Chaparral Bergers des Pyrénées & PBGVs

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Chaparral Bergers des Pyrénées & PBGVs Pyrenean Shepherd
Pyr Shep
Petit Basset
Griffon Vendeen Canadian breeder of Pyrenean Shepherds (Berger des Pyrenees) and Petits Bassets Griffons Vendeens.
(1)

Private boarding and training.

BISS Am.Ch. & Can.BIS GChB. Chaparral's Irish Red RA,JT,AGN,NV,CGN(Am. & Can.GCh. Gabizos du Picourlet x Am.Ch. & Can.GC...
20/08/2024

BISS Am.Ch. & Can.BIS GChB. Chaparral's Irish Red RA,JT,AGN,NV,CGN
(Am. & Can.GCh. Gabizos du Picourlet x Am.Ch. & Can.GCh. Chaparral's French Tryst JT, AGVN)

7 weeks old and 7 years old.

Our latest official Group 1 picture with the judge, Kathrine Grant.
13/07/2024

Our latest official Group 1 picture with the judge, Kathrine Grant.

11/06/2024

We had a FANTASTIC dog show weekend with our handsome boy, Irish, getting a Herding Group 4th placement and a Herding GROUP 1st! WooHoo!! What a thrill for me to be in the Best in Show lineup with him and he just never lets me down for a second. Good dog!!

My thanks to my friend, Janet, for taking the video and the judges Ms. Bea Sawka and Ms. Esther Joseph for their interest in the breed.

Our first hot day this year and the dogs are enjoying the shade of the trees. Gabizos du Elevage Du Picourlet and his da...
19/05/2024

Our first hot day this year and the dogs are enjoying the shade of the trees. Gabizos du Elevage Du Picourlet and his daughter, Chaparral Bergers des Pyrénées Chaparral's Pourquoi Pas.

I was really pleased with how nice this picture turned out; of the dog, me and the judge, Sandy Gelinas.
17/05/2024

I was really pleased with how nice this picture turned out; of the dog, me and the judge, Sandy Gelinas.

At the 2024 National Specialty my darling Pooka2 was awarded and recognized for her contribution to the breed.  Despite ...
14/05/2024

At the 2024 National Specialty my darling Pooka2 was awarded and recognized for her contribution to the breed. Despite her passing away last summer, I think of her daily. She was a consummate mother to everyone. I am grateful for the PSCA Club honoring her. 🥲

2024 U.S. National Specialty Show for the Pyrenean Shepherd in Kentucky, USA.  Judged by M.Norbert Gainche from France. ...
06/04/2024

2024 U.S. National Specialty Show for the Pyrenean Shepherd in Kentucky, USA. Judged by M.Norbert Gainche from France. Irish earned his American Championship title and Best in Specialty Show. Tryst won her 11+ Veteran Class and the two of them together won Best Brace.

BISS & BIS Am.Ch. , Can.GChB Chaparral's Irish Red CGN JT RI.  Thank you to judges Ivan Sandoval for the honorable menti...
27/03/2024

BISS & BIS Am.Ch. , Can.GChB Chaparral's Irish Red CGN JT RI. Thank you to judges Ivan Sandoval for the honorable mention and Andrea Robin for the Group 4th placement at the Scarborough Kennel Club show.

On the weekend we attended the Pyrenean Shepherd Club of America National Specialty Show in Louisville, Kentucky.  Our "...
21/03/2024

On the weekend we attended the Pyrenean Shepherd Club of America National Specialty Show in Louisville, Kentucky.
Our "Run for the Roses" was a huge success for our male, Irish, and our Veteran female, Tryst. Irish hit the finish line with an Am. Championship title and Best in Specialty! Tryst was not far behind and was in the ribbons most days.

21/03/2024
Congratulations to Chaparral's Tempe for qualifying for the AKC 2024 Agility Championships in Georgia.   Best wishes to ...
07/03/2024

Congratulations to Chaparral's Tempe for qualifying for the AKC 2024 Agility Championships in Georgia. Best wishes to him and Cindy for a successful event at the Championships March 14.

I am looking forward to attending the U.S. National Specialty this year in Louisville, Kentucky.  Meeting up with old fr...
07/03/2024

I am looking forward to attending the U.S. National Specialty this year in Louisville, Kentucky. Meeting up with old friends and making new ones. Our very best wishes to all the exhiitors and their dogs for safe travels and good showing! See you soon!

Thank you to Canadian Dog Fancier for helping us promote this wonderful breed with this lovely ad!

GCHB Chaparral's Irish Red finished off 2023 with excellent results at the Conformation shows with his Best In Show earn...
03/01/2024

GCHB Chaparral's Irish Red finished off 2023 with excellent results at the Conformation shows with his Best In Show earning him a 42nd placement among ALL the Herding Group dog statistics in Canada. In France his 1st placement in the Champions Class at the Specialty earned him an 11th position in overall statistics among his Bergers des Pyrenees peers in France!

Congratulations to Cindy Murray and her boy, Tempe (right).  They were 9th in his height class with 5 points for T2b at ...
18/12/2023

Congratulations to Cindy Murray and her boy, Tempe (right). They were 9th in his height class with 5 points for T2b at the AKC Agility Nationals in Orlando on the weekend!!

18/10/2023
Back to my normal life after a FANTASTIC holiday in France with one of my dogs and my sister.  We were attending the 100...
27/09/2023

Back to my normal life after a FANTASTIC holiday in France with one of my dogs and my sister. We were attending the 100th Anniversary celebration of the RACP (Reunion Amateurs des Chiens de Pyrénées) in Argeles Gazost. A very well organized event including 400 Pyrenean dogs from a dozen countries. BRAVO to those that put the event together, flawlessly and made us feel welcome! Congratulations!

It was wonderful to connect with old friends, make new friends and talk dogs, dogs, dogs....and hike in the mountains 💗

Irish placed 3rd in the Champion Class with an "Excellent" critique from Alain Pécoult .  A great honour and a great sta...
16/09/2023

Irish placed 3rd in the Champion Class with an "Excellent" critique from Alain Pécoult . A great honour and a great start to our show weekend. Irish has a growing fan Club over her in France and is doing Canada proud. Tomorrow is the National Specialty Show, at 30°C !!

27/07/2023
What a honour I had this weekend as our Pyrenean Shepherd, GCh. Chaparral's Irish Red, made breed history by being the f...
10/07/2023

What a honour I had this weekend as our Pyrenean Shepherd, GCh. Chaparral's Irish Red, made breed history by being the first to win a Best In Show placement in Canada! Twenty years after gaining Canadian Kennel Club recognition and with the support of many Canadian judges who have shown a growing appreciation of the breed 'Irish' and I were thrilled to be chosen as Best in Show in Sunday.

Special thanks to the judges Heather Langfeld and Stewart Dankner who chose him.

Henri had a fun AKC Scentwork trial this weekend in Santa Fe, NM. He earned his Scentwork Interior Master  Elite title, ...
05/06/2023

Henri had a fun AKC Scentwork trial this weekend in Santa Fe, NM. He earned his Scentwork Interior Master Elite title, his Exterior Master Elite title, and his Buried Master Elite title. And since he already had his Container Master Elite title he earned his overall Master Elite title (SWME). That adds up to a total of 40 Master Qs for him and I believe he’s the first Pyr Shep to earn this title. Pyr Sheps really excel at this sport. And a little kissing up to the judge doesn’t hurt 😀
CONGRATULATIONS to LeeAnn and Henri!

Chaparral's Right as Rain. Videos of raising "Rainy" on our YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/Rainy is from our RR...
11/05/2023

Chaparral's Right as Rain.
Videos of raising "Rainy" on our YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/

Rainy is from our RR litter and you can view the picture album. In the Photo section.

06/04/2023

THE GENETICS OF TEMPERAMENT, AND TEMPERAMENT TERMS

Permission to share if you credit Jill Porter/Faithwalk Mini American Shepherds. Written 4/2/2022.

Those of you that know me know how much I pay attention to temperament, both my own dogs and dogs I meet. It's a topic that has been a major area of interest of mine for my whole life - temperament and behavior. So I wanted to write this article on the topic, with the hopes people can have a deeper understanding as well as become familiar with some of the descriptive terms used when sharing information about temperament in a dog. I also hope to bring more understanding of what a genetic base temperaments traits have.

I want to start by saying I believe temperament is 100% genetic. That's based on decades of intentional observation for just that topic. I've followed hundreds of litters over the years, both dogs and wolves, and in some cases up to 7 generations of the same lines. Quite a few times over the years I have kept or bought 2-3 pups from the same litter and raised them the same way, yet they are still distinct individuals, sometimes with a wide variation of traits but still all showing family traits as well. At Wolf Park we often kept full litters of wolf pups, and one year we swapped some of ours with another facility, getting two siblings and a third unrelated pup. Both the remaining Wolf Park pups and the new ones were raised together by the same staff, same methods, yet we could VERY easily see the differences in the bloodlines of each pup. I could go on and on with first hand examples. My main background is wolves and wolfdogs, nordic/sled dog breeds like malamutes, Siberians, Inuit dogs, and then herding breeds like Aussies, Mini Americans, etc. But I have friends with breeds in all groups, and have been around them enough to have a good feel for different styles of dogs and how what they were bred for can affect the temperament traits we see when we live with them. I also trained with a GSD breeder with three distinct lines and boy could you see the difference between her working lines, German show lines, and the more "pet" line with laid back temperaments. All the same breed, all 3 lines breed for different goals, and VERY apparent with spending a short amount of time them. I raised and trained a pup from the pet line and the working line for a few months each, and it was so easy to see the differences in drive, trainability and so on.

Another argument for the fact temperament is genetic is that if it was not, we wouldn't even NEED breeds of dogs. We could take any generic dog and train it to be a great stock dog, sled dog, bird dog, retriever, scent trailing dog, and so on. Or do the same with breeds of dogs of drastically different purposes. We all know that is not true, that for example no matter how you raise a Siberian Husky you are unlikely to have a useful sheep dog, and if you need a specific set of instinctive behaviors from a dog, getting it from a random mix breed dog is not stacking the odds in favor of success. Even in a breed temperament traits can vary, as well as in a single litter. Each dog is an individual.

Many people assume it's "just how you raise them" but that also is not true. Behavior is the expression of genetic temperament, and we can only affect that by how we raise them as far as the limitations of genetics inherited by that individual dog. I say it's like the pup is dealt a genetic "hand of cards" and we can only play the cards given. We can't add "cards" that are not there, nor throw away ones that are. Genetic temperament gives a dog a strong or weak predisposition toward exhibiting each behavior, and then what is reinforced or not will grow or diminish to the point it is limited by the genetic temperament traits and instincts. But we can't, by how we raise them, add traits that are not there, or totally erase ones that are (such as prey drive.) And, we can't train out instinct, only manage it. Please read that again, WE CAN'T TRAIN OUT INSTINCT, ONLY MANAGE IT. Instinct is kind of like a reflex, not a conscious choice.

How many times have we seen a dog come from a truly abusive situation and it still has a sunny, bomb proof temperament? How many times have we seen a dog who was raised right and is still a hot mess? That's genetics in action, folks! I have raised quite a few pups in my decades in dogs, and some of mine turn out fabulously, some are a train wreck. Since I know so much about behavior and have so much experience, shouldn't I be able to take any pup and make it awesome? No, because of the genetic limitations it is born with. I can only make them the best or worst versions of themselves, not profoundly change them. And if someone comes to you with a dog that is a hot mess, even with an excellent upbringing, we need to make sure that person knows it was not their failing, but the genetics.

So I always tell people if you want to stack the odds in favor of the dog you want or need, pick the breed first, the family lines next and then the individual pup, and THEN raise it in such a way as to help the dog reach it's full potential. And to be able to do that we as breeders and buyers need to be able to accurately communicate on this topic.

I say all this so once we get on to talking about the traits, you can understand they are in born AND we can select for them! I absolutely do, and it is always a work in progress. And it's not just looking at traits in two parents, but the whole pedigree on both sides. Having followed generations of dogs I will often see a pup that reminds me more of a grand parent or great aunt or uncle, more than the actual parents.

Anyway, on to some terminology. I'd like to try to break this down so if we are trying to share information about a given dog, such as a breeder and a buyer, we can maybe be able to use terms to paint a more detailed picture. And part of this IS going to depend on your experience thus far - such as your idea of "medium energy" for example, maybe different than someone else's if you have a low energy breed and they have a high one.

Some of the terms I commonly use when describing temperament include biddability, social attraction, drive, resilience, energy level, intelligence, soft, bold, anxious, shy, reactivity, fear, nervy/edgy/sharp/wired/easily aroused (I use all of these to mean the same thing, definition to follow.) And with Aussies and Mini Americans, I toss in the "reserved with strangers" and "strong guardian instinct" parts of the standard and define them since many are confused, especially thinking reserved means shy and vice versa. I see each of the traits as on a spectrum.

We'll start with the SOFT to BOLD or pushy spectrum. Another word for soft could be sensitive, a dog that is really sensitive or soft does not take a lot of pressure, either verbally or physically. A really bold or pushy dog is the other end, that dog can take pressure and may NEED more to even respond.

INTELLIGENCE has to do with the dog's ability to think and problem solve. It doesn't have to do so for us to be an intelligent dog, some of the primitive breeds are high on the problem solving spectrum but are not biddable.

RESILIENCE means a dog that can bounce back easily from what could be an unpleasant experience. The dog is adaptable, rolls with whatever life brings. A resilient dog is a great dog because it can recover from a bad experience with a lot less work and time. An example could be having a pup that is startled by a bigger dog on a walk, or an unpleasant grooming experience.

BIDDABILITY is what some may call the "will to please". It is a dog who is eager to work with you, learn, participate, and doesn't need as much management to get a good response. Biddable dogs are often easily trained if you use methods that make sense to the dog.

SOCIAL ATTRACTION means the dog values time and interaction with humans, often over things in the environment dogs may otherwise be interested in, such as other dogs, other animals, the chance to explore, etc. A dog with high social attraction will be eager to stay with his person. Even a shy dog with high social attraction will be easier to work with since the dog still wants to connect with people. A low social attraction, high fear (shy) dog is the kind that can appear feral, and they are the hardest to work with of all since they don't care if they connect and the fear often keeps them from trying. It's my least favorite combo.

DRIVE means a dog has the will or tenacity to do something - push through past the part where it's novel or fun or the dog is tired, and complete the task at hand. It shouldn't be confused with ENERGY LEVEL because they work independently. You can have a high drive, low energy dog, or a low drive, high energy dog (and those can be hard if they have little to no focus.) A high drive, high energy dog may make a good sport dog, K9 or military working dog. ENERGY LEVEL is just as it sounds, how active is the dog over all.

SHYNESS and/or FEAR is kind of self explanatory - it's a dog that is scared or fearful of people, places, things. A genetically shy dog will often still be fearful even with some socializing because that can't trump the genetics causing the fear. Along this same topic, when the standard says "RESERVED WITH STRANGERS" it does NOT mean shy or fearful. It means ALOOF, the dog is comfortable not meeting new people just because. They are content with the social circle they have and don't avoid strangers because they are scared of them.

NERVY/SHARP/WIRED/EDGY all mean the same thing to me, though the words maybe used by different factions of the dog world. (I see nervy used by some border collie people, sharp by some GSD people, etc.) It's a dog that is high strung, ready to react, less able to turn off and relax or control it's own emotions and/or impulses. It takes very little stimuli to get a reaction from such dogs, and they can be hard to live with and are often quite anxious and stressed. The dog can be hyper vigilant as well. Add in shyness, aggression, anxiety and so on and the dog is truly a mess. I very much want to avoid these traits. I have another article I wrote called AROUSAL VS DRIVE that I will share next, since it can tie into this topic.

REACTIVE kind of ties in with the nervy dogs, these dogs are too quick to react or tend to over react to stimuli. Some amount of reactiveness is necessary for many working dogs to do their jobs - such as stock dogs who need to take in a lot of details of a fluid situation, process and react to those details in a split second. But when we talk about a "reactive dog" we often say it to mean a dog who does over react or reacts inappropriately, and it's sadly a common trait in dogs, these breeds included. And some are very high arousal dogs who struggle to calm themselves.

GUARDIAN INSTINCT is something the breed standards may mention. It is not a fearful dog who lashes out then retreats to hide behind the owner's legs. That's fear based aggression. True guardian dogs are calm and confident and only use force on a true threat. They have the stable temperament and ability to discern friend from foe. They can be very friendly dogs to friendly strangers too, that also ties in to being able to discern a true threat from a benign interaction with a stranger. I have had two Aussies with true guardian instinct and you'd never know it when meeting them because they were also friendly to strangers.

This got longer than I intended but I really wanted to break down some of these topics. I look forward to a good discussion with anyone who is interested in this topic. Permission to share if you credit Jill Porter/Faithwalk Mini American Shepherds. Written 4/2/2022.

02/04/2023

Please contact me if you have shown an interest in adopting an adult Pyr Shep. More information will be available on my website shortly. One male and one female.
http://www.amblecroft.ca

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Canadian breeder of Pyrenean Shepherds (Berger des Pyrenees) and Petits Bassets Griffons Vendeens Training hunting and herding dogs for 50 years. Breeder of amazing puppies for 35 years.