Pre Holiday Post

Well, it's almost that time again!

For those of us with furry family members that are afraid of fireworks, the July 4th celebration is a source of stress for pets and their families.  There are plenty of resources suggesting how to keep your pets safe during this holiday, but here are some taken from dog trainer Victoria Stilwell's blog Positively.

• Exercise your dog earlier in the day.
• Dogs should be kept inside with a human companion if possible.
• Make sure the dog has a "safe space" to retreat.  (Whitman was able to escape to his crate last night when the neighborhood started the pre celebration last night.)
• Keep the windows and curtains closed.
• Insure your dog has a microchip and that it is updated with the correct contact information and a properly fitting collar with updated ID tags.
• Use sound therapy such as music to relax your dog.

Other suggestions:

• Do not set off fireworks near or next to your dog.
• Try to desensitize your pet prior to the festivities using training tools.
• Use the radio or TV to try to help drown out the noise of the fireworks.
• See your vet for sedatives or other tranquilizers if needed.
• Visit your neighborhood pet store for natural calming aids.
• Act normally versus petting or reassuring your pet when he or she is nervous this will just reinforce the nervous behavior.
• Give your pet something else to do such as a stuffed kong or puzzle toy.

Whitman's safe space

July 5th is reported to be the busiest day for the Humane Society and other shelters as there are more dogs lost during the July 4th holiday due to fireworks.   The ASPCA also suggests there are other hazards for your pets such as alcohol, lighter fluid (for BBQs), and Tiki torch fluids typically present during holiday celebrations, so keeping these out of range for your pet is important!

So, as we are heading for this holiday, please remember our pets are not always as enthusiastic about fireworks!

What are your practices for keeping your dog safe during the 4th of July?

Foster Fail Friday

Yippee!  It's Foster Fail Friday!

I always love hearing about foster families who find their forever family members through volunteering.  Today's featured foster fail is our amazing volunteer Allison Manz!  Here is her story:

We had our foster "Smokey" (now Remington, Remi for short) for 4 weeks and for some reason, there were no applications for him.  We had adopted Zola from GPRS last October, and we have a black-lab mix, Lucy, who we adopted from the Tacoma Humane Society back in 2004.  Zola liked Remi within about an hour of us bringing him home.  Lucy was a little leery of this new rambunctious bundle of fur at first, but has now decided he's okay!

Grooming Tips

Dutch was severely matted

On our last Grooming Tips post we explored the tools and the process for caring for our Pyr's coats.  But a big question with Pyrenees parents is "should I shave my Pyr"?

Although there are definitely two opposing camps on this subject, the National Great Pyrenees Rescue does not recommend doing a shave down on a dog unless there is severe and heavy matting.  The dogs are a double-coated breed with a very fine and dense undercoat which acts as an insulator protecting the dogs from cold and the heat.  A good graphic that explains how this work was taken from Kelsie McKenzie's blog "It's Dog or Nothing" and is shown below (original credit for diagram is unknown).  As you can see from the graphic, it is also important to keep your dog's coat brushed so that the undercoat works the way it was intended.

From Foster Family to Adoptive Family

Grover's Story:
Part 3:  The Campbells

Happy Father's Day!

Nothing like Father's day to continue our story of Grover.  To read Part 1: Rescued and Part 2: Merissa and Richard click here.

As you know, lucky Grover was adopted by a wonderful family!  Here is their story:

Grover heading to Canada

In November 2016, after much preparation and anticipation, we were able to pick up Grover, our third GPRS rescue, from Oregon.  It was a happy and sad day.  Happy for us to add to our crew, but we knew that Merissa and Richard would miss this little guy.  Grover was on his way to becoming a Canadian!

Before making our trip back to Canada, we had to visit a couple of other GPRS mentors.  First stop was to visit Aunt Jackie Titus.  Met with her and Jeffrey and their wonderful pack for a short 
visit.  Then back on the road.  Next stop was a meet and greet with Rena Bouchard and her boy Beau.  Allison Manz also stopped by with Zola and the doggy games began!  Grover is a good traveler and slept most of the way home.  The border crossing was uneventful; cuteness has its advantages, they didn't even ask for his paperwork!

Meet and Greet

What a great time we had at All the Best Pet Care in Seattle!!  Several rescue alumni, volunteer fosters and their foster dogs, and potential new adopters showed up and everyone had a great time.  We even had a visit from SPIN rescue (Saving Pyrs in Need) alum Henry and Cleo (formerly Kaden and Kacee).  If you had planned on coming but were not able to make it, watch for the next meet and greet scheduled in July.

If you had wanted to put in your pre-order for the 2018 Heartthrobs and Hounds calendar, you can do it here!

Enjoy the pictures of these beautiful dogs!

Everyone loved the attention

Gabby, Madeline, and Beau

Ozzie, Ozzie & Quinby, Zola checking out Ozzie while Quinby watches

Val, Zola, and Ranger

Cleo, Henry, and Ozzie

Volunteer Opportunities

Maeby is hoping you can join us!

Whew!  Now that graduations are over here in the NW and school is about to let out for the summer, GPRS volunteers are gearing up for some FUN summer Meet and Greets!  Just as a reminder, tomorrow, Saturday June 17th volunteers will be at All the Best Pet Care in Seattle from noon to 5pm and we are hoping you can join us!

There will be some great raffle prizes with proceeds going to benefit the rescue, T-shirts, and some great fluffy Pyrs to love on!

Special Guest!

For you Oregon peeps, SAVE THE DATE to the next Small Town Saturday Night event and parade in Newberg, Oregon, Saturday, July 29th 2017!  This is a great event and there will even be a special guest!  Anyone recognize this face?

If you can't make some of these summer events but want to volunteer for the Great Pyrenees Rescue Society there are always great ways to volunteer.

 Fostering is an important component to rescue as our fosters provide temporary and loving homes to desperate dogs in need.  If you are interested in fostering you can fill out an application here.

Max knows how to ask for help!

Once approved you will fill out a foster contract here and you will then be ready to foster a dog in need.  You can decide what dog will be most appropriate for your home situation; the rescue works to match the right dog to the right house as it is best for everyone.  The time you will be fostering will vary but the GPRS volunteer community is super supportive to fosters and we all work together to make the dog's temporary housing successful!

Can't foster?  Check out other great volunteer opportunities here!  If you don't think you can volunteer but want to help, the rescue can always use donations.  To donate click here. 

Check back to the blog often as we will have a Volunteer Highlight post and you can read about the rescue's AMAZING volunteers!

2018 Heartthrobs and Hounds Calendar

Oh boy, this is what was happening in Texas this past weekend!!

The photo shoot for the 2018 Heartthrobs and Hounds calendar was completed and we are going to start taking pre-orders for the calendars later this week (more details to come).  There are still $100 sponsorship spots available so if you have a business or would like to donate in memory of a pet, please let us know!

These calendars will be sold nationally (and maybe even internationally) so it would be great exposure.

The calendars will also soon be available for pre-order for $20 so keep watching for that!

Here is a promo photo from last years calendar.

Saralynn

Heartthrobs and Hounds promo photo from last year!

Puppy Teaser!

Laurel

Little Miss Laurel wants you all to know there are so many puppies in the rescue right now looking for a good home! 

Please check the website here for available puppies and adult dogs for adoption. 

GPRS requirements for puppy adoption:  
1)  These puppies are not livestock dogs.  They must be family pets that are allowed inside the home.
2) Puppies will only be placed in homes with youthful, playful dogs.
3) In addition to the youthful playful dog, someone must also be home at least part of the day.  If you are gone 8-10 hours a day, please do not apply for a puppy as it is not a good situation for the puppy.
4) We give preference to applicants with prior Great Pyrenees knowledge and experiences.  Secure visible fencing is required.
5) You must have a plan in place to socialize your puppy properly.  
6) If a puppy is posted he or she is available but we may be working on other applications that came in before yours.  If so, by the time you are approved, the puppy may not be available.
7)  The fastest way to be considered for a puppy is to fill out an application and send it.  If you write, it may delay your application and put you to the back of the line.  All persons processing applications are volunteers who have their own dogs, families, and job responsibilities.  We do our best to get them done quickly but applications for adult dogs come before puppy applications as there is always someone who will want to adopt a puppy.

Hard to resist puppies!

Vivian and Wilbur

Meet and Greet!

Maeby enjoying her latte!

Maeby wants everyone to remember to put Saturday, June 17th on your calendar from Noon to 5pm!

All the Best Pet Care is hosting a Great Pyrenees Meet & Greet!  These are so much fun and informative too!  There will be knowledgeable volunteers on hand to answer any Pyrenees questions as well as any volunteer questions if you are looking to volunteer or foster!

There will be great RAFFLE prizes and some adoptable dogs as well as several GPRS alums stopping by to give everyone a nice Pyr fix!

If you haven't already, check out our Facebook page here or check out our website for available dogs and volunteer opportunities here.  Hope to see you there!

Love Letters from a Pyr Parent

Misha a few weeks new to our home

If anyone knows me they know me as Whitman's mom (that may become a "Foster Family to Adoptive Family" story all on it's own) or a volunteer who helps with the blog, but even before that I became a GPRS Pyr Parent.  I don't think most people know about my Misha as she was in rescue for less than a few days before she found me.

After losing my very first Pyr Nanook at the age of nine,  I felt a bit "robbed" that I didn't get to see her age beyond that.  So when I started looking for another Pyr, I was looking for seniors, eight or older.  On Petfinder I found a dog named "Jane" in Connecticut who needed a foster through the National Great Pyrenees Rescue (NGPR).  I didn't know the distinction between NGPR and Great Pyrenees Rescue Society (GPRS) at the time, but I filled out a volunteer application to foster as I had been fostering for another local rescue for years and was familiar with the process.  I received an email from a GPRS volunteer, Yi-Hsuan Wu, who indicated Jane was too ill to travel but there were quite a few younger male dogs in need of a foster/adoptive home.  Having my heart set on a senior, I politely declined and asked her to let me know if any older female dogs came into the rescue.

First Hugs from Transport

Cowgirl, Cowboy and Hunter

Jeff making his way across the U.S. to unite the dogs with their foster and forever families! 

If you are interested in adopting a dog check our website here.

If you want to help see GPRS volunteer opportunities by clicking here.

Very few words are needed for this post as you can see by the happy faces!  Enjoy!

Linus, Melrose, Heather and Tobias

Lake, Rally and Lakyn

Need Loving Fosters for Puppies!

TEXAS, TEXAS, TEXAS!!  We are in desperate need of puppy fosters in Texas!!  We have some single puppies, and small groups that really would like to be in a home setting!  If you can find it in your heart to keep them for a couple weeks, we will cover all vetting costs, and provide food/crate.   All you have to do is provide the LOVE!  If you're interested please fill out a foster application on our
 website:

http://www.greatpyreneesrescuesociety.org/forms/

Puppies looking for love!

Please consider fostering!

May Adoptions!

**MAY was A-MAY-ZING!!** -and it is all because of our AWESOME VOLUNTEERS!  We had 51 SUCCESSFUL ADOPTIONS in the month of May!!!  GPRS can only do this because we have GREAT fosters, screeners, drivers and other hardworking volunteers helping with the dogs at headquarters, and of course those that assist with managing adoptions, the medical needs and the fosters' needs!!

A big PYR PAW of congratulations goes to: Claire, Frankie, Maximus, Ku, Carter, Peter, McKinley, Bumble, Nita, Tessa, Belinda, Loretta, Serena, Preston, Kaycee, Lynn, Troy, Hutch, Molly, Marlene, Cowgirl, Cowboy, Otis, Flower, Westong, Kenzie, Hamilton, Rommel, Mackenzie, Pamela, Rally, Valerie, Harlee, Heath, Hunter, Linus, Bigalow, Coti, Tobias, Sugar, Lakyn, Zena, Zac, Kylie, Kallie, Madeline, Marla, Lake, Harrison, Peggy Sue and Smokey!

Juliette