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Permalink Reply by shelley power on November 15, 2010 at 9:42pm

I think females, especially intact female corgis are .. at least have a tendency to try to be more "bossy" but shouldnt be allowed to intimidate others.. at least encouraged to recognize the human in the house as the ultimate dominant figure... I guess the tendency is for females in general ( in a lot of cases) to be bossy and try to take over, but I step in at times when mine try that malarchy:))))
Aggression to other dogs , it seems to me could be a lot of different things... could be lack of "social skills" if you will, could be a "fear " response, fearful insecure dogs tend to act agressively, could be jealousy left unchecked by humans,.. could be a number or combination of things... most of which can with time and patience be sorted out and corrected..
A lot of the things you are questioning are things puppies learn very early... so depending on where/who they come from...
I find a lot of similar issues in a lot of rescue dogs I have worked with. and corgis are a headstrong breed! They require lots of and early training... they learn quickly ( bad and good) and pick up patterns incredibly fast...
so like for your female who intimidates the other on the stairs... she tried it once or twice got the response she was wanting( the other dog to submit and be afraid of her) and so the behavior worked! its possible that you could ( without knowing a lot of the underlying details of the situation) encourage the other dog NOT to be afraid, of the bossy female, and if necessary , make her back off in defference to YOU , thereby teaching the other dog to be more confident... and the bossy one to back off a bit... . my experience in working with insecure dogs and bossy corgis is that they also learn real quick when this behavior no longer works... LOL and if it doesnt get the response from the other dog she wants she will eventually quit... LOL I am sure it is not all that simple but its a process... the need to repeat a behavior that doesnt get the expected result eventually fades ..... you just need to monitor that what replaces it isnt worse LOL crafty little herders!!:)

Permalink Reply by Katy on November 16, 2010 at 9:28am

Yeah she looks at me as the boss but what's weird is I can take them both to a dog park and she's sociable, no BS'ing, and if there is any I shush her and she behaves. It's at the house where it's the worse, she's not intact either. I have a sneaking suspicion that her coming to live with us at over 12 weeks old wasn't good for her lil puppy brain, Buddha came home at 6 wks with me, never had an issue with him.
Also, to the submission point, he wont submit to her. When there are scraps I step in and both of them are submitting to me, Maybe it's my Mother teaching her bad habits? She has a bed upstairs, my mom's room and closet upstairs, also a sleeping area downstairs. So do you think it's perhaps a "everything is mine" syndrome?? Buddha sleeps in my bed or under my mother's bed, Maddie sleeps where ever she wants and mother has provided a bed for her in most cases.