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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on June 25, 2008 at 7:51pm

Good on ya for rescuing them! They're not intact still right? What have you done to socialize them so far? May be you can tell us more info?

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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on June 27, 2008 at 10:26am

ok, I did get your reply and I would like to clarify a little bit. when you say you take them out 4 times a day, do you mean out for a long walk? bathroom breaks? when you take them out, do they take the lead and walk you? When the barking is going on, did you pull them away? who initiated the barking and what did the other dog react?

I also have 2 corgis, one male and one female. My female is younger, she is vocal and react to anything in the first sign, however, she is not a true alpha, the reason is alphas do not react or bark in the first sign. My true alpha is the male, he is confident, nothing fazes him, the only time he jump into action is when things get out hand, in a pack situation, all he needs to do is a stare and my female would know it is not his place and submit. Remember the loudest one is not the alpha dog.

When I walk my dogs, they are on a mission, it is my time to bond with the pack and I lead, I walk in the front, none of my dogs are allowed to walk before my toes, if they get in front of me, I suck on my lips and make a sound and they'll know they've walked too fast and they'll slow down and respect my authority. During my daily 2 mile walk, there is period of time where it is "relaxing fun" time, I let loose and let them play, only during those times, that they're allow to sniff, pee and play. once the fun time is over, it is back to business again. None of my dogs are allowed to enter the door way before I do, none of them are allowed to be put on a leash when they're excited and run all over, they must be in a lay down position, only then that I put on or take off their leash. The reason why I do all that is because corgis are herding dogs, they need exercise and routines to keep their minds stimulated, challenge. Without orders and discipline, they will start to make their own rules, remember that a pack leader is not the one who yell or act frantic, respect is earned from calm decision maker.

There are dogs out there who "uses" their owner to bully other dogs, the classic case is the "cry baby", the offender lacks social skill, scream in the first sign of sniffing, then the frantic parent move in and pick them up thinking they're protecting their dog, this kind of chain reaction will only encourage such behavior, the dog will never have the chance to learn proper manners because the parents are over protective.

In the natural dog world, when a younger pup acts out, the older ones discipline the pups and let them know what kind of behavior is unpleasant. When we got our little one 5 years ago, she was 3 months old when we adopted her, she was not well socialized and lacked confidence, it was a nightmare to take her to the dog park because our older one is all nice and Mr social, but she was the cop and yell foul every second she gets, so end up spending more time working with her. We found several people who own large dogs that are clam, confident and well mannered, we told them in advance about our little one and that we DO NOT mind their dogs discipline ours if she being a brat, so after a few sessions, she was able to learn how dogs are suppose to behave, her confidence levels are up and able to carry herself appropriately.

I see dog ownership similar to raising kids, kids need discipline, structure and play, it is easy for us to love and spoil them.

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Permalink Reply by Sam on June 28, 2008 at 3:45pm

My two older ones always do that our female (Addie; we believe) is the dominate one. Her a Jack always get into it they never hurt each other but they do fight so we always have to break them up. So i find it as normal. The only bad part is we have a puppy so he always gets soo scared when they fight sometimes he throws up foam so i am guessing its really mean in dog language!

But its still normal to us.

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Permalink Reply by Sam on June 28, 2008 at 3:55pm

Well its normal to a point. One needs to be well aware of the "excitement" level that is being reached during these interactions. Being a bit more familiar with dog behavior will help you understand if they are interacting appropriately or it is going beyond the point of simple dog interactions. If they are still intact I can see there will be times that it well could escalate beyond what you will be able to fix with voice control. The actions of the pup you describe sound a bit scary to me. This sounds like quite a big reaction. You have to remember too if you verbally scold one dog they all feel punished. With multi dog homes I take over a bit more with the dog interactions. They can escalate quickly. This is a situation I would feel the need to monitor.

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