I'm new here and so is my puppy!

[pinkprincess]

Hi, my name is Patrice and I have a very cute Pembroke Welsh Corgi. She is only 5 weeks and 2 days old. Her name is Jenna's Pink Princess or Pink for short. This is my first Corgi experience and I would appriciate any advise.

[Michael Romanos]

Hi Patrice
Where are you situated? Congrats on joining that ever increasing band of people world-wide who are owned by a Corgi. I suppose Jenna etc is her pedigree name and you've decided to take a part of it and call her Pink. I hope she and you stay in the 'pink.' Every few days at her age, Pink is going to noticeably change. She hasn't had her very first 'shots' (vaccination )against parvo etc yet I take it but it is usual to administer that when she turns six weeks. So you should be booking in at the vet and at the same time ask the vet to give Pink a thorough lookover. The other thing is worming - and the vet should help you out there if the breeder hasn't already given her a worm tablet, and flea/tic treatment with the world's best known treatment called Frontline. If you are in the USA then this is a great time to have a pup because it is summer and far easier to start on things like 'house ' (toilet) training. At her age I wouldn't be pushing for any other kind of training just yet until she is a couple of weeks older - then it's the sit, stay, come thing. But Corgis need plenty of interaction with humans -the more the better. I am of the school that Corgis can't be overhandled - just wrongly handled. She needs lots of play, lots of cuddling and kissing and noise making toys for teeth and fun and in empasising that they can bite those things and not other things such as furniture and clothes and footwear. If she is a hand grabber - don't let it bother you becauise it is entirely natural for her to grab the thing she wants for playing, tickling and stroking and for picking her up. I'd be giving her four meals a day - a breakfast cereal suitable for dogs and dividing one large dinner into three parts and capped with a good sized biscuit such as Eukanuba.

[Cardiguy]

Pink Princess, I hope you have not had her for anymore than a day or so as 5 wks is too short a time for the pup to leave her mom. She will miss some of the sort of basic socialization skills that only a mom can provide at that age. I myself do not know what you should do in the form of training to compensate, but perhaps Glencorgi or another knowledable person could chime in.

[darci]

Welcome to the board.
You'll have to post pictures of Pink, we love looking at corgi puppy pic's.
5 weeks is very early to get a puppy usually it's 8-12 weeks before a breeder will let them go.
I think one of the worst things that come with getting a puppy that early will be biting.
Cardiguy said maybe Deb will chime in she has experience with rescue and breeding.

But again welcome and good luck, look forward to getting to know you and Pink

[gailkate]

I don't know nearly what everyone else here does, but some basics on what your little girl would have learned from her mom and littermates:

1."playbiting" is so natural, I don't think it can be eradicated but if she'd been too rough, her mom would have scruffed her. The sibling she bit would have squealed and bitten back. We "squeal" when our dogs even scrape their teeth over our hands (we don't bite back). It's not too early to be firm about this - no spanking! - because she's got the Corgi instinct to nip.

2. Before she's had vaccines, I'm not sure how much she should be out meeting other dogs - what do all of you experts say? Socialization is critical, but she's teeny and vulnerable. Her littermates would have continued to impress on her that she's not the center of the universe, but also that other dogs are fun, not scary.

3. The best thing you can do for her is keep her growing in confidence every day. So give her lots of things to do and learn - these are smart creatures and they love challenges. Show her different surfaces to walk on, maybe a little box to crawl through, a slightly raised item to walk on and off (at her size, even a book will be an interesting challenge).

And I sure would like to see pictures, too!