11 week old corgi

Hey guys, i have a 11 week old pembroke, hes got tons of personality and very playful. his only concern is his potty training. how long did it take until your corgi was trained? hes about 75% when he pees in hitting his pee pads and about 30% when he goes #2, hitting his pee pads. any stories suggestions or advice is welcome. i only use positive reinforcement, i give him treats and praise him when he goes on his pads.

also, at 11 weeks where do you think he should be in his training? he knows sit, turn around, stay, come, and a little bit of standup. he is really struggling with lay down, i put the treat low and push toward, he backs up, if i pull away he sort of stands and follows it. ive also tried just not moving until he offers the behavior, but he gets bored and starts barking. he also seems somewhat unintrested in fetch, how did everyone first start teaching that to their corgis?

what other training and tricks should i be working on, and any ideas how to get him to lay down, or fetch? and in everyones advice where should he be in his progression with the above issues at his age?

thanks to any responders, first time corgi owner, im having alot of fun with this little guy already.

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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on February 1, 2012 at 3:42pm

At 11 weeks he is still an infant so try to have fun with him. He will be great with things one day and forget it all the next. Sounds like he is doing really well but he is still too young to be reliable with anything so remain patient and enjoy his infancy, it passes quickly. Corgis love to learn but don't be too serious too soon.

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Permalink Reply by Jane on February 1, 2012 at 5:06pm

If possible I would skip the pads entirely and just teach him to go outside. I think the pads can be confusing for a puppy (i.e. going inside here is okay, but not here, how about here? oh this spot must be okay, it feels the same on my feet, etc).

At 11 weeks he is still a baby and I would not expect him to be potty trained. Some dogs can take upwards of a year to be totally reliable. At his age I wouldn't expect him to do a lot of training either, just keep the sessions short (3-5 minutes) and fun and end on a happy note. I'd highly recommend a puppy class too if you're interested in further training.

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Permalink Reply by Kayla and Mason on February 1, 2012 at 8:17pm

I second the outside notion over the pee-pads. If it's easier for pee pads right now, you never know when if that will change...and you don't want him to start off confused as to where to potty~

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Permalink Reply by Beca and Mishka on February 1, 2012 at 8:11pm

Mishka was already 11 weeks old when we got him, and had already been introduced to the idea of pee pads, but it was still another few weeks before he was really reliable. We interrupted him with a loud noise when he started peeing elsewhere, scooped him up, deposited him on the pad immediately, then praised him like crazy when he finished on the pad. We stuck to verbal praise because when we tried to give him a treat he started wandering off the pad mid-stream.

We don't have our own yard, so in spite of having grass right outside our front door, the grass is VERY public, and has high dog traffic. We used pee pads until he was fully vaccinated and we got the go-ahead from our vet.

For training we started with his name and for tricks we started with sit, down, touch, and paw....sit was easy, and then the next week he started getting the rest of them. Chase he got pretty quickly but fetch didn't start clicking until he was about a year old. His "leave it" started getting pretty good around 4-5 months and "drop it" soon after.

Take lots of pictures of him! It's amazing once they're full-grown to go back and see HOW TINY they were and yet still recognize them as the same dog.