sacha

pyrenean mountain dogs...very independent thinking, loving, but instinctive and imposing guardian dogs. however most people don't find my boy intimidating on walks because he's so friendly and teddy bear fluffy...but I've heard that once they go into protection mode it is a scary scary thing to see. they use their size and their very loud bark to scare away or block threats and only use physical force as a last resort. they are intelligent enough to know what is a real threat and respond appropriately, so they are not aggressive by nature, in fact they are generally so confident and laid back that its hard to believe they will ever go into action as a protector ) some pyrs are prone to barking..alot..and very loudly to scare away any potential threats. they can be boisterous as pups and take alot of patience and firmness, but are generally calm as adults. they are truly beautiful dogs and are generally great with kids, and other animals in the family, although my boy still loves to chase my cat around the house for fun. but they were bred to protect livestock from wolves, bears etc. and to make their own decisions. they are serious about their job, which is protecting their flock, and this also means they need to be well socialized. ooops I just read that you don't want long hair...the pyr definitely has that and so will all of your clothes and your carpets...but they're worth it )

I also highly recommend crate training for a pup. Our 8 week old pyrenean mountain dog was sleeping through the night from 9pm till about 4.30 or 5.00am a couple of nights after coming home. we had the crate in our room initially so i would hear when he started crying to go out. the crate teaches them to hold it, for an appropriate time for their age. i've never had a pup have an accident in their crate. our pup (a giant breed like yours) did not have accident in the house after 11 weeks, but we still did the frequent trips outside for quite a while after that and until he reliably went to the door. because we were renting, and because he grew so big so fast, i could not afford to let him get in the habit of going in the house (we'd drown lol). i was really really consistent at taking him out, and always stayed outside with him until he went and praised him. i used the crate when i couldn't supervise him and i never just let him go outside on his own so i would know if he went or not. its painful...it didn't stop raining the entire first 6 weeks that we had him home, but the efforts were well worth it.

we have used constant supervision and bitter apple with our pup and have so far had no problems with chewing items in the house. he is never left alone unsupervised in the house during the day time, for more than a couple of minutes at the most. if i go outside, have a shower, or for whatever reason i can't watch him, he goes in his crate or he comes outside with me. i'm hoping this approach will get him through the chewing phases and prevent him from developing the habit. he does chew on his own toys and loves his venison ears, but if he grabs anything else i've always been in the same room to catch him and discipline him. it is a pain in the neck being on constant watch duty and having pet gates up in the house, but he is still too young to be trusted. its not so much that i care whether he ruins a cushion or two but i just don't want him developing the habit of thinking he can chew on anything and everything. during the work day he is outside and i basically think ahead and make sure he can't access anything i wouldn't want destroyed. i gave him our old lounge chair to play with outside, which he's ripped apart, but he hasn't transferred that behaviour inside...although as i said, i never leave him alone long enough to do that, and he's always been a heavy sleeper at night so i haven't had to worry at night time. bitter apple spray really worked for us, i'm not sure if you mentioned trying it? its not cheap, but our boy hates it and will run away from whatever i spray it on. from 8 months old he has been sleeping unsupervised at night in the family room and we haven't had any problems so far. he could quite easily tear up the whole house if he wanted to...he's already 45kg lol. every now and then i'll still do a cursory spray around the edges of the furniture just to keep him on his toes :D good luck and i hope you have some success in stopping the behaviour. but...if we wanna talk about digging...oh my lord.