Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Beth on December 2, 2009 at 7:08am

For marking, do you mean inside? If so, you will need to go back to square one and keep him next to you on the leash at all times. As soon as he goes to lift his leg, give a sharp "ah-ah!" and a firm but not harsh leash correction (think get-your-attention tug, not a hard jerk). If he is just marking outside, then welcome to the world of male dogs! LOL. Teach him a "heel" command or "walk on" if you don't want heel but just want a loose lead, and keep him moving through areas you don't want to mark.

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on December 2, 2009 at 8:39am

What Beth said makes sense for the marking inside. How old is Aquinas and what type of obedience have you done with him?Does he have the basic commands that you can use with him? Do you use a clicker? This could also help in the positive training.Keep on working with him and also what did you do when he growled at you? My Wynn is a perfect gentleman except when I have a female in season then he will "protect" his female from my neutered Aussie!By protecting I mean that he will growl and stay near my females but does not get into a fight! I can take him anywhere and he will listen and not be aggressive!

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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on December 2, 2009 at 11:06am

How old is he now? Have you tried attending classes with him? Google the NILF method and practice, take time out everyday, make sure everyone in the household are on the same page with everything, reinforce the rules. Teeth and feet handling should start when they are young, they will get use to it. Corgis are smart dogs, they will push their envelope and see how far they can go.

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Permalink Reply by Joanna Kimball on December 2, 2009 at 1:26pm

I HATE it when vets and trainers think that intact dogs are somehow odd or dangerous. Testicles are the normal state of the dog and not a disease. What he's doing has nothing to do with his hormones; he's just being a jerk because it works. The only behavior that changes in intact dogs is their attitude with other male dogs when bitches are in season; they are (as a rule) wonderful pets and most of us have multiple intact males around and love them.

The NILIF method is a great one for resetting his attitude. Definitely put that into place. For the marking in the house, you can tether him to you but you can also use a belly band. Like Beth said, if he's marking a ton outside that's very normal. I've had some success in training "Empty!" with boys when I'm in a hurry but most of the time I let them enjoy the marking.

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Permalink Reply by Beauty and the Beast on December 2, 2009 at 2:25pm

Why wouldn't you neuter him? You know this will reduce the risk of testicular and prostate cancer.

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Permalink Reply by Joanna Kimball on December 2, 2009 at 5:44pm

And raise the risk of certain injuries and other cancers. Neutering is not an easy choice, and there are definite health tradeoffs. It's something that every owner has to decide for themselves, in the absence of a breeder contract (and, thankfully, a lot of breeders are no longer requiring it). Spaying still has a very definite benefit, even though it does have some health problems associated with it, because of the major risk of pyometra in unspayed bitches. But neutering is actually, on balance, slightly harmful over the life of the dog.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on December 2, 2009 at 3:12pm

Just a thought, but if you have trained "leave it" to mean "leave it alone" instead of just "drop it", then you can give the "leave it" command if your male is showing a lot of interest in a spot and you think he'll mark.

The nice thing about marking behavior is that, unlike regular elimination, the dog usually gives you plenty of advanced sniffing notice of his intent.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy on December 2, 2009 at 6:37pm

We have our stud dog in the house, with no problems what so ever, if you give me your email, .. I could send a small document to you reguarding what we recommend for this and house training. Too much to put into this small box. Good luck.

Tracy

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Permalink Reply by Commander on December 5, 2009 at 12:41am

Thank you all for your caring replies. I was looking into the NILF training. Sounds great, that seems like the best thing I can do. He knows his basic commands. Every now & again he'll test me I'm guessing. He was born last July, so puppy/teenage yrs? ha ha.. Also, it's inside the house I was worried about. It was hard for me Thanksgiving wkend. He marked soo many spots, thankfully my house is tile & wood, so the cleanup's were easy. Thank you Sam & Joanna very much, and Beth I'll have to try the "leave it" idea.

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Permalink Reply by Dave L. on December 5, 2009 at 3:07pm

Of my 3 corgis, I have a 10 year old red named Yoda. Several years ago I noticed he was having trouble going to the bathroom. A Vet exam showed an ulcer (Duodinal?) in his colon. A speciallist then told me that the muscels around the end of the colon were not functioning as they should (preventing the ulcer), and said this was more common in dogs that were nuetered late in life, or not nuetered at all. He needed a $1700 operation to redirect another muscle around the colon. I plan to nueter all my future dogs as soon as they reach a safe age to do so.

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Permalink Reply by Kyle, Megan and Loki on December 5, 2009 at 9:56pm

When Loki went into high alert around 7-8 mos and barked a lot he was consistantly told quiet and no barks, rewarded when he would stop.

For marking inside he did this twice, both times on or near my guitar case, I was there at the time, he quickly realized this was not a good idea (I was very angry with him). Just be stern with them, and just as important, be consistant, you can't let something that would normally come done on (IE barking) pass anywhere.

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Permalink Reply by Kyle, Megan and Loki on December 8, 2009 at 12:59pm

forget to mention that Loki is intact

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