[QUOTE=bubxjade;8589457]
Last fall, we got a corgi. After knowing a couple, we thought this smart, happy small/medium sized breed would be perfect for us. I am just curious, what can you really expect from a corgi? Is it ever going to stay in the yard, or is it always going to wait until you’re not looking and go stand in the middle of the road and lick the pavement? Is it ever going to understand that eating cat turds out of the litter box is not okay? How many times do I have to catch him in the act and growl and yell my meanest “No!” to make him understand, it’s not okay to do that? Same thing with the bathroom garbage. I have had to eliminate having a bathroom wastebasket because everyday, I would be picking up shredded used tissues, dental floss and my hair that he would haul out of the garbage. He will constantly try to sneak into the bathroom, and I know he’s knows I don’t want him in there. Do they just not ever care? He knows where is not supposed to leave the boundaries of the yard, yet when he is outside with us (off the tether), we cannot take our eyes off of him for a second, he is always watching to see if we are looking so he can sneak off. He knows he is not allowed in the horse pasture, yet I turn my back and there he is, in with my young horses who are probably going to end up stomping him to pieces. Is having a fenced area for him the only way? It is not that I haven’t been consistent or practiced establishing boundaries. He knows what they are. I feel at this point we should be able to trust him for more than a few seconds and be allowed to give our attention to something other than him, and not have him goof off. I get the whole “praise them when they are behaving thing” and I do this also, but I feel it is worthless.
I can’t believe we were able to potty train this dog, I thought it was hopeless for a while. He would poop 8 times a day.
The dog makes me feel like an idiot. I regret every day I have to spend with this dog. My farrier told me “Corgi’s are so loyal!” Really? To what? My old dog set foot in my horse pasture one time and took a bite of horse poop. I told him no one time. He never went in my pastures again. Never touched horse poop again. I could have left a Christmas ham on the floor for a week, and he never would have touched it. He never left the yard. He never barked. He never chased the cat. But that was a golden retriever.
I can’t feed the birds anymore because he will just sit under the bird feeder and eat all the bird seed.
He eats his own poop.
I’m afraid he is going to get sick because he is going to eat something that he shouldn’t.
Do I just give up? Is there any point in trying to make this dog listen and behave? Or can I just expect that I have rotten dog that is going to do rotten things and I have to deal with it for the next 20 years?[/QUOTE]
[I]“He knows where is not supposed to leave the boundaries of the yard, yet when he is outside with us (off the tether), we cannot take our eyes off of him for a second,…”
“He knows he is not allowed in the horse pasture, yet I turn my back and there he is…”
[/I]
I think your thought process here is simply mistaken. Dogs don’t “know” that something is wrong – they have accumulated experience that doing something has a likelihood of causing you to make something unpleasant happen but also has a likelihood of making something intrinsically pleasant happen. So in other words, he doesn’t really understand there is something morally wrong with going out of the yard, he just knows that you may yell or otherwise correct him, but he also knows going out there is fun, so those two competing motivations drive his behavior.
Honestly, I don’t mean to sound offensive, but really, truly, you have to get over this notion (that your posts strongly convey) that you think dogs learn basic moral precepts like right and wrong and loyal. They don’t. They really, really don’t. The wonderfully behaved ones just value whatever rewards you give them (pets, praise, the chance to be in your presence) over the rewards found in the pasture, the yard, the garbage can, the litterbox.
[QUOTE=bubxjade;8590560]Okay, we are not mean to Mr. Corgi and do not think we are giving him an inferior life. He is crate trained and happily runs into his crate with a quite suggestion. Besides nightime, the longest time he has to spend in the crate during the day is 6 hours, and that is only 2 or 3 days per week. I try to make sure he gets as much exercise as I can give him and we spend around 3 hours together outside on a normal day. I make sure he gets to run and exercise and play. Before the snow, we would walk and jog the perimeter of the yard on the leash .He walks on the leash okay and we go to Tractor Supply and he is usually pretty good when we go in there, he doesn’t jump on people when they acknowledge him and he usually sits and waits for them to pet him.
He comes when he is called and will come running full speed no matter how far a distance he has wandered off to. What makes me mad is he knows where he is not allowed to go, and he will watch to see if we are not looking and sneak off. The other day we are standing the yard talking and I could see him out of the corner of my eye, and you can tell he is thinking “They aren’t looking, I can go over here now.” To me, this is not loyal. Yes I can be smarter and not take my eyes off him or I could keep him on a tether or build a fence. I suppose the best thing is to teach him to stay by my side while we are outside together, but I just think the dog should be able to have moments of autonomy and do what he wants, but he should be able to stay in the boundaries. Is this a corgi thing? Like this is what I am wondering, do I just give up and build a fence?
He does not try to herd my horses, he just wants to go in there and they come over and sniff him all over and touch noses and he loves it, I get it. But the horses like to play pretty rough too and I do not want them to paw him or kick him and that is why i don’t want him in there. I know, yes he is still very young and kind of a puppy, but it has been quite a few months now and lot of days, multiple times a day I am telling him to get out of the pasture . . . I know he knows he shouldn’t be in there, but when my back is turned, there he is. So I am a bad dog owner for thinking the dog should be able to learn one simple task?
I don’t get this, put a lid on the trash or put all the things you don’t want the dog to have in a place where it can’t get them. Personally I think that is bad dog training. Not everything belongs to the dog, and I think a dog should be able to understand that. Am I really that bad for thinking a dog should be able to learn some things are off limit? I get that the litter box can be too tempting and I did try to put them out of reach and I did buy a top entry litter box etc.
I had my golden since he was 11 weeks old and before I brought him home he lived in a barn. No one helped me train him and yes I was just extremely lucky that he was always that good of a dog.[/QUOTE]
The other comments I bolded are just to say that you don’t seem to like this dog at all, not one bit. You named all kinds of things he does well, but you said he makes you feel like an idiot, he is rotten, you regret every day with him, etc. – really, that’s a shame for all kinds of reasons, but he is still less than a year old and has quite a bit of training.
You said he does basic obedience commands, is housetrained, and is starting to learn some boundaries which need to be reinforced with UNsuccessful attempts rather than continuing to be reinforced with success (getting yummies from the garbage and so on – he has been rewarded for this over and over by getting into the garbage successfully. He needed to be prevented from getting into the garbage at all rather than getting into the garbage and loving it – that’s a lot of reinforcement to overcome, even if you catch him in the act and redirect.)
So, all that is to say I think he is still highly adoptable.
Get in touch with a reputable Corgi rescue. Rescues have a lot more resources to match dogs with owners and to followup and ensure success for the dogs in their new homes than do single owners. Let them have him now while he is still young (though obviously more adolescent than puppy, but still.)
After finding a reputable rescue to get a better match for your Corgi, move on with a clean slate – but re-think how dogs tick.
Think about the specific behaviors you want in a future dog (learns perimeter boundaries easily, highly motivated by praise and petting, looks to people for direction – which aren’t really traits of certain herders like Corgis or Australian Cattle Dogs and the like, or terriers, for another example).
But don’t try to assign moral values like “loyal” or disloyal or good or bad or whatever to dogs. It does both dogs and owners such a disservice.
Good luck finding this guy a new home where his independence will be valued, and good luck finding a better doggy match for your home and farm!
