Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on March 12, 2013 at 8:18am

Hi Vic,

It is normal, corgis rely heavily on their sight and hearing as a herding breed.

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Permalink Reply by Linda on March 12, 2013 at 8:19am

Same thing with mine.  I remember during obedience training we were doing some fun things.  One of them was putting a treat under 1 cup among several.  I thought ok this is a piece of cake considering corgis live to eat.  Nope..Max couldn't find the dang thing!

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Permalink Reply by CorGeek on March 12, 2013 at 9:08am

It is funny, Oliver only uses his nose when he HAS to. I've started hiding treats and sending him to find them. NO problem. Drop a treat while we're on a walk...uh...where did it go? :)

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Permalink Reply by Beth on March 12, 2013 at 10:16am

Corgis are not selectively bred for nose, so whether or not they have a good one is pure chance.

Maddie TRIES to sniff but will sniff right over the top of something and miss it. Just yesterday on a walk I dropped a treat and she picked up a rock instead, chewed it three times and spit it out before finding the treat. I thought I would die laughing.

Jack has a wonderful nose and will actually track stuff; I've watched him track his buddies to see which way they went, he always finds the treat in the pile of leaves, and most recently we lost a frisbee in deep snow in a wide open field with no idea where it was (it was buried in the snow). I said "Jack, where's frisbee? Get frisbee." and he immediately started a casting pattern through the field (this impressed me because in the house he uses his eyes to find toys). After about five minutes, he found where it was buried, dug it out, and presented it to us.

So Corgi noses vary from "none at all" to "excellent."

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Permalink Reply by Beth on March 12, 2013 at 10:17am

I should add that we'd been playing with that frisbee for 15 or 20 minutes so the entire field smelled like both dogs and the frisbee (and there were TWO frisbees of different types and he didn't even know which he was looking for; we hid the other because if we did not, he wouldn't search so hard).

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Permalink Reply by DSmith on March 12, 2013 at 11:19am

Mine are terrible when it comes to their sniffers. They locate the frisbees by sight. but they differentiate each others respective frisbees by taste. I laugh when George can't find his frisbee so he goes over to Dexter and takes his. Dexter just looks at him like, "Hey!" but demures and will go look for the other then switch back when he finds it.George is so smart.   

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Permalink Reply by Mai on March 12, 2013 at 1:39pm

I would say it depends on if you train your dog to use his nose first or his sight first. When I introduce treats I would always open the bag and let him stick his nose in the bag to smell what's inside, and after he's satisfied with smelling it,then he'll sit back a foot away from me and wait for me to dispense the treats. Even if it's the same bag of treats from yesterday or that morning, he always gets to smell first.

I think it's still great that your dogs could still locate the treats by smell even if it takes them some time. I've seen some dogs that use their sight only and if they don't see where it landed, they don't even KNOW that they have a nose they could use to locate it.

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Permalink Reply by Marcie on March 12, 2013 at 6:32pm

Becca does fairly well sniffing. When we are walking in the woods she is nose to the ground following trail. Our "Fur Fun" class had a tracking component. After the class I bought some little boxes to hide treats in. I get them out on rainy days for brain work. Becca's breeder does tracking with some of her corgis.

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Permalink Reply by Snickmom on March 12, 2013 at 6:44pm

Snickers has a toy where you put treats under a cup. It has a little hole so they can sniff if there is anything in there. She does not try to turn over the cup if it is empty. She loves roaming the house sniffing for treats that may have been missed when we play toss the treats around the house, and keeps the kitchen floor very clean. (BTW I use kibble for treats, she only gets special ones if I need the high value)

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Permalink Reply by Rachael & Waffle on March 13, 2013 at 1:21am

Waffle has a great sniffer!  One of our favorite games is to hide treats around the house and go find them.

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Permalink Reply by Ludi on March 13, 2013 at 6:18am

Ace is abysmal at sniffing out things. He can pass -over- a piece of meat on the ground; it's actually shocking. And not for lack of trying, either! I tried so hard to help him with nosework, but his schnozz just refuses to co-operate. As such, I have to point things out to him. For a glutton, he sure is terrible at locating food!

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Permalink Reply by Connie on March 13, 2013 at 10:21pm

I think it must be more "dog specific" than Breed specific, because my Maxwell seems to have a
bloodhound nose....Especially when we he is outside..Last week he found a "dead mole" in my parents back yard (it was evidently left as a present by their cat.."GROSS") Needless to say we immediately disposed of it, but you'd better believe he knows/remembers the smell and absolutely loves to go "sniffing" for more of them whenever he gets a chance.

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