Golden Pyrenees puppies started arriving during the early morning hours of December 21, 2019. We heard the newborn puppy cries and sprang from our beds to find the first two were already born and our Golden Pyrenees female, Sunshine, had the situation completely under control.
After our two most recent poor experiences with rescue dogs, we did some research about breed loyalty and temperament. We also discovered long waiting lists and involved adoption processes for Golden Retrievers. To our delight we learned that the Golden Pyrenees had all the traits that were important to us and could be found less expensive than Golden Retrievers. Golden Pyrenees were still not cheap and hard to find, but after some bad experiences we were ready to put a little more effort up front getting a dog that would be what we wanted for several years.
With a little research, we discovered a Golden Pyrenees litter in Arkansas, born on a working farm. A few photos and videos of the Golden Retriever mother and puppies showed us their playful and gentle temperament. The way Sunshine was attentive to her breeder and came and sat right in front of her, looking into her face captured our hearts.
On this night in our home a few days before Christmas, Sunshine’s puppies were coming 20-30 minutes apart. Each one would be cleaned by Sunshine ,would rest for a few minutes before making its way to its first gulps of colostrum, the first milk loaded with disease immunity from its mother. Close to the next birth, Sunshine would get up and turn her birthing end in the opposite direction and start the process over.
We had a pile of bedding and changed it out several times during the process. It was a family experience watching each new puppy come into the world and see it instinctively make its way to it’s mother. Seeing Sunshine’s comfort level with us checking the puppies or moving them out of her way right in the first few minutes after their birth also spoke to the level of trust she has in her owners.
Sunshine wouldn’t get up for the first few hours, but would accept water put right in front of her periodically. She wasn’t too interested in food until taking a longer pause in the birth later on. It took a couple days afterward for her appetite to really pick up and had to be coaxed a little to take the time to eat or go outside to do her business.
When the birthing was finally over, we had seven beautiful Golden Pyrenees puppies. Two more strongly favor Sunshine’s golden color, one of them female and one male. The other five favor the sire’s Great Pyrenees white coloring, although another two of those have a little more golden coloring when compared side-by-side with the others. We’ve also discovered that two have the Great Pyrenees double dew claw on their inside back foot while five have the single dew claw like the Golden Retriever.
Sunshine is recovering with no complications and all the puppies are healthy and feeding well. What an amazing experience!