Our Pyrenean Mastiff

Now we understand who our Brandy is!

Back on the 11th April, I published a post A loving welcome to Brandy. I explained, with regard to a garage sale that Jean and friends had gone to that Saturday morning:

It turned out to be a couple and their daughter that were selling off stuff in advance of having to move to a much smaller house including needing to re-home their dog.

There in the garage was the dog, a beautiful tan coloured Great Pyrenees, as they are known in North America.

At that time, when Jean had been speaking to the mother of the house, Jean thought she heard the dog being described as: “He’s a Pyrenean with some Mastiff in him.” In other words, a Great Pyrenees crossed with a Mastiff.

Having never before come across either a Great Pyranees or a Pyrenean Mastiff, when I first laid eyes on Brandy a couple of hours later it never occured to me to query his breed. To the extent that just last Thursday I published a post where the sub-title explained: Looking into the history of the Great Pyrenees dog.

Then, quite by chance, we came across some photographs of other Great Pyrenees.

Such as this one:

great-pyreneesand this one:

GreatPyrenees_heroThen the penny dropped! Our Brandy didn’t even come close to looking like these dogs so he can’t be a Great Pyrenees (Pyrenean Mountain Dog in UK ‘speak’.).

P1150956
No question about it: Brandy is not a Great Pyrenees.

It then didn’t take us long to realise that most likely the woman had described Brandy as a Pyrenean Mastiff but hadn’t spoken sufficiently clearly for Jean to hear that.

So here are some pictures of the Pyrenean Mastiff from the web.

pyrenean-mastiff-02oooo

pyrenean-mastiff-pyrenean-mountain-dog-breedThe resemblance of our Brandy with these ‘web’ pictures is spot on: our Brandy is a Pyrenean Mastiff. Plus there is only one breeder in the USA located in Southern California. We will be speaking with them today (Monday).

Our Brandy is a Pyrenean Mastiff!
Our Brandy is a Pyrenean Mastiff!

Further research on this breed has turned up some very interesting information. Come back tomorrow to read that and what we discovered when we spoke to the breeder.

25 thoughts on “Our Pyrenean Mastiff”

    1. Thank you, and a very warm welcome. Hope you can return tomorrow as I am publishing some fascinating history about the breed. (And just been across to your place and you have what looks like an interesting blog.)

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      1. Oh thanks for stopping by…my blog is a random mishmash of stuff. I’ll be sure to stop by – I know nothing about the breed so I’m sure I’ll learn a lot 🙂

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      2. Neither do Jean and I know about the breed. But there is a breed association and I shall be seeking permission to republish some material from their website, hopefully to share with you and everyone else tomorrow. And, trust me, many, many blogs are a “random mishmash of stuff”. Doesn’t make them less interesting!

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  3. Barely a month since he came into your lives. How is the bonding process going with you and Jean, Paul ?

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    1. Yes, a month ago last Saturday. The bonding has been wonderful beyond words, although I do want to describe it (in words) in a future post. But the way that Brandy feels about receiving affection is heart-warming and almost a new experience for Jean, and certainly a new experience for me.

      For example, I have literally just come back into the house after letting our ‘bedroom’ group of dogs out for a wander round after breakfaast, for dogs and people. (That group is Pharaoh, Cleo, Hazel, Oliver, Sweeny, Pedy, and now Brandy.)

      I stay outside close to Brandy as he is still curious about some of the more remote corners of the property. So this morning, after he had had a pee and sniffed around, he came straight over to where I was standing and pushed his head against my right hip in what I now know to be a ‘I would like a head rub’ gesture. I rubbed his head for a minute or so, lent down and kissed him on his forehead, and he looked up at me and wandered off to see what Hazel was doing. That is now becoming a familiar characteristic of his affection towards me.

      During the night when I roll over in my sleep to be on my left-hand side, facing towards the edge of the bed, Brandy frequently gets up, he sleeps on the carpet next to this side of the bed, and puts his head an inch away from my face. Most times I stroke his head a few times, he returns to sleeping on the carpet, and slip back into a deeper sleep.

      I could go on with much more!

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      1. Oh Paul, how wonderful! I could just picture all this in my mind and was quite moved. The poor, precious boy who obviously missed out on affection and pampering in his previous life must now feel like he is in heaven.( Not that dogs have a concept of heaven, but you know what I mean 🙂

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  6. I have read in the past about the Pyrenean Mastiff and wondered about Brandy. I went to the So Cal breeder’s web page and read all about Brandy’s breed. I am wondering how in the world those folks got him in the first place since I would think this breed is quite expensive and they were so casually giving him up. But he is in a much better place now and I’m sure he is making a great pet.

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  7. Pingback: History of the Pyrenean Mastiff – Learning from Dogs

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