Already the great dog of the mountains is disappearing. We see less and less of the stallion type in our nstud dogs, the breed is getting smaller year by year, and it is being tailored in size and temperament to fit into a small house and an ever decreasing environment".
Although I agree in my heart with Mrs. Prince, I feel she was in love with a dog that no longer fits in today’s society. (And it is important that a dog fits into its environment or the environment fits to the dog.
Mr.J.M. Giffin ends his article with a long conclusion: "Much has been written about the frustrations of urban living. Dogs no longer fulfill the functions for which they were originally intended". "In the case of our Pyrenean one might be led to think that reducing the size and further softening the temperament, perhaps to a more attention-seeking and dependent type, would make the dog more useful to today’s patrons". "Now the problem with the thoughts pertaining to the complexity of modern living is not that they are altogether untrue, but that the proposition has been put in the wrong place entirely, so that the conclusions are false". "One would hope that as society matures, the dog will once again reclaim many of his lost freedoms." This wish does not seem to have been fulfilled, rather the contrary. Something very precious to me would be lost if the original Pyrenean temperament were changed too much.

But how is it from the dog’s point of view? The more independent a dog is, the more restricted he has to be; and the more freedom-loving he is, the more imprisoned he has to live his life. It is precisely these paradoxes that make me feel miserable.

Birte Breijl