Corgi really bad with touching/handling

I'm nearly at my wits end with trying to make Nellie at least tolerate touching, but for some reason she just hates it and it hasn't gotten better in the 6 weeks I've had her. I do handling almost every day and brushing maybe every few days. When she is distracted by food she more or less doesn't care but hands coming near her without food seems to make her wary and back away. She does not do this with strangers unless if she is at the groomers.

A really really weird thing I noticed today is that I happened to drop my hand near her face/mouth and she growled and seemed agitated. She didn't have anything in her mouth and I wasn't even doing anything with my hand. It was completely bizarre and she looked like she really wanted to bite my hand.

I have been working really hard with this and she never seems to get any better, and now there's this weird growling and avoiding my hands behavior. Help?

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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on May 1, 2013 at 8:29am

How are you working with this and can I assume that you have had a vet check her out?

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Permalink Reply by Nina & Nellie on May 1, 2013 at 1:23pm

I do handling exercises by touching her all over, plus paws and ears and mouth, while feeding her treats/chicken. Usually when I do it this way she is less bothered by it, as in she will still pull away but won't be as mouthy or growl at me. I can't exactly say she has gotten better with it even after 5-6 weeks of work.

She got her 3rd shots last Wednesday so hopefully there hasn't been some sort of sudden change, but her reaction to touch has stayed more or less the same.

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Permalink Reply by Linda on May 1, 2013 at 8:47am

I was wondering if maybe something with her eyes and she doesn't see the hand coming near her till it's right there and it startles her.

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Permalink Reply by Nina & Nellie on May 1, 2013 at 1:28pm

The eye thing was bizarre. I dropped/put my hand down near her mouth to the side of her face while she was lying down on the ground, and she kept eyeing it and growling and then (play) snapping at it. She moved her face away from my hand but didn't walk away from the area. I didn't move my hand and didn't say anything and she just seemed really agitated that my hand was even there. I wonder if it's part of a bigger problem with her possessiveness (i.e. she doesn't like my hand near her mouth because she associates it with me taking things away) or if she has a problem with (my) hands since she usually doesn't like petting or cuddling.

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Permalink Reply by Nina & Nellie on May 1, 2013 at 4:13pm

Well I happened to have some other people come over for a playdate and Nellie did not like them picking her up too. They also own a corgi so I'm fairly sure they weren't hurting her, she was just making those "rrrruh ruh ruff! ack ack ack" noises and struggling and being unhappy about being picked up. I have to pick her up all the time for potty so it's not like she isn't used to it. I'm just not sure why she's still SO bad with handling (and the breeder said she handled Nellie a lot too).