I am sorry for you. Corgi owning is not for everyone. I won’t have another, unless it would be the ONLY dog we had. Ours had some great features, while her other attributes were just nasty to have around.
She loved us, loved ALL children of any size. Did since she was a tiny puppy. She would do the guerilla crawl to any child, start licking their hands and wiggle all around them for patting and good words.
She loved us, would do ANYTHING at times, some destructive like during storms, to be with us.
Dog crate is your GOOD friend. Use it. Ignore the pleading brown eyes, to correct or prevent problems. Lock up the little dog when it won’t obey, you are angry, he is contained to PREVENT him getting into things he is not supposed to get into. Mine would NOT mess in her crate unless she was really sick. She would make a mess when not crated if she considered I was late letting her out. Her crate was also her refuge, food was served there, she had no storm issues if locked in her crate like crying. She would just lay on her back, feet up, go to sleep no matter how loud the thunder or brightly the lightning flashed. It was her “safe” place then.
Get some child gates, gate off rooms with cat box, to not allow access. Cat will jump over easily. Close the bathroom door if you don’t want to use a gate there. Get used to knocking before entering the closed bathroom.
I put fence panels around my birdfeeders. Prevented dog eating all the dropped seeds and shells around the birdfeeders.
Mine developed a problem with her liver, from being a glutton about eating stuff and a few too many treats from husband and DD. She could have NO fat in her diet then, could not metabolize it, so she went on a strict dry food diet, 1 cup of lowest fat, dry dog food I could find. She regained her svelte figure again, ran and played much more being lighter weight again. Though she always gave me dirty looks each time I put the dry food in bowl in her crate. A treat was dry Cheerios, a bread crust, vegtables and any tomatoes she could steal off the plants to suck dry. Never ate them, just wanted the juice. She lived another 6+ years on this diet, was VERY active. We did some home “medicating” the couple times she stole things and ate them, like a bird suet cake and a bar of rat poison!! We saw her eat them, got right on it. I gave her salt water to make her vomit, which worked pretty well. Didn’t know about peroxide then. She did not have a liver attack, so saved $400 Vet visits on that.
She hated the big dogs, even though big dogs never did anything to her until she attacked them. She did NOT learn from the experience, once healed, she was right back at it, until we had to keep her in a different part of the fenced yard, apart from big dogs. She would jump them from behind, for no reason WE could figure out, watched it happen. Big dogs were nice about it, tried to just hold her down until we got there, but she was terrible on that. This was one big dog after another, not several at once.
Corgi was good in crowds, at dog shows with DD, riding as a carriage dog. Extremely cute, friendly to all people. She was small, best weight was about 18#s, fat at 22 pounds. She had a good body, never had back issues (never allowed to jump up on things, few stairs to climb, lifted in and out of the truck), no Corgi eye problems. From working stock dog lines, well marked, correct coat, no fluffy or curly. Docked long, so she had a stub of a tail, not no tail at all.
We managed the constant shedding with a weekly brushing, combing and vacuuming, which seemed to last the week. Winter hair came off quick with a bath, blow-dry with the horse vac, combing and brushing, vacuuming daily for about 5 days. She was slicked off then, with loose hair enough to make a flock of Corgis! We then went back to the weekly vacuuming and brush out. If grooming weekly is not kept up, Corgi hairballs will take over your house!! They shed constantly, year around, rather like GSDs will, which we have had previously.
Corgi is a breed apart. Though in the Working Dog category, they are unlike other dogs there. They ARE independent thinkers, always “know best” kind of like Terriers at times. I had to get and use an electric dog collar to have my Corgi coming dependably. She argued before that, gave me the one finger doggie Salute! We have a well fenced yard, she did not get out, but ignored me to go about her business until SHE decided to come over! Not acceptable here, so the electric dog collar changed how things happened. She also barked a LOT, at almost everything. With her ignoring commands, consistently applied and carried out, we went with an electric bark collar. It corrected with no humans around, WHEN she went on too long. It did work too, barking was for things of importance then. She “told me” of problems on several occasions, after learning about the bark collar and not needing it on all the time anymore. Horses loose in the barn yard, someone who opened the barnyard gate and drove in that was not family. She had “reasons” for carrying on then, and I listened, got things taken care of.
Corgis are a breed apart in my experience, not like “regular dogs” in reactions, behavior. She was a wonderful dog for DD who loved her dearly, but her bad side was pretty amazing.
Her replacement is a very nice little dog, mixed breed Sheltie and Cocker Spaniel. He LOOKS like a little Border Collie, kind of a tiny Lassie with floppy ears. Lovely long silky hair, always cheerful, LOVES the big dog who also loves him. He does not bite or fight, though he is food oriented, also on a strict diet with portions allowed. He is great in crowds until you meet a Border Collie owner who SWEARS we must be confused about his heritage, he is just a small (name your BC breed lines) model. They are adamant he MUST be BC and we try to leave quickly then! I saw his dam and sire, yep he is a mixed breed dog! He and big dog do everything together out in the yard. He is turning into quite the squirrel hunter, learning patience waiting (very hard on Sheltie breeding), the guerilla crawl to get closer, all from watching the big dog and copying her. He blocks the squirrel from escape while big dog catches it to flip in the air.
Good luck with your Corgi. Take charge of him, control his actions, access to places he is not allowed because he does bad things in there. Crate him to prevent problems. You are Top Dog or he is, which means he can ignore you. They can be amazingly stubborn, but smart enough to learn, be obedient if you are persistant. They do accumulate fat in the liver, so try NOT to feed fatty food, not give treats or share your food often, to prevent problems and obesity.
