Dominant Female?

We have four dogs in the house. Two goldens and two corgis. All are females except one of the Corgis.

The youngest in the pack is a 10 month old tri (with a blue eye) named Sonic. Sonic is a tornado of energy (gets her "corgi on" - running laps around the house four or five times a day) - even though she gets plenty of play time and walks every day. Our male Corgi, Max (fawn) is a total couch potato.

Recently Sonic began to get very aggressive with the other dogs over toys and treats. She got into a scrap with one of the goldens and ended up sending the bigger dog to the vet with cuts on her face and a puncture near her eye. Sonic was untouched - the golden is completely docile.

Sonic has started going after the other dogs' food bowls as well - all are fed in different corners of the kitchen - same food too...

We have a dog trainer coming tomorrow to begin working with Sonic but are simply amazed to see this behavior from a 10 month old female.

My wife believed she'd heard that Corgi females want to be dominant... anybody got any experience with this?

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Permalink Reply by Jane on December 2, 2012 at 1:25pm

I think you're doing the right thing by having a trainer come in. It is not uncommon for corgi females to be the dominant one in the household. I personally would feed her in her crate and not let her out until the other dogs are finished, and I'd also probably keep a short leash on her so you can grab her to correct any inappropriate behavior. Have you ever used NILF (nothing in life is free)? If not I highly recommend it. There is lots of info if you google it.

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Permalink Reply by Linda Masters on December 2, 2012 at 1:52pm

I experienced this with my female corgi Annie(she recently passed away from cancer)

She was always the aggresive one. We rescued a female heeler and that did not work out at all. They would both fight horribly with each other. We found a good home for the heeler. We have been told the same thing that female herding dogs are the alpha dogs. We rescued a male corgi Jake, and she was still very aggresive with him as well. She did mellow with age, She was 12 when she died. We just recently rescued another male corgi, Gryffin and him and Jake get along great. There has been no fights at all with them and they play really well together.

Best of luck and I hope the trainer can nip this in the bud with your Sonic.

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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on December 2, 2012 at 9:23pm

Nothing in Life is Free...google it and begin right away. She has decided to take over and needs to be relieved of her duties. Many corgis (not just females) still have that strong willed herding gene that was so loved when they were used on the farm to tell a 1000 plus pound cow were to go, chase critters out of the garden and make sure that wandering dogs did not get into the chickens. The flip side to this is a dog that will take over if they think no one is in charge. This will often be a very smart pup so I am glad you have a trainer coming. You need someone that uses very positive training methods. Any "strong arm" stuff will likely make her worse so be careful. As young as she is, she should be able to become a well behaved dog with the right training.

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Permalink Reply by Nora on December 3, 2012 at 4:29pm

The local trainer visiting is GREAT!

You could also take a look the "Ruff Love" by Susan Garrett. It is a very short book and you could finish it in hours. There were a lot of controversy discussions about it, BUT her method is ALL POSITIVE APPROACH. The first time you read, you would feel overwhelmed and don't think you could apply it. But the second time you read it, it starts to make sense to you. And you could always modify a bit so it feels right to you.

It is basically starting as taking everything your dog have right now from her, and give her back one by one as she EARN it. It also talk about NILF a bit. I

(She needs to demonstrate that she is trustworthy to you, no bias though;-p)

I am currently working my female under this program. Mine doesn't have serious issue you mentioned above, but I do think she needs more disciplines and relationship building with me.

Good luck! Keep us posted.