Articles
Does Size Matter?
The Pyrenean Mountain Dog evolved over centuries with the over riding reason for his existence as a guard for sheep and later for the Chateaux’s and Palaces of the rich. I can’t imagine that French shepherds selected their breeding stock with regards to there beauty and breed type, but purely for their ability to protect the flocks from marauding wolves bears and humans, in a mountainous terrain. This is how the Pyrenean evolved to look as he did not for any aesthetic reason but because by mating the most successful dogs together that is what they became, that they evolved into this beautiful breed was a by product, which was eventually taken up by French breeders and refined into the dogs we recognise today.
The European Wolves which inhabit the Pyrenees on average weigh between 34kg & 56kg and are 60cm (around 2ft) to 90cm (35.5 inches) at the withers & the Pyrenean Brown Bear may be 1.7 (6ft) to 2.8m (7ft) long and measure 90cms (3ft) to 110cm (3ft 7ins) at the withers and weigh up to 360kg.This is what the Pyrenean had to deal with, so it stands to reason that the shepherd would require the biggest, most agile, brave dogs he could get.
This to my mind would call for a dog as big as possible, tempered by the need to be agile, and speedy enough to cover difficult terrain with a short burst of speed, and enough size and substance to confront the imminent threat. Hence a dog of medium angulations with strong bone which would give him the flexibility required to cover the difficult ground.
So why should this matter now? Our show dogs which we breed for their looks probably will never see a wolf or bear in their lives. It matters because they will never have to deal with a wolf or bear, if we are to be true to the spirit of the Mountain Dog, and the reason that the original breeders thought the breed worthy of being saved from extinction, we should always try to keep in mind the reason for its original existence, without this anchor to its origins its development could go anywhere. It’s so much easier to get soundness in smaller dogs; so much can go wrong in the growing period of a larger animal.
When Alain Pecoult came and gave us a very informed talk on the Mountain Dog he told us that Wolves had been reintroduced to the Pyrenees, and that their was a scheme in place to supply the shepherds with Mountain Dogs to protect the flocks, and he laughingly told us that the shepherds wanted the biggest Pyreneans they could get they didn’t care what they looked like.
There is also a genetic reason, if we excessively use small specimens in our breeding programs for conformation and breed points, there may be no way back; even our biggest dogs today aren’t as big as some of their forebears, if the breed history is correct. Perhaps we should ask ourselves if the type of Pyreneans we are breeding, are capable of doing the job they were bred for.
F C I Pyrenean Breed Standards call for males to be 70cms to 80cms (27.5ins to 31.5ins and females 65cms to 72cms (25.5 to 28.5ins) with an upward tolerance of 2cms (1ins).The GB standard has no upper size limit.
Let’s not forget Pyreneans are supposed to be a giant breed. Please let us keep them that way.
Pat Bayliss
