Hello everybody!

[delerium]

I am a newbie. My fiance and I live in San Diego, CA and got our first Corgi ever! Actually, it is our first puppy ever so we have quite a learning curve ahead of us to keep our 7-week-old Pembroke from being the alpha male in our little family!

His name is Maximus! We don't have his picture posted on the internet yet but we will soon!

[ZdogZ]

Welcome and congratulations! Can't wait to see pictures. We all love to see pictures! I have a 5 month old r/w pem, Zia, and an 8-year old blonde cocker, Zip.

[Peggy]

Originally Posted by delerium

I am a newbie. My fiance and I live in San Diego, CA and got our first Corgi ever! Actually, it is our first puppy ever so we have quite a learning curve ahead of us to keep our 7-week-old Pembroke from being the alpha male in our little family!

His name is Maximus! We don't have his picture posted on the internet yet but we will soon!

Welcome.

First don't assume he's going to be an alpha. Also read the thread on "What Is An Alpha Dog". He's way too young to be an alpha and too young to start worrying about that.

Since he's only 7 weeks old he wasn't with littermates long enough to learn bite inhibition, so that's going to be your first hurdle.

When he nips or bites you, yelp like a littermate would and walk away. Play ends when he bites.

Get the book "Mother Knows Best" by Carol Lea Benjamin. She writes some of the best dog training books around.

Find and enroll in a puppy kindergarten class. Start by looking in the yellow pages under dog or pet training. If you can go to a class first and see if it's a class you'd like. He's too young to go yet so you have a few weeks, but not long so get started now.

You might also consider joining Corgi L and Pembroke L as they have many more members and many that have been rasing corgis a long time. You can find Corgi L at http://listserv.tamu.edu/archives/corgi-l.html and Pembroke L at http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/P...guid=129341596

Peggy

[Jhemphill]

Welcome to Go Corgi. I have a male black headed tricolor also named Maximus he is 2 years and a month on February 10th.

[Michael Romanos]

The three things you can start training your new Corgi pup, and from your living room, is come, sit and stay. Getting Maximus a week earlier than the norm is no big deal but I would hold off from leash handling for a couple of weeks.
Maximus is a cute name for a Corgi because Corgis are the opposite of maxi - they are a minimus.

[Fluffypants]

Welcome to gocorgi and good luck with your new pup! Training classes are an excellent idea . . . and Peggy is right about bite inhibition!!!!

You can also get info on lots of topics by utilizing the SEARCH feature at the top of the page.

Originally Posted by Michael Romanos

Maximus is a cute name for a Corgi because Corgis are the opposite of maxi - they are a minimus.

Unless you are going by attitude!!!

[Peggy]

Originally Posted by Michael Romanos

The three things you can start training your new Corgi pup, and from your living room, is come, sit and stay. Getting Maximus a week earlier than the norm is no big deal but I would hold off from leash handling for a couple of weeks.

No need to hold off on leash breaking. I start my puppies on a leash by that age.

Also, IMO, 7 weeks is more than a week early. Most of us now keep our puppies till about 12 weeks. We've found over the years that they can learn much from mom and littermates in those weeks.

Even when I let mine go earlier than that it was normally 9 weeks.

Peggy

[delerium]

Thanks for all the advice! I can totally see what you mean about the bite inhibition. Whenever we sit down to up close, he likes to bite a lot!!! He even made my fiance's lip bleed once! We have been picking him up and telling him a firm "no" whenever he tries to bite but then we continue playing with him. We read about that in a book, but it doesn't seem to be so effective. We'll try that "stop and whine" method to see if that works. I have gotten into the habit of keeping a greenie chew toy with me whenever I play with him up close and make him chew on that.

So I have a follow-up question on the whole bite thing... currently we either play with him, walk him around the backyard or keep him in his den. So if we do the "whine and stop-play" thing when he bites, what should we do with him, just ignore him? We wouldn't want to put him in his den because that is his home and we want him to like being in his home. We don't really want to just lock him in the backyard, because we want him to want to go out there to do his doodies.

Anyways, I posted a picture of Max in here, but I am not sure how to link it to this page or where the picture went. I started a blog if you guys are interested and posted a picture of Max there: http://corgusmaximus.blogspot.com/

Thanks again for the advice!

[Fluffypants]

He is precious!!!! Yes, just ignore him for a few minutes. He'll get the point, especially if the yelp and removal of play are immediate upon biting.