Sudden corgi acquisition
December 9, 2023 9:34 PM Subscribe
I am about to meet a 7-year old corgi rescued from a breeding farm, at the fantastic shelter where I got my very chill street dog who is now 12. We are doing a week foster-to-adopt and I want to get off to a great start but I’ve never had a corgi or brought in a second adult dog (they’ve been youngish). We have five cats who like our dog and a very pet-proofed house. Advice!
Corgis are the best! We had ours for 10 years and he was wonderful. They are active dogs, and ours loved fetch over walks- found it more tiring and stimulating. Treat balls that he could "herd" around the house, kongs frozen with peanutbutter were also winners. A tired corgi is a good corgi, otherwise they get bored and can be destructive- its easy to forget that they are really working dogs. This makes them super smart and ours enjoyed training and learning throughout his life (esp if it came with treats)
He was a pain at the vet (our vet said they are known for not liking to be held/man handled, and this was true), so just a heads up. 7 years might be too late, but if you can get them used to getting their paws touched it will make your life easier. Also, be aware of their weight and trying to keep them lean, it takes a lot of pressure off their backs.
Any more bread specific questions ill be happy to answer. Congrats on the new addition!
posted by zara at 5:50 AM on December 10, 2023 [3 favorites]
He was a pain at the vet (our vet said they are known for not liking to be held/man handled, and this was true), so just a heads up. 7 years might be too late, but if you can get them used to getting their paws touched it will make your life easier. Also, be aware of their weight and trying to keep them lean, it takes a lot of pressure off their backs.
Any more bread specific questions ill be happy to answer. Congrats on the new addition!
posted by zara at 5:50 AM on December 10, 2023 [3 favorites]
I recently went through about three months of trying to train a new dog and finally figured out he HATES any kind of biscuit type treat, turns his head. But when I switched to small slices of hot dog for his treat everything changed for the better!
So my suggestion, since you only have one week, if he doesn't seem to respond to training, it may be the treat. Try hot dog slices.
posted by cda at 8:03 AM on December 10, 2023
So my suggestion, since you only have one week, if he doesn't seem to respond to training, it may be the treat. Try hot dog slices.
posted by cda at 8:03 AM on December 10, 2023
Off topic, so mods might delete, but ...
Can dogs eat hot dogs?
posted by SageTrail at 8:46 AM on December 10, 2023
Can dogs eat hot dogs?
posted by SageTrail at 8:46 AM on December 10, 2023
You either will love a corgi or they will drive you crazy. I love border collies, kelpies, and heelers, but the very independent and opinionated corgis are not. me. thing.
My only suggestion is start as you mean to go on. If never on the couch, means never, don't let them do it once without correction, or your corgi will be a couch sitter. That said, I've seen corgi owners be in a continual battle of wills with their corgi, and it's miserable for both. A good trainer with corgi understanding is a must.
Make sure they can get along with cats. Several of the corgis I know are cat chasers or will herd a cat to the point of despair. Those same dogs tend to be food protective, but that is something the owners have delt with well.
posted by BlueHorse at 10:11 AM on December 10, 2023
My only suggestion is start as you mean to go on. If never on the couch, means never, don't let them do it once without correction, or your corgi will be a couch sitter. That said, I've seen corgi owners be in a continual battle of wills with their corgi, and it's miserable for both. A good trainer with corgi understanding is a must.
Make sure they can get along with cats. Several of the corgis I know are cat chasers or will herd a cat to the point of despair. Those same dogs tend to be food protective, but that is something the owners have delt with well.
posted by BlueHorse at 10:11 AM on December 10, 2023
Hoping that your week is going well! Your rescue probably has some good info on slow introduction of dogs and cats, so will focus on corgi characteristics.
As usual, each dog is pretty different, but braindump of general behavioral stuff and care: Most corgis I've come across love to herd and are pretty active (and might require a little more exercise and stimulation -- we do sniff/decompression walks, nosework, and agility -- she also loves hikes but is meh about neighborhood walks). We've run into a number of corgis that have a ball obsession, so we actually limited access to balls with her. They have a tendency to not like being handled, or on their own terms (we use a start button for grooming sequences). Line brush, don't use a furminator that would cut the double coat. We don't allow her to jump on/off the couch to prevent injuries (even the one that's only about 2 feet off the ground -- we try to ensure that she's not jumping more than 4in or so, and have ramps to the couch and bed. We fence off the rest of the couch from time to time to ensure she's not jumping from another angle). The easiest thing to do to prevent health issues with corgis is to make sure that they're not overweight (ask your vet to be brutally honest here what their ideal weight is -- you should be able to easily feel their ribs). Most are pretty food motivated and pick up on stuff relatively quickly, and respond very well to positive reinforcement so we use half of her caloric allotment for training with her food. Structure's pretty good for her -- she likes to go to bed by a certain time, etc. Our dog prefers it when her family is all together, but doesn't seem to be anxious -- though this seems pretty individual across herding dogs. I've run across a fair number of corgis that have food allergies (chicken often) and environmental allergies since they're low to the ground. They're pretty barky; ours only alert-barks, but I know some that bark for attention (def trainable though). Noise sensitive, so we use white noise machines near places that she likes to be, so we get out of town during fireworks, etc. They can be a little intense play-wise for other dogs, so we trained her to disengage with other dogs constantly and were careful with the dogs we paired her up with, but she's pretty great at recalling from play now and she's a lot pickier about the dogs to engage with (plus we mostly play with her now, via tug and personal play). Keep an eye out for mouthiness and nipping -- it can take a while to train out of, and can be difficult with other animals and people in the house in the immediate term, so possibly a bit of a project.
All that said, we absolutely love our corgi. All dogs have different things that we accommodate in life, and hopefully your foster fits into yours! I hadn't used Facebook in years, but now only use it for dog-related stuff when I was recommended to join a local corgi group there. As usual, there's a mix of advice there but sometimes can be useful (like coats for long dogs, vets that are more familiar with corgi health, meetups with other corgis, etc). I'd probably put aside a healthy amount for vet bills/insurance that covers genetic diseases and IVDD, and you could get an Embark test done to check for DM (there are a few others that also affect corgis). Good luck!
posted by sincerely yours at 7:24 PM on December 11, 2023
As usual, each dog is pretty different, but braindump of general behavioral stuff and care: Most corgis I've come across love to herd and are pretty active (and might require a little more exercise and stimulation -- we do sniff/decompression walks, nosework, and agility -- she also loves hikes but is meh about neighborhood walks). We've run into a number of corgis that have a ball obsession, so we actually limited access to balls with her. They have a tendency to not like being handled, or on their own terms (we use a start button for grooming sequences). Line brush, don't use a furminator that would cut the double coat. We don't allow her to jump on/off the couch to prevent injuries (even the one that's only about 2 feet off the ground -- we try to ensure that she's not jumping more than 4in or so, and have ramps to the couch and bed. We fence off the rest of the couch from time to time to ensure she's not jumping from another angle). The easiest thing to do to prevent health issues with corgis is to make sure that they're not overweight (ask your vet to be brutally honest here what their ideal weight is -- you should be able to easily feel their ribs). Most are pretty food motivated and pick up on stuff relatively quickly, and respond very well to positive reinforcement so we use half of her caloric allotment for training with her food. Structure's pretty good for her -- she likes to go to bed by a certain time, etc. Our dog prefers it when her family is all together, but doesn't seem to be anxious -- though this seems pretty individual across herding dogs. I've run across a fair number of corgis that have food allergies (chicken often) and environmental allergies since they're low to the ground. They're pretty barky; ours only alert-barks, but I know some that bark for attention (def trainable though). Noise sensitive, so we use white noise machines near places that she likes to be, so we get out of town during fireworks, etc. They can be a little intense play-wise for other dogs, so we trained her to disengage with other dogs constantly and were careful with the dogs we paired her up with, but she's pretty great at recalling from play now and she's a lot pickier about the dogs to engage with (plus we mostly play with her now, via tug and personal play). Keep an eye out for mouthiness and nipping -- it can take a while to train out of, and can be difficult with other animals and people in the house in the immediate term, so possibly a bit of a project.
All that said, we absolutely love our corgi. All dogs have different things that we accommodate in life, and hopefully your foster fits into yours! I hadn't used Facebook in years, but now only use it for dog-related stuff when I was recommended to join a local corgi group there. As usual, there's a mix of advice there but sometimes can be useful (like coats for long dogs, vets that are more familiar with corgi health, meetups with other corgis, etc). I'd probably put aside a healthy amount for vet bills/insurance that covers genetic diseases and IVDD, and you could get an Embark test done to check for DM (there are a few others that also affect corgis). Good luck!
posted by sincerely yours at 7:24 PM on December 11, 2023
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It was just this: see that your old dog meets the new dog in a new place. You describe him as very chill, but even so, his house is HIS house (or HER house?) and he's much more likely to feel defensive there if a new dog enters.
So let them meet and become friends in some neutral place, toward which your current dog has no reason to feel protective. Give them enough time to get used to one another. Then your current dog may be quite OK with the Corgi coming in - it's a friend, after all.
posted by wjm at 11:38 PM on December 9, 2023 [3 favorites]