need to know about my dogs habits

[Jane Austen]

I adopted a seven year old female Pembroke about three months ago. I am elderly so the older dog was right for me in that she is trained. I admired the breed for many years but never had the opportunity to get one before.
Everyday I discover how lucky I am to have her. She is intelligent and well behaved. My dog bonded to me almost immediately. I believe she had a close tie to her former misstress, who had to give her up for some very practical reasons. My heart goes out in Thanks to this lady,who put so much love in my dog and wouldn't have given her up except for the good of her family. Duchess was placed in the care of her breeder, who I found at a vet's office.
As I am learning about the breed I have some questions of why she behaves as she does. So I thought I would like to converse with other families of corgis to exchange information.

[Michael Romanos]

Hi Jane
Congrats for your little girl, Duchess owning you and taking over the house.
Corgis most certainly have definite characteristics, but the way they are treated during their upbringing usually determines their mental and physical well being.

There are few purebred Corgis in the region I live in and only today I was driving to the shopping centre when I spied a pretty tri-colored Pem. So I stopped and wound down the window and said to the handler would he like to join my Corgi walking group. The guy said he didn't own the female Corgi but was walking it for a friend. I gave him my contact details for his friend. The handler then said do I know of any Corgis for sale because he was interested in getting one for himself. So I told him to also contact me and I'll put him in touch with reputable Corgi breeders.
That's one way of building up the Corgi population. But if Kids had their way in my local area, there would be a suburb full of them. I take my Taylor to schools for class visits and stays and it is really effortless in getting kids to want to have a replica dog. If enough of these kids put on a good act, some of their parents will succumb and my breeder contacts will come in handy.

[Jane Austen]

Thanks Michael for your reply. I see more and more Corgis around Newburyport Mass. But no one seemed to know where to go to acquire one.
Duchess is a jewel, she walks me everyday and keeps me from turning into a couch potato.

[Michael Romanos]

Hi Jane
You've just opened the door a little about Corgis in general when you mentioned she walks you daily. Authorities in every country should be encouraging people who can take proper care of dogs to own one because they are an outstanding source of benefit for humans physically and mentally.
Dogs who are active are an incentive for people to exercise. Corgis are a very active dog. For one, they are a herding dog and two, they like to be busy bees. So it's nothing for a Corgi to have an hour of walking/trotting/running a day and once a week a real burn out - two hours for an "adventure" romp.
I hope Duchess keeps you up to it.

[Jane Austen]

After reading the forum about Corgis I feel I am not giving my Duchess the exercise she needs. I walk her but I cannot run and she doesn't seem to like any kind of toys. I try to pair her with another dog when possible to stretch her legs. some dogs are either too big or small. How can I get her more exercise?

[Michael Romanos]

Hi Jane
There are lots of things you can do to "stabilise" the needs of Duchess.

She must be unfit at present. As she gets fitter, she will be able to keep up with any fast walking dog no matter how big.

To get her fitter and better exercised in your circumstances, you need to give her some basic training to be able to come back to you off-lead when called. Then you can take her to parks etc where you can "sneak" her off lead so she can run around and chase about (and save your legs). Fetching is a fun game for Corgis in wide open spaces and most will respond to a tennis ball if not a stick. The training for this begins at home perhaps in your lounge.

You can get trusted dog walkers to take Duchess out and around. "Professional" dog minders/walkers are an option but those other owners of the bigger dogs you spoke about, might be happy to help out and walk Duchess with their dogs for you. You might like to join a local dog club. There may not be a Corgi club close to your town but there are other clubs who might cater for all breeds or breed groupings or are dog training clubs - that's a good club to get involved with. Dogs and humans are never too old to learn new tricks. These clubs may have a dog walking and exercise section as part of their activities.

Swimming is a great exercise for dogs. I've only had one Corgi who didn't like swimming - and that's Taylor, my current two year old. To get him in the swim I have to carry him out into a river and dump him in - and of course he then swims strongly to dry land. Corgis are quite powerful at swimming as long as they are not drasically overweight.

I found Taylor needs to build up his leg muscles for jumping in agility competition and so I now take him two or three times a week on a hill climb in a reserve where he's off lead and scampering up and down a track which also has lots of steps. All great stuff for increasing fitness and leg strength. Near the top of the hill we always sit down on a wooden four seater seat, take a break and admire the view before carrying on

Corgis love to be massaged and that is one way of loosening and toning their muscles and helping them become more flexible.

Another way of getting a dog exercised where I live is to take him/her to a dog day care centre where the dogs can all run free over a big tract of land, playing among themselves, and where also the centre manager will take them for an exercise jaunt during the day.

[Jane Austen]

No Michael, Duchess is perfectly fit. The vet said she is not fat. She will run fast with larger dogs but they tend to run her over and she turns and growls at them. It is mostly a show but I don't want her trampled. I am not sure what she would do with a small dog. Would she do any harm to a tiny dog? She has not shown those tendencies so far other than the fact she is bossy. but we have not had much contact with smaller animals.
I do let her run off leash when I can and she is perfectly behaved on coming back to me. Where she doesn't seem to enjoy toys, I can't throw things for her to retrieve.
You may not have lime disease in New Zealand but in coastal U.S. we have a problem. Duchess has had lime disease before I got her and they found out about it because she was limping. Now she is very sensitive about her paws and wants to avoid my touching her feet.
I like your idea of massaging her. That is one of the few ways she will accept being handled. She balks at grooming.

[Michael Romanos]

Ho Jane
Great that Duchess is not overweight. That aspect is vital. Like humans, dogs are just as fit or unfit for certain physical endeavours.

Corgis are not clumsy dogs so that Duchess getting in the way of bigger dogs then reacting to them, is all an act of what you referred to ie 'bossines.' Corgis are sturdy dogs and well muscled and can take take quite a bit of "punishment" from other dogs.

A lot of Corgis are much more comfortable with their own kind and/or dogs of their own size or smaller.

Ninety five percent of the dogs my Taylor meets he get along with famously but of the five percent he does not in one way or another, the vast majority are big, aggressive-type dogs.

If a owner is unable to "go the distance" with the dog, there is no better alternative in an owner-dog situation, than to go to an open park and play fetch with a ball, a stick or a frizbee. That way the dog does all the work and enjoys it too. Plus it is a bond-cementing activity. So I think your best bet is to join a dog club and there will be club members who can show you the techniques for teaching Duchess to fetch. Corgis are very smart. That Duchess comes when called is marvellous and the absolute basis for fetching.

I don't know about lime. Because of your reference to coastal areas, I take it you're talking about lime in the sea. Though in earlier years I had my Corgis swimming in the sea - and loving it, I wouldn't nowadays encourage it. A Corgis coat is ruined by seawater and it requires freshwater washing your Corgis very shortly after a swim in the sea to get rid of the damaging salt in the water. Of course there can be a lot of pollution in the shallow parts of the sea . Rivers are best and swimming pools for dogs would be even better.

At present where I live, there has been little rain for several months which is absolutely unusual and has created only in the last 10 days, the presence of a toxic algae bloom in the major river we have ( the Hutt River). Two dogs have died so far and a number have been sick. So hundreds of warning signs have been installed. A good dose of rain will wash the algae away, The algae is greenish slimy stuff and is also dangerous for humans. Streams and creeks that feed into the Hutt River could also be affected. So at the moment, I keep Taylor away from rivers and streams.