My Corgi puppy barks contantly during playtime...

We got out first corgi Tank about 2 years ago and he has never been a real big barker. Now we have our new corgi Gunni who is about 14 weeks old and every time we play with her or Tank plays with her, she gets aggressive and barks non-stop. She even challenges Tank and eggs him on and eventually he snaps at her.

When I pick her up and tell her "No" she growls and snaps at me, I have even tried putting her in the cage while I play with Tank calmly. It doesn't seem to be changing her behavior. Any suggestions???

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Permalink Reply by Lauren on April 4, 2008 at 4:01pm

i am curious about this answer aswell. abby will play well but when i try to play with Trevor he will bark and growl...non agressivly but like play growls and bark. when it gets too loud or to much i stop playing, tell him quiet...praise when he is quiet but stop playing and play later

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Permalink Reply by Sam on April 4, 2008 at 9:42pm

Some corgis are far more vocal then others. This is most apparent when there are periods of high excitement such as playing. I suspect she barks at other times as well. It is much easier to work with one on one. As she learns the "quiet" cue you can start enforcing it in higher level excitement issues. Try to become aware of the different things that may make her bark. When she barks use the "quiet" command. Obviously in the beginning she will have no idea what that means. When she barks again say "quiet" and gently but firmly grasp her muzzle. Keep it short. Repeat if she barks again. The muzzle grab is a familiar feeling as it is often used by adult dogs to correct youngsters.
The ticket her is timing and consistency. It may be that you have to play with them separately for a time until you can control Gunnis barking a bit. As you gain more control you can add to the situations you train.
Some barking is quite normal when dogs play. What is most important is that she learns to respond to the commands so you can have some control of the level of barking.
A good time to look in to a local training facility. Having two corgis is always more challenging then one. The more training they have the easier they will be to live with.

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Permalink Reply by Kristin on April 4, 2008 at 10:05pm

Thanks so much for the reply! She actually has her first training class tomorrow. Tank went through 2 courses and I truly believe it made him the awesome puppy he is now! Hopefully it will have the same effect on Gunni. We will definitely keep working to correct this behavior.

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Permalink Reply by Nicole on April 6, 2008 at 9:46pm

Ein is a loud corgi. He's earned the nicknames Taz, Grumpy Pants, Sir Grumps A Lot... you get the idea. He is just very barky and acts like a big mean dog, but he's all grump and no bite. You definitely need to assert dominance and let Gunni know that it is NOT okay to snap and growl at people. Ein still forgets himself sometimes and needs to be reminded. We've found that holding him on his back, looking in his eyes and giving a firm "No" followed by "You need to calm down" usually does the trick.

To give you an idea, when he feels left out when the other two dogs are playing, Ein picks up a toy, shakes it so fast you think he's going to break his neck, and growls the entire time. He's just a very loud and expressive dog.