Wolves as pets and working animals
Some wildlife centers housing captive wolves prohibit handlers from entering wolf enclosures if they happen to have a cold or other vulnerability which the wolves can detect. Captive wolves are generally shy and avoid eye contact with humans other than their owner, as well as not listening to any commands made by any other humans. They usually vacate rooms or hide when a new person enters the establishment. Even seemingly friendly wolves need to be treated with caution, as captive wolves tend to view and treat people as other wolves, and will thus bite or dominate people in the same situation in which they would other wolves. Ordinary pet food is inadequate, as an adult wolf needs 1–2.5 kg (2–5 lbs) of meat daily along with bones, skin and fur to meet its nutritional requirements. Wolves may defend their food against people, and react violently to people trying to remove it. The exercise needs of a wolf exceed the average dog's demand. Because of this, captive wolves typically do not cope well in urban areas. Due to their talent at observational learning, adult captive wolves can quickly work out how to escape confinement, and require constant reinforcement by caretakers or owners, which makes raising wolves difficult for people who raise their pets in an even, rather than subordinate, environment.
Great Pyrenees
"The dog is essential for those who raise animals for wool. It is the guardian of livestock in general but is the natural defender of the sheep and goats. The wolf lurks constantly and we oppose it with the dogs"... "As for its appearance, choose those who are well-trained, large size, with black or red eyes, the nose of the same color, red lips pulling to black, not too collected, nor too pendants"... "It is equally essential that the dogs have strong head, long, floppy ears, wide and short neck, thighs and rights more inwardly turned than out, wide legs, fingers apart, hard nails and bent, spine nor projection nor convex, bushy tail, sonorous voice, good match muzzle and preferably with white hair so that it can be easily distinguished from wild animals at night."
One of the first descriptions of the breed dates from 1407, Fray Miguel Agustín, "prior" of the Temple who lived between 1560 and 1630, published in 1617 in Catalan (the first edition appeared in Spanish in 1622) , a book which he called "Libro de los secretos de la agricultura, casa de campo y pastoril". It gives the reasons why shepherds prefer white puppies, excluding those born with spots of dark color. Relates the friar: "The wool cattle dogs should not must be so big or so heavy as those of the guard of the house, but strong and sturdy, lightweight and ready to combat and fight and for run, because they have to make saves and guard against wolves and hunt them down if those take a cattle... These should be white so that the shepherd can easily see when these run after the wolf and know them in the evening and the morning."