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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Markley on February 20, 2013 at 7:56pm

He looks very mischievous... :-)

I was never a fan of the pee pads. I always felt it just taught them to pee in the house.  Start crate training right away...I can't remember specifics, but I think they can stay in the crate without going out to potty equal to their age...  example:  2 months can stay in 2 hours.  (Or maybe it's double, 2 months=4 hours)....Crate training is a blessing later in life.  It saved me when Seanna tore her ACL's.

As far as the herding/biting-- anytime it happens, immediately stop walking, look them straight in the eye, and give a firm "NO".  It takes time to break them, but you can do it.

BTW- he is so stinkin cute I can't stand it!

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Permalink Reply by Beth on February 20, 2013 at 8:07pm

Oh my GOD that is a cute puppy!!!    So very cute.   Now to your questions:

1) We used a pen with papers, too.  Crate training is great if someone is there but honestly I could not see that it was good to crate for 8+ hours while we were at work and then 8 hours again overnight.  Plus, I was gone too long for puppy to hold it. So I used the pen with papers and it worked great, but yes there were shredded papers.  What I did was watched where he  peed, and after a week or so only papered that half of the pen, then after another couple weeks only papered about 25% of the pen.  He soon learned that papers were for peeing and stopped shredding.  What I would do is come home at lunch, take out puppy, pick up the papers while puppy ate, put down clean papers while puppy played, and go to work.  When we were home, there were no papers down.  We found there was no confusion and housebreaking went pretty fast.

2) Nipping.  If you ever think you might want to do herding, talk to a herding trainer because my understanding is you can train them right out of the desire to herd.  But here's what I did, and it worked fast.  I went down our basement (the house was new so it was pretty empty; can't say the same now) because it was cool (we got him in summer) and wide open.  I'd start to run and he would chase me.  The second he nipped, I stopped and played tree:  cross your hands in front of your face and look up at the sky and DON'T MOVE, don't even acknowledge the puppy.  If he tugs your pants ignore him (easier in shorts).  Since you are now the most boring thing in the room, he'll wander off.  The second he does, start to run again.  If he doesn't nip, he gets to keep chasing you.   The second he nips, you stop.  As he improves, make the game more challenging by changing directions and speed.   Puppies LOVE this game, and besides teaching not to nip it teaches puppy to pay close attention to you.  You will be amazed at how well even tiny Corgi puppies can corner!  (and saying no just made Jack growl even more fiercely; it seemed to excite him.  All pups are different here, but for many any attention is rewarding, even a stern voice, because now you have engaged in the game as far as they are concerned).

3) Water:  he should have free access to water until about two hours before bed.  With respect to the breeder, tiny puppies can dehydrate and since they are so distractible, there is no guaranteeing he will drink when water is only put down a few minutes at a time.  We had to use a giant hamster bottle type waterer (made for dogs in crates) because he would paw all the water out of the bowl and play with it.  

Good luck.  He's so stinkin' cute!

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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on February 20, 2013 at 11:44pm

Limiting daytime access to water is dangerous to the health of  a puppy.  You can limit water before bedtime, as Beth suggested, and no water is needed, or desirable at night.  Most puppies can hold it through the night by 12 wks, until then you may need to get up once during the night. While you work, a combination of crate with access to an exercise pen is the best solution.  Make sure he cannot dump his water.....

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Permalink Reply by manda & molly on February 21, 2013 at 4:22am

With Molly, we never used potty pads, we went with the crate training and she learned quickly. Well, I tried the pads once, she picked them up and peed under it then got back on top of it and chewed the pad up. Before Molly I never really used create training but now I realize the benifts of having her create trained, she's flown with me on 5 flights before and I don't think I would have been able to do it if she want create trained.

Molly isn't much of a nipper, but I did manage to teach her constructive ways to nip. If she has to go outside she grabs my pant leg and pulls it in the direction of the door. I've noticed that puppies nip to get your attention so the key is to distract them and keep their attention on something else. When mo gets antsy I'll grab her favorite toy and throw it somewhere random and alas, the game of fetch begins.

With the water, what I've been told is that a puppy can hold it for however many months they are +1 as a general rule. But with Molly she could hold it through the night starting at 4 months. I followed the "no water 2 hours before bed" rule and had bad results with that because Molly would get a build up of stomach acid during the night and be vomiting the acid up by morning so I stated letting her drink up until bed and she did fine. So it really depends on the puppy. I would defiantly follow the 2 hour rule until you figure out what is best. Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Becky Focht on February 21, 2013 at 10:21am

I am also a new corgi mom - my girl is 13 weeks old.  I do only give her water in the morning with breakfast, at lunch when we come home for an hour and then after work until about 2 hrs. before bed.  I see most people wouldn't agree with this, but she doesn't really seem to drink that much even when she has free reign.  Of course on the weekends she has access all day long.  Maybe it's not the right thing to do, but so far it seems to have worked out ok. 

 

I can't give much advice on the potty training we are still a work in progress on that front.  Lol.  We put a towel in her crate and she pees on it and then my trainer told me to take it out and she still peed and then laid in it so I had to give her a quick bath at lunch and after work each day.  After 2 days of that I decided to put the towel back so we'll see where we get with that. 

 

The herding/nipping has finally started to calm down a little.  Maybe some of that has come with age or training.  She just finished a puppy class.  She was really bad until about 2 weeks ago.  We also use a squirk bottle with water to deter some of the nipping. 

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Permalink Reply by Barbara on February 21, 2013 at 1:33pm

Thank you everyone for replies!  We went ahead and put the water back in there and take it out about 8pm.  

Now - onto another potty training question.  We haven't laid down any landscaping yet in our front yard and our back yard is all pavers and patio.  We do however have lot a pretty big open space a few houses down the street where all the other dogs go to walk & play (on leash).  Then of course the beach is a short walk away too..

The vet said just have him go on the dirt until we landscape the yard, but my oh my!! It's like having a toddler... how do you keep the puppy from trying to eat every rock, dirt clod, weed or leaf?  yikes.. I thought he would take one bite of dirt and drop it, but I think he actually ate it.  He gets distracted and actually hasn't even gone pee or poop outside yet. 

Anyway - I haven't taken him down to the grass area yet because the vet said to wait until he had his 2nd round of shots because other dogs are down there... does that sound normal?

okay - I think that's all I have for now... haha...  and thanks for being patient with me!

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Permalink Reply by Cathie on February 21, 2013 at 2:19pm

You could try setting up an exercise pen in the front yard, removing all debris from that one area, and putting him in there until he goes. Stand by to praise and reward when he does. The people down the street from us raise miniature Yorkies, and I've seen this setup on their front lawn. But they have grass.

I had the same concerns you describe with taking him outside and having him put everything in his mouth, plus having to wait for the shot protection to kick in before we use public areas. I've heard that you need to wait until 10 days after the THIRD round of shots. I think there is some variation on this advice. Our vet says 4 (!) rounds of shots, safe to go out 5 days after last round, which by their schedule would be 18-22 weeks. I am blithely disregarding that particular advice, which I think is designed to generate more revenue for them. As our puppy class instructor pointed out, far more dogs are euthanized for problems arising from improper socialization than die of parvo. But I digress.)

My solution was to use newspaper indoors for now, and outside we have an lattice-enclosed brick-paved patio directly connected to the house. I take him out there frequently to potty on the bricks (after initially putting newspaper there to give him the idea, now he does it without the paper). I view the paper training as an interim solution. Eventually through a combination of eternal vigilance and careful management on my part, longer holding times on the dog's part, and generous positive reinforcement for going outside, it will get done.

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Permalink Reply by Megan and Bowie on February 21, 2013 at 2:58pm

Hello!

I would recommend a Puppy Patch for helping with the potty training process.  Patches are typically an artificial grass surface (you can get real grass patches too) on top of a collecting tray that gathers the waste.  I put a training pad underneath the grass to collect the waste and which also helps to curb the smelliness.  That said, they can be smelly and you must be diligent about cleaning them.  But it's really not that much different that having a cat litter box.  Bowie's patch fits nicely in his pen and I place it at the opposite end of where he sleeps/plays.  This was important at the beginning, since when he was confined in his pen, that's where he instinctively wanted to eliminate.  He chewed on it maybe once or twice, but he quickly learned that this was his 'bathroom break' spot.  When he was out of his pen hanging out, we placed the patch by the door that leads outside.  We still had to confine him to the living room where we could watch him (we learned the hard way by finding presents in the hallway and dining room), but when we saw him exhibiting potty signals (sniffing, circling, walking away from us) I promptly directed him to his patch and said 'go potty!' and it was the highest praise and a treat if he did. I sometimes had to pick him up mid-pee on my carpet and place him on his patch, but he still got a treat if he did any peeing on the patch.  It took him a couple weeks to learn to go to the patch on his own, but now he does without us prompting him.  Also, we have started not leaving the patch by the door, so when we see him migrate by the door and he is looking for his patch, we know he needs to go outside.  And he has been doing great! No accidents in the house for about a month now (he is 15 wks), except when it was my fault and forgot (alright, I may have been being a little lazy) to put out his patch for him.  

Also, just make sure you take him outside when you wake up, after every meal, and before you go to bed. Make sure he is on a shorter leash (6 ft) and when you get outside, just stand there.  Make sure he doesn't roam around too much. He gets no playtime or walk if he doesn't eliminate.  And you just have to wait.  I usually waited 10-20 min and if nothing happened, its back inside.  Keep watching him for signs that he needs to go potty (or put him back in the crate) and take him back outside and repeat. Praise and a treat when he eventually does his business, then a short walk or some playtime. Bowie likes to eat things in the yard too, I say 'no!' and redirect him with a slight tug on the leash.  He is slowly getting it and typically listens to me now.  Typically!

It takes some patience and you'll have to clean up some messes, but he'll get it.  They are smart pups. Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Beth on February 21, 2013 at 3:02pm

Definitely avoid areas where other dogs frequent until at least 10 days after the second round of shots; the first shot doesn't always take due to mother's antibodies circulating interfering with the vaccination and puppies can still be vulnerable.

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Permalink Reply by Jessica Ballweg on February 21, 2013 at 3:34pm

Our little girl is 4 years old and for potty training, it did not take her very long to get the idea. We got her when she was all ready 5 months old so that helped us. She took to her crate right away (still uses it now), and never messed in it. We let her out in the morning before work and since Corgi's are so food driven we just would walk her around while she was leashed and said "go potty, go potty, go potty" the whole time until she did her business. As soon as she did we gave her a big "Good Girl!!" and gave her a treat and then let her off the leash to play for awhile. My neighbor would then let her out again a couple hours later and then we would be back home from work and took back over. The only issue we had is she never TOLD us that she had to go to the bathroom. We just let her out enough to keep her from making messes, and we finally figured out it that when she came and sat in front of us and gave us the "Corgi Stare" that meant she had to go. They are very smart and pick it up really quick.

As for the nipping we would make a "YELP" noise and freeze when she nipped us like the sound another dog or liter mate would use to let her know she was being to rough. She responded to that right away and before long she was not nipping. We now have a 22 month old and she never chases him or nips him. We had the habit broken before we had our son and it did not return when he started to crawl and walk.

Corgi's are VERY smart dogs and they love to please. If you stick to a routine they catch on pretty quick. The only issue with her is she chases the vacuum cleaner, broom, and toys that move. She gets pretty worked up about them. She also hates balloons, and too many people and kids at her house. She gets very vocal and "bossy" then but still no nipping. Just very loud and opinionated. :) Good Luck! They have A LOT of character.

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