What kind of Guard Dog is that anyway???

This is our Livestock Guard Dog (LGD) Rocco.  He is a beautiful and grand Great Pyrenese.

"The Great Pyrenees excels at protecting livestock, especially sheep (goats in our case) that are grazing or hanging out in the pasture. It tends to sit around in a comfortable spot and then jump and let out a steady succession of loud, deep, bellowing barks to alert the shepherd to the threat. The dog will then dart to the threatened area and defend its livestock and territorial hegemony. Hesitant to attack and quick to intimidate, this dog is a safe bet when protecting your livestock. Intruders will probably not be maimed or assaulted by this dog.  They're 27 to 32 inches at the withers in males, and they're 25 to 29 inches at the withers for females. Some can reach 40 inches. The tallest dog ever is 42 inches, and so Great Pyrenees is huge! They can weigh up to 100 pounds, the males that is. Females are lightweights at 85 pounds or more. The Great Pyrenees is courageous, cautious, and devoted. It's reserved around visitors, whether they're human or animal visitors. It's wary of new things because it's a guard dog by nature."

I explain all of this because this beautiful, LARGE, supposedly intimidating GUARD dog is afraid of thunderstorms!

In an older post, I displayed pictures of the time Rocco got stuck under my mini van.  We never really understood why he crawled under there but in recent weeks, we have come to realize this big, giant, scary dog hid himself under my mini van in an attempt to hide from the thunder! And it is only getting worse as evidenced by his most recent attempts to find shelter from the thunder.

That's right.  This giant actually clawed his way through the screen door to get into the house. Unfortunately, we were gone the night that this happened or perhaps we would have been able to prevent it.  Now, I have to figure out how to re-screen my french door!

We had on and off storms today and usually I enjoy having the doors and windows open to hear and smell the storms.  It also helps cool the house down.  I no longer can do this as Rocco has busted through and ruined all of the screen doors and Erik showed me the evidence of attempts to claw through the windows in the sunroom.  

He sneaked in twice today and I had to practically drag him out of the house by his fur.  It's not that I don't appreciate house dogs - I just have vivid recall of the time one of our pets brought fleas into the house and how I had horrible bites on my ankles for weeks and all of the cleaning I did and bug bombs we had to set off in the house in order to get rid of them.  It is not fun - and that is why we do not allow the dogs in the house even for a short stint.

I'm just grateful the children are not afraid of the storms.  I told them that my Grammie used to tell me that thunder is just the angels bowling.  They get a kick of of hearing that and never seem to mind the noise.  I wish I just could get Rocco to understand that the thunder won't hurt him because it is just the angels bowling!