it assigned, like disposition and size.

cows
lol.
Lily Hay Newman

With How-Old.net, Microsoft researchers seemed a bit out of touch with how Internet users would interact with the service. (They expected most people to try the service out on stock photos, not personal photos). Fetch! is much sleeker, but like with How-Old.net, the true joy of using it doesn't really come across in the description, which says: "This is the kind of app you’re going to take out when you’re with your friends. You’ll make fun of each other, comparing which breeds you look like, and posting the tagged photos."

The Fetch! mode that allows people to be assigned a dog breed is kind of funny, sure, but I was much more interested in throwing other animals and inanimate objects at the A.I. What would it think about a photo of a plate of bagels?! (To the service's credit, it did realize that the bagels were not a dog.)

When I wasn't trying to trick it, the service did make some impressive guesses. But it also made a lot of mistakes. Maybe Fetch! will get better as more people feed it data to learn from. For now it's pretty delightful as is and a great excuse to look at dog photos.

The Complete Guide To Dog Breeds

Want to learn more about the different dog breeds? There are currently over 200 different Kennel Club recognised dog breeds, which means there is a lot to learn. Each dog breed belongs to a specific group, there are seven groups in total. The Kennel Club dog groups are: gundog, hound, pastoral, terrier, toy, utility and working.

british dog breeds

If you are going to try and learn as many dog breeds as you can it helps to know a bit about the different groups. Each group has a job or a purpose and it’s easier to memorise dogs by their specified group.

Not everyone needs to learn all of the dog breeds. However, knowing a little bit about the different dog breeds out there can help you to make better decisions when choosing a dog. You will be more informed about the unique characteristics of specific dog breeds and will be able to figure out what breed might be best suited to your family.

Over time we have created a very long list of dog breeds through selective breeding. Breeders choose dogs to breed that have certain characteristics that they want to be present. Dogs come in a huge variety of different shapes, sizes and colours. They are the most varied species in the world thanks to human manipulation. It’s difficult to comprehend for example that a Chihuahua is the same species as a Great Dane.

Many dog breeds were originally created to do a particular job. Although some dogs still do the jobs they were bred to do centuries ago, lots of dogs are now simply family pets. However, they still hold on to many of the characteristics that have been hard coded into their DNA.

The seven groups

Gundog
This group is made up of dogs that were initially bred to hunt live game. Some examples of gundogs are the Weimaraner, Pointer, Retriever and Italian Spinone. Click here to see the full list of breeds included in the gundog group.

Hound
This group was originally bred to hunt either by scent or by sight. For example, Greyhounds are sighthounds and Bassets are scent dogs. Beagles, Foxhounds, Whippets and Deerhounds are all in the hound group. Click here to see the full list of breeds included in the hound group.

Pastoral
The pastoral group includes dogs that were originally bred for herding. They used to herd animals such as sheep and cattle. The Old English Sheepdog, Border Collie, Komondor and Corgi are all included in this group. Click here to see the full list of breeds listed in the pastoral group.

Terrier
Terriers originally had the job of hunting vermin such as mice, rats, foxes and even badgers due to their size and hardy temperament. Examples of terriers include the Airedale Terrier, Bedlington Terrier, Border Terrier and Fox Terrier. Click here to see a full list of the breeds listed in the terrier group.

Toy
Toy breeds don’t really have a working job, they were bred purely to be lapdogs and companions. Toy breeds are the smallest of all dog breeds. Examples include Chihuahuas, Italian Greyhounds, Pomeranians and Pugs. Click here to see a full list of the dog breeds included in the toy group.

Utility
The Utility group basically includes dog breeds that don’t really fit into any other groups. This is a miscellaneous group of non-sporting dogs. Examples include French Bulldogs, Dalmatians, Chow Chows and Akitas. Click here to see a full list of breeds included in the utility group.

Working
Working dogs were originally bred to assist humans for all sorts of purposes. They have important jobs and enjoy ‘working’ and being given a job. Working dogs do jobs such as search and rescue and security and are often very courageous. Breeds in this group include the Dobermann, Boxer, Leonberger and Newfoundland. Click here to see a full list of the working breeds.

Most popular breeds in the UK
Some breeds have naturally become more popular than others. The popularity of a breed depends on their coverage on dog shows, celebrity influence, what job they are bred for and a variety of other factors. Some dog breeds are more popular in other countries but here are the most popular breeds in the UK at the moment:

 Retriever (Labrador)
Spaniel (Cocker)
Spaniel (English Springer)
Pug
German Shepherd Dog
Golden Retriever
French Bulldog
Border Terrier
Bulldog
Staffordshire Bull Terrier

At risk dog breeds
Unfortunately some dog breeds fall out of favour. Once a breeds numbers fall below certain numbers they are included on the Kennel Club’s list of vulnerable native dog breeds. Dog breeds that receive 300 or fewer registrations and put onto this list. Breeds currently on this list include the Collie (smooth), Bloodhound, Fox Terrier (smooth), Gordon Setter and Miniature Bull Terrier. Click here for a full list.


Coat types

Dog breeds can also be categorised by their coat type. Some people prefer dogs with big fluffy coats and others prefer a dog with a shorter coat. Some dogs were bred to be able to survive in extreme weather and so they have a specific coat to help to protect them. The different types of coats you can get are: smooth (e.g. Pointer), wire (e.g. Wire Fox Terrier), wool (e.g. Bichon Frise), double (e.g. German Shepherd), silky (e.g. Cocker Spaniel) and combination (Labradoodle).

Choosing the right breed

It’s important to select the right dog breed for your lifestyle and circumstances. Often people buy certain dog breeds because of how they look and because they are popular, without really thinking about their temperament. The wrong dog breed with the wrong owner can be disastrous. You can meet all the different dog breeds and talk to owners at Discover Dogs. Make sure you speak to a breeder and research a breed’s characteristics before you make your decision.

MERLE GENETICS FOR CARDIGAN WELSH CORGI BREEDERS

It’s obvious that there is a lot of bad information out there – and a real lack of GOOD information – about breeding merles. What I am going to write is applicable to almost all merle breeds, but I am going to write here as a Cardigan breeder, knowing what I know about Cardigan pedigrees. 

I want to get one thing out of the way immediately: I am, personally, very much pro-merle (as a color throughout dogdom) and I am not automatically against double-merle breedings. I think the best breeding rules are the ones that tell clubs to get the heck out of the way and let breeders do the best breedings they can.

Having said that, I believe that every breeder deserves to understand what’s going on so she can make her own decisions, not follow mine. And if genetic information is going to be shared, it has to be accurate. 

I am marking this with the year in its title so that, if it is dug up in the years to come, somebody reminds me to come refresh it with the newest information. It is, however, current as of this day, this month, and this year.

What the heck IS merle?

Merle is a mutation in the SILV gene, called PMEL more accurately. PMEL is an important gene area for all kinds of colors in many animals; different mutations in PMEL create white chickens, silver horses, and silver dun cattle, among others.

Merle works by disrupting a certain stage in the formation of melanin. That’s how it changes pigment from its solid state to either white (if the mutation is present in its homozygous state, also called “double merle”), or to an intermediate color somewhere between white and the solid color on the dog. This intermediate state creates the “blue” of a blue merle or the creamy tan of a red/chocolate merle, and also lightens brindle and red/sable. 

Every merle mutation carries with it a “tail,” a stretch of about 100 base pairs (a base pair is the linkage between T and A, or between C and G, that you learned about in junior high). That tail is fragile and often breaks. If it breaks shorter than about 65 base pairs, the cell it’s in doesn’t become merle; it stays fully colored.

Because this tail is so long, and it’s quite fragile, it breaks a LOT, and everywhere it breaks becomes a black patch. So when you see those black patches on your merle dog, they’re where, when the cell was first developing, way back when the puppy was an embryo, that tail broke off and the cell looks and acts non-merle.

What about double merle?

In a double merle dog, the action of the mutation is not affected by the non-merle gene, so you don’t see the intermediate state (the silver/grey in a black-based merle). You see a much more complete interruption of melanin formation = a mostly white dog. But the causative factor is the same; it’s an interruption of the way melanin is formed. It’s not, and never would be, a “bleaching” of existing melanin, a white “spot,” a destruction of cells, etc. 

What’s the deal with deafness? Do white ears or white skin inside the ears on a merle or double merle mean the dog is deaf?

What creates deafness in merle and double merle dogs is NOT white skin! That’s like saying that spaghetti causes sauce. You have to go back into the “recipe” to understand where BOTH are coming from. 

Melanin-producing cells don’t just create skin color. They also create certain aspects of the ear and the eye. In the ear in particular, they keep the cochlear hairs healthy. When they are malfunctioning, these hairs die and the dog is deaf.

From LSU:

“The deafness, which usually develops in the first few weeks after birth while the ear canal is still closed, usually results from the degeneration of part of the blood supply to the cochlea (the stria vascularis). The nerve cells of the cochlea subsequently die and permanent deafness results. The cause of the vascular degeneration is not known, but appears to be associated with the absence of pigment producing cells (melanocytes) in the blood vessels. All of the function of these cells are not known, but one role is to maintain high potassium concentrations in the fluid (endolymph) surrounding the hair cells of the cochlea; these pigment cells are critical for survival of the stria. “

You can have COMPLETELY WHITE SKIN, including surrounding and inside the ear, and entirely normal hearing – because hearing does not come from skin cells. It comes from the cells that feed the cochlear hairs, and those are not skin cells. 

Conversely, you can have absolutely black ears, black hair and skin, and no hearing, because (again) hearing does not come from skin cells. 

The fact that skin color is not the same as functional hearing is also why a small proportion of NORMAL merles (single merles, not double) have pigment-related hearing loss. If the merle gene affects enough of the cells that eventually become the ones that feed cochlear hairs, those hairs can be starved and die. Thankfully, it’s pretty rare. Single-merle-related deafness is pretty much invisible in a merle breed, because it’s almost always unilateral and so the dog functions normally. But we shouldn’t pretend that we never have deaf single merles; the evidence is entirely against us.

What creates heavily marked merles versus lightly marked ones?

This is not something that is known for sure, but the working hypothesis is that lightly marked merles have longer and/or more stable tails, and heavily marked merles have shorter and/or more unstable tails. The more often the tail breaks off below that magical 65 base pair length, the more spots the dog will have.

I would also hypothesize  – and this is my personal belief, not backed up by research – that the timing of the tail breakage has something to do with it. The cells that will create the skin and hair of the dog start off smaller in number and then multiply, of course, as do all embryonic cells. If the tail breaks when there are relatively few cells, meaning that the broken-tail cell goes on to make many billions of eventual adult cells, that might create the very large patches we see. Tails that break later in the process would create small patches. But, again, that’s my personal guess.

What about cryptic merles?

Well, that depends on what cryptic means to you.

If cryptic means that the dog IS merle but it’s very heavily patched with black, so heavily that the merle is visible only on, say, a cheek or on a bit of one leg – that’s just an extremely heavily marked merle. So you’d go back to the above explanation, where a lot of those tails broke off during the development of the puppy.

There are two other, less commonly used by breeders, definitions of cryptic merle, which deserve to be explained. But you should not take my explaining them as a reason to think that they’re common or they’re going to happen to you. They are phenomena that you are very unlikely to see in your lifetime with Cardigans.

The first type of “other” cryptic merle is one that occurs in Catahoulas but has not yet been confirmed elsewhere to my knowledge. That type of merle, called Mc (for merle, cryptic) is a normal merle gene minus much of its tail. The tail was lost sometime in the Catahoula history and since then Mc has been swirling around in the breed with great frequency. Mc is so common in Catahoulas that a huge proportion of the breed tests as double merle, MM. But because one or more of those M results is actually Mc, double merle Catahoulas look like single merle or even look like solid-colored dogs.

The second type of cryptic merle is very much like Catahoula Mc, but it occurs spontaneously in multiple breeds when the tail breaks off the merle gene very, very early, even in the sperm or egg cell that eventually goes on to make the puppy. These dogs will be entirely solid, without a hint of merle, but still have the mutated PMEL that means they are merle.

Unlike the “fixed” Mc in Catahoulas, there is some anecdotal evidence that in these spontaneous Mc dogs, the tail can recover some length and the dog can produce like a regular merle. I don’t believe that’s ever been recorded in the literature (if you know of a case study please show me so I can fix this). But, still, the concern is enough that in non-Catahoulas the general advice is to avoid breeding a known Mc (a perfect example of a “known Mc” would be a black dog with a double-merle mother or father) to other merles if you want to avoid double merle puppies.

Why are some merles so brown and others are light powder blue?

There are a few things going on that can explain this well-known phenomenon.

First, a dog who would have been quite red if it was a non-merle – the tris that have extremely red undercoat and red shafts to their black hairs, or the brindle-pointed blacks that have a lot of brindle visible in the hair – will have very red-tinged merle. The red/yellow pigment – the phaemelanin – is not affected by merle as much as the black pigment. So red will survive the merleing process and look very obvious on the resulting merle dog.

Second, the merle gene itself – and here I am not talking about the tail alone – is an odd kind of mutation called a transposable element, or retrotransposon. It’s not a stolid, predictable, old mutation like “dominant black,” which always does the same thing. It’s a young, rebellious, unpredictable mutation that changes, mutating within itself, creating new and different versions all the time. Those different versions create various shades and effects of merle, from very heavy and muddy all the way to so light that the color between the black patches is actually gone and the dog is white and black instead of silver and black. Some secondary mutations create dogs that are simply grey, no black at all. Others place a patchwork of colors and white that is so striking that it gets its own name, tweed. So when you see a particularly odd merle, especially if it is visibly passed along from parent to puppy, you can often blame one of those secondary mutations.

(By the way, I have seen all of the above – the no-spot, white, and tweed merles – in Cardigans.)

What about “harlequins”?

There are two mechanisms that create harlequin, which is a merle with very little or no color between the black patches. Harlequins in Great Danes are created by the combination of a merle mutation and a completely separate mutation, called H for harlequin. When H is present in a non-merle, it’s invisible, but when it occurs in a merle it erases the color between the patches and creates a harlequin.

The second, and much more common (not in numbers of dogs, but in “how often it has happened in the history of merles”), mechanism is found in non-Dane breeds. In these breeds a mutation within the merle gene itself erases the intermediate form of the color and creates a white and black dog. There are multiple known mutations that do this, and there will likely be many more discovered.

In non-Danes, the mutated merle is passed along by the parent. So an oddly colored merle – whether harlequin or tweed or muddy or whatever – will generally create more of itself. These mutations can therefore be traced through pedigrees… at least until the merle gene mutates again!

Can merle be “carried”? Can it be hidden in a pedigree?

Most breeders use “carry” to mean that the dog is not a color, but has the ability to produce that color. We often say that our reds and brindles carry black, for example, or that our brindles carry red.

If that’s what you mean by carry, then no. Merle can never be carried. Every dog who has a merle gene IS merle. There is never any such thing as a dog who passes along merle to its children but is not merle itself.

The only way merle can hide in a pedigree is if the dog is both merle and ee red. Because merle affects black pigment but spares red/yellow pigment, and ee red dogs have no black hairs and only red/yellow hairs, they can BE merle without LOOKING merle. They are not carrying it; they are still very much merle. But they don’t have the big visible patches.

For this reason, if you have en ee red Cardigan who had one or more merle parents (including ee red merles), it would be smart to gene test it before breeding if you are considering breeding it to a merle. You want to know if your ee red is also a merle, in that case. If your ee red had non-merle, non-ee-red parents, then there is no way it can possibly be merle and you do not have to worry.

What does all that mean? The short story is that if you have bred two known non-merles, the likelihood that a puppy will be merle is INCREDIBLY SMALL. It approaches zero for most breeders.

My dog doesn’t look merle, but he’s got mottled ears. Are these spots on my Cardigan’s white ears, or these spots in his collar or on his face and feet, evidence of merle?

Most likely, no. If your puppy was born without those spots, ABSOLUTELY NO. Cardigans also have a type of marking called ticking, which is spotting that appears on white areas of the hair in the weeks and months after a puppy is born. Sometimes that ticking can be so heavy that it joins together and looks like a merle patch, but merle patches are there when the puppy is born. And, of course, if neither parent is merle, you don’t have to worry even if the spots look a little weird.

Was the Cardigan originally merle or did someone cross a sheltie or collie in?

The original color of the Cardigan was known to encompass “brindle, brown, gold, tri-color, merle,” according to Mrs. Bole, and “yellow,” “blue and grey merle,” and “most frequently a … golden brown merle” (a brindle or sable merle) according to Mr. Lloyd-Thomas. So merle is very definitely an original color of the breed, and was bred frequently in its sable and brindle forms as well as in its black-based “blue” forms.

As a note, isn’t it interesting to see “brown” and “grey” mentioned? From those narratives and from the existence of dogs like Farlsdale’s Silver Smoke, we know that chocolate and slate are also original colors and not evidence of crossbreeding either historic or modern.

Why do people say that merle disappeared and was rediscovered in Cardigans?

Merle never disappeared in the Cardigan, but the black-based blue merle did indeed go away, for about twenty years, from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Since by the 1930s the breed was only ten or twenty years out of the hills from whence it had come, it was very vulnerable to the preferences of the handful of people who had them. There were very few breeders at that time, and they were shouldering the task of keeping the breed going both in the UK and in the US. There was little or no market for show puppies, so generally if the breeders themselves did not keep the dogs for breeding they were never bred.

Mrs. Wylie, in the UK, had been committed to the merle color, and had many lovely dogs. But with her death, especially since she had not spread her dogs around, the black-based “blue” merle disappeared from view.

About twenty years later, the color “reappeared” from reds and brindles.

The key to understanding how this happened is to realize that lumped in with “red” were (and still are) what some breeders called “pale red” and Lloyd-Thomas had called “gold.” In other words, ee reds, which we colloquially call pink. As I said above, dogs who are ee red can also be merle, and still remain (visibly) red. And for those two decades they had indeed stayed red, and thus progressed through pedigrees for several generations.

But, interestingly, the breeders still knew what they were. Those interested in producing black-based merles again were told that these “reds with blue eyes” (ee red merles), when bred to other colors, would make blue merles. So even with the limited knowledge of color genetics of the time, there was no mystery about the fact that ee red and merle could coexist and be used to produce black-based blue merles. And, in fact, that’s exactly what happened.

I’ve heard that “pinks” are a terrible threat to the breed because they hide merle.

You may have a clue about what I am going to say based on the last paragraph – but to make it clear, NO. Pink (ee red) can make merle less visible, but knowledge is all that is needed. Whether you call it yellow, as Lloyd-Thomas did, gold as Mrs. Boles did, light red as is often recorded in pedigrees, or our current pink, ee red is a common and original color in the breed. And it was handled (and, I might add, valued), in concurrence with merle, by breeders without our current gift of easy color testing. Surely we can expect as much of ourselves, especially since we have gene testing at our fingertips.

If you have a pink you think might be merle, test it. If both parents are non-merle, you don’t have to worry.

I still have more questions. How do I get them answered?

Please put them in the comments. If I can answer them, I will. If I need to send you elsewhere, I’ll be happy to do that too.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PERSIAN CATS!

Persian cats, contrary to their name, have not originated from Persia. Popularized during the 18th century, they come from Europe as a result of cross breeding with the Angora cat breed, an initiative to further enhance the Persian cat coat by European aristocracy. The result of a breeding program started by British breeders in 1871, the Persian’s coat is unique both in variety as well as length. 

Persian Cats
Calm, social and peaceful, the Persian cats can adjust to just about any environment as long as it’s tranquil and it gives them a place to escape from the daily routine of their owners’ lives. Persian cats, being friendly in nature, make special bonds between other cats, dogs and even children. They are very affectionate towards their owners too.

What are the unique characteristics of a Persian cat?

A Persian cat’s most identifiable trait would be its Brachycephalic, or short and flat, face structure. Having a face of this unique shape, makes it difficult for them to pick up their food and eat it. Thus to pick up its food, a Persian cat uses the underside of its tongue. Royal Canin’s almond shaped kibble has been tailored specially for this breed to ensure that the food is easy to pick up and chew. 

The other remarkable feature of a Persian cat is its long and luxurious coat, with a dense undercoat. They come in over 200 recognized colours today, ranging from white to smoke to tri-colored markings. If you stretch out their fur from one end to the other, the total length amounts to over 230 miles! To ensure their fur remains dense and knot-free, it is important to brush and groom their coat regularly.

Having a long and dense coat can also be a problem for these cats. They regularly swallow large quantities of their hair during grooming, which makes them very prone to hairballs. This also results in digestive sensitivity for these furry felines.

Persian Cats
What to feed your Persian cat?

To tackle the above mentioned hairball issues, Royal Canin offers tailor-made nutrition with formulas designed to meet the specific needs of a Persian. The formula contains Omega 3 fatty acids and fibres, which helps stimulate intestinal transit and naturally limits hairball formulation. In addition to the above benefits, feeding Persians this nutritional formula maintains her skin and coat, along with supporting her digestive health

Great Pyrenees Owner Interview

Can you tell us a bit about your Great Pyrenees?
I got Phoebe from a large litter of puppies around April 20th, 2016. She was 6 weeks old at the time, although, it’s recommended that they are brought home a bit older than that. Phoebe is a little ball of fun, but she hasn't stayed little for long.

Already she had gotten much bigger than when I got her, only a couple weeks ago.

How easy was she to train?
I am currently in the training process with Phoebe. The Great Pyrenees are very intelligent dogs, and this has become quickly apparent. It did not take long for her to realize where to go to the bathroom, and her quick growth has helped her wait in between bathroom breaks. This being said she is a bit mouthy.

Whenever she nips with her sharp puppy teeth, I stop all interaction and clearly say, “No,” before continuing. Altogether, consistency is key.
How much exercise does she need?
Great Pyrenees Puppy in the Grass.

Phoebe is still a puppy, so she has gotten most of her exercise terrorizing the furniture and bounding about my house. This being said, as an adult, she’ll need regular, daily exercise.

I plan on accomplishing this by walking her for an hour each day, as it’s especially important with these larger breeds to maintain their weight and health. It also keeps the dog calmer, as it helps rid her of any excess energy that could be spent chewing on the couch.

Does she have a particular doggy smell?
Phoebe has not been a very aromatic dog, which pairs suitably with her bright white coat. The only scents she’ll pick up are those that she has rolled around in.

These are quickly removed with a bath, however. Being a puppy still, she will get some urine on her back legs when she goes to the bathroom. I often just dry her off with some paper towels before I let her back into the house.



More Great Pyrenees Owner Interview Questions and Answers
Does she shed?
Phoebe has started to shed quite a bit already. I’ll often end up vacuuming my carpets twice a day. On top of this, I brush her every other day to remove and shed hairs that get caught in her coat.

Her shedding is not a huge issue so long as you keep up with it, although, I would not recommend this breed for people with, particularly bad dog allergies.

Does she bark much?

Bark, no. Yap? Yes. For most of the day, she is quiet except for the occasional burst of yapping at passersby or my cat trying to slink about the house.

During the night, however, she is a bit more animated. I put her in a crate at night, to which she makes her displeasure very known. I'll sometimes wake up to these same bursts of yapping, although, they often just remind me to let her out to go to the bathroom.

What is she like around other dogs?
I have two other dogs, both of which took a bit of time getting accustomed to the new puppy in the house. Once they got over hostilities, Phoebe has gotten along with them just fine.

She is very playful, although, I'll often monitor her to make sure she isn't nipping through one of my other dog’s ears. With strangers’ dogs, she’ll often yap at them, but not make any sort of approach, as she is already fairly bound to the property.

Do you have any other pets besides dogs?
I have a cat named Salem who becomes the unfortunate target of this marauding puppy. It’s a good thing Phoebe is still short and clumsy, as it allows Salem to make a quick getaway most of the time.

Sometimes they can share a room, although, often Phoebe will bound to meet her and greet her to play. She isn't aggressive with the cat, but she will sometimes mouth her, which I'll stop as soon as possible.

How is she around children?
Given that I don't live with any kids, she hasn't had too many opportunities to interact with them. When she has been met by children around the neighborhood, they have often treated the same way as any adult.

When they pet her, she’ll be a bit docile at first, although, as she gets more comfortable she will become more playful and devious. Altogether, she behaves fairly well around them.

Would you consider her a fussy eater?
I'm actually considering whether or not her stomach is bottomless. She enthusiastically gobbles up any and all food that is placed in front of her.

When I'm not feeding her, she’ll be on watch for any food within her reach. This is easier at the moment, although, when she gets bigger it may become more of an issue. I have kept a consistent standard of no table food, but I'm sure she'd get to it if she got the chance.

Still More Great Pyrenees Owner Interview Questions and Answers
How much time does it take to groom her?
She is not very time consuming to groom. In fact, it's quite enjoyable. She was a bit fussier when I first got her, but she's become accustomed to the frequent brushing.

Teeth brushing came with a bit more struggle, although, she came around. When it comes to clipping her nails the only extra thing to look out for are her dewclaws, which I clip with the rest of her nails, only a bit less often.

Any special personality quirks?
Phoebe is a very quiet, independent puppy. There are times I'll see her doing her own thing and exploring the home. There are also times where I don't see her at all, so you have to be pretty vigilant to make sure that she doesn't get into any trouble.

She has a particular tendency to go and sleep on the tile floor in one of my bathrooms, so I'll often find her there should I lose her.

Any further advice for people considering getting this dog?
I would recommend just being very vigilant as to the dog’s location when training. As adults, they are known to be independent, so it's less of an issue then.

With training, it is of paramount importance to make sure you are consistent. These dogs are smart, and they pick up on any slip-ups. However, with consistent training and effort early on, the Great Pyrenees proves to be an amazing, fun, and calming companion.

Did you enjoy this Great Pyrenees Owner Interview?  Want More Information About the Great Pyrenees
Great Pyrenees
For more information about the Great Pyrenees, may I suggest you check out our breed profile. 

You'll find in depth information on temperament, history of the breed, training, health, grooming, and more.

See for yourself if this is the breed for you.