Oh, the pyrenees was bred to bark and guard and be mostly independent from people. Trying to get Boone to stop that is like asking the sun to stop rising in the east, and not what I wanted for him at all. What I was trying to do was find a middle ground between his old (complete lack of) a routine or even having a home at all, and what I wanted from him here with me at his new home while keeping him safe and all us of sane. Change like that doesn't happen overnight just because I want it to.
It took us a little while, but we found it. The dog has settled in nicely, and only barks when there is actually a problem, now that he's used to our much busier neighborhood. He spends exactly as much time as he wants outdoors, and as much time as he wants inside with us too. He picks and chooses what he wants...when it is quiet out or the weather is bad, he often only goes out to relieve himself and spends hours keeping me company. If there's something going on that interests him or he feels the need to survey his territory, he can easily spend most of the day or night outside watching the world go by...doing his job. His presence and warning bark has certainly kept the local coyote out of the yard this winter, and the deer don't get nearly as close to my gardens as they used to!
This next bit is a little drifty, but I have been trying to explain it to a friend who doesn't understand why I continue to let him 'work' as a dog, and not just make him a pet, and I think putting it down in actual words will help.
I don't feel the need to train bits and pieces of the breed that make my dog interesting and unique away. I don't want a puppet of a dog, I just needed to have the ability to put some of the more socially disruptive habits on command so I can communicate with him that there is a time when that is not appropriate. He can (and has) learned to sit and come and stay and recall and even to shake hands and speak, but I'm not going to be heartless enough to break him from his purpose in life, which is to guard his home and his livestock. That's like taking a living creature and turning it into a little robot to do only what I want it to do, and I have issues with that. I've seen it done in both dogs and horses, and it breaks my heart every time.
