We are fully sold out for our 2023 puppies. We’re starting to plan our 2024 litter now. Contact sarah@sunnyknollecofarm.com if you’re interested. We sometimes have fully trained adult reliable working LGDs available—please contact us for details and let us know about your needs for livestock protection.
Our puppies have fantastic potential as livestock guardian dogs, homestead dogs, and family dogs if you have a large yard.
Our puppies grow up outside on our farm in Loudoun County, Virginia, that is home to an array of livestock—goats, cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, and cats. Our puppies come from a strong lineage of proven working Great Pyrenees dogs—dogs that have deep instincts to repel predators and care for their livestock. You can meet their mother, father, and grandmother here at our farm. They are sweet, loving, and affectionate with their human family. They provide outstanding predator protection and also help out around the farm in other ways. They are extremely intelligent and while they usually don't try to control the livestock in any way, if something is amiss, such as a cow in the wrong place, they will immediately step up to help without being aggressive to anything or anybody other than predators.
We also value a strong, positive bond between dogs and humans, that is built on mutual respect and affection, extensive socialization, an understanding of LGD idiosyncrasies, and the science of animal behavior. Our puppies are handled by adults and children multiple times a day from birth, and by the time you take your puppy home we’ll have already started teaching them good manners (such as sitting down politely to be patted). When you pick up your puppy, they will already be well socialized and ready to learn the basic skills that we teach our older puppies and reinforce in our adults—how to wait calmly in a kennel, ride in a car, get a bath, stand to be groomed, and understand basic commands like heel, sit, stay, leave-it, etc.
We are committed to their health, with a quality diet, regular dewormings, and a vet check with initial puppy vaccinations before you bring your puppy home. We’ve been raising and breeding Great Pyrenees for ten years and are committed to contributing to the lineage of healthy dogs. We feed the parents a high-quality diet, as recommended by our vet, year-round for their health and for the prenatal healthy development of the puppies.
Our puppies are priced at $1000. This includes your puppy, of course, initial vaccinations and vet check done around 8 weeks of age, regular dewormings as recommended by our vet, a bag of food to take home to get started, and email or texting consultation with us while you get your puppy settled into their new home. All animal sales are final; deposits are nonrefundable in the event that the buyer changes their mind.
Email sarah@sunnyknollecofarm.com for more information.
Great Pyrenees Livestock Guardian Dogs
We rely on Great Pyrenees Livestock Guardian Dogs for protection against predators.
Although we are only an hour from Washington D.C., our predator load is high. Loudoun County has more foxes than any other county in the country, so it is not surprising that our farm is surrounded by bold foxes who hunted and killed our chickens in broad daylight before we got our LGD's. Other predators here include raccoons, hawks, and owls. We have heard coyotes howling close to our farm and while we have not seen one on our property our neighbors report confirmed coyote sightings. We have had a suspected mountain lion sighting on our farm, with confirmed cougar sightings at other locations in Loudoun County. With all those predators, our dogs are busy. Before we got the dogs, we lost over $1000 worth of animals in just a few short weeks...chickens, turkeys, and pigs were all taken by predators.
The LGD's are vigilant guardians of all of our animals. Not only do they keep the predators away but they also help to take care of the animals, assisting with newborn animals, making sure that our animals follow the rules (they make sure the pigs don't eat the turkey food, for example), and letting me know if something is amiss.
Meet Our Dogs
Dakota—full sibling of current litter—born July 2022
Dakota is our youngest LGD and the third generation of our dogs. She loves studying chickens, running patrols with her dad (Chief), and wrestling with her mom (Lily). She’s been a quick learner and knows how to heel, sit, down, stay, ride in the car, relax in a crate, and recognize which cats love dogs and which cats should be left alone.
Lily—mother of current litter of puppies
Lily, the daughter of Rocky and Rosie, has been with us since she was born here on our farm. She is poultry safe and good with all of our livestock. In addition to keeping predators away, she also does an excellent job of keeping the deer out of our gardens and orchards. Lily loves to go for a car ride and on a hike with the family when she has a day off. She loves kids, gets along well with the cats. Her coat is amazing—she is self-shedding, doesn’t get tangles or mats, and is very low maintenance. Lily generally loves people and is a super-friendly fluff-ball who even got to go for a ride in the UPS truck once (she loved it!).
Chief, father of current litter of puppies
We searched extensively for a new male for our farm to serve as a working dog, family dog, and father for our next generation of puppies. We chose Chief for several reasons and are thrilled with him. He has a correct, low-maintenance coat; his coat doesn’t attract burrs or dirt, doesn’t matt, does shed out naturally, and does shed dirt well. He has a handsome head with plenty of black on the nose and around the eyes. Chief was working guarding sheep in a high-predator environment and living with the sheep full-time when we bought him. He has shown no aggression to our poultry or any of our other animals, and has actually made friends with many of our cats. We have trained Chief to heel, sit, stay, come, go to crate, and leave-it. He enjoyed learning his manners and human skills so much that we recognized that he has the aptitude for service dog training, which he has excelled at. Chief has learned “go to place,” focus, up, follow, hold, wear a service dog harness and walk at the handler’s left side, and stop walking when there is an obstacle or tripping hazard in the route. Chief spontaneously decided to recognize pre-seizure changes, and alert the human of each oncoming seizure. He loves his family dearly but is wary of strangers. He alerts when strangers arrive and would be a very strong deterrent against a burglar, invader, or livestock-thief. However, Chief has a good capacity to learn which regular visitors are safe and will allow approved visitors to approach the house. When on a leash, though, he understands that his handler is in charge. He completely ignores other dogs when he’s on a walk in his service dog harness and will be polite to strangers if instructed by his handler. Chief’s parents were both Great Pyrs, and, just to be sure, we DNA tested him with EMBARK; his results came back as 100% Great Pyrenees and show that he has many working relatives successfully guarding poultry and other livestock. He also passed his genetic screening test with flying colors—no genetic deficits detected. Chief has been a great dog in his many roles.
Rosie—mother of Lily, grandmother of puppies
Rosie is sweet and beautiful. While she walks smoothly on a leash and adores her human family, she is very strongly bonded to her stock. She tends to go out farther from the barn area than the males and is often the first to bark at a predator. Rosie is very good about staying home and not trying to get out of her fencing. Rosie is doing an excellent job guarding the poultry and livestock, and keeping our neighbor’s fox family away from our animals. Rosie is currently 12 years old and still in excellent health patrolling the pastures and protecting the barn.
Rocky, passed on at 11. Father of Lily, grandfather of puppies
Rocky was as massive as he was gentle. As the leader of our LGD's, he displayed his intelligence regularly and took his job very seriously. He has saved chickens from the talons of raptors and returned them safe and unharmed to the flock. Rocky showed his experience and wisdom by barking not at any little thing but instead only when there was a true need. When Rocky found a gate that was mistakenly left open, he would usually lie down in the opening and stay there for hours to prevent animals from going into the wrong pasture. He was very attached to Rosie and communicated well with her.
Puppy Graduates
Our puppies have been successfully placed on large working farms, small homesteads, and as pets in suburban homes (with large yards). They loyally care for their livestock and their people. A few of our puppies, now grown and working for their new owners, are pictured below. If you have a puppy from one of our litters, we would love to include a photo of them in their new home! And we always love to hear how our pups are doing.
