Getting a corgi, a couple of questions
So I have lurked around the site for a while for some sources of information,and I had a few questions about Pembroke Welsh Corgi's before I went and got one from a local breeder.
So right now I am trying to decide between getting a male and female. I have read different arguments between both and I am a bit conflicted. On one hand I want a female because I hear that female dogs tend to have of a bit more of a compassionate attitude towards male owners. But at the same time, they tend to be the Alphas in their packs so a female corgi may be harder to train at first.
As for males, my concern is that they tend to pee on things more often even after fixed, but I also want a male dog because some of the cooler names I came up with (Id feel bad giving a girl corgi a boy name for some reason)
My other question, is when is it ok to start leaving the corgi at home by itself for a full work day? My wife and I work the same 8-5 shift, and I am trying to figure out I should do about this. I know as they get older its not an issue, but what do I do about the puppy days? I was thinking of getting a dog sitter, but I want to know about how long I would need one.
And finally, how long can I walk a corgi with out a break? I live in Seattle and I go to Greenlake a lot, and it is a 3 mile walk. Will a corgi be able to walk that far with out many breaks? I know its a strange question but my wife wants me to ask.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Is the breeder experienced? If so, don't be too concerned about gender. Tell the breeder what you are looking for and what your personality is like and let the breeder pick the best pup for you out of that particular litter. Several breeders I have talked to have said if they could have only one dog, they'd have a male. But that's a generalization and the individual dog's personality is more important than gender.
Of my two, my female is more cuddly, more submissive, but much less in tune with our moods and less likely to think things through. My male is bossy and stubborn, and not a cuddler at all, but also more sensitive and tends to think before he acts. But again, those are personality traits and not gender traits. My personal experience is that males are more inclined to try to please you and females more inclined to look out for what's best for themselves, but again each dog is different. Best to choose the puppy and not the gender. Another thing to consider is whether you plan on adding a second dog later; it's generally easy to bring a girl into a boy's existing home than vice-versa.
Males DO tend to pee on things but most won't mark in their own home so this is only a concern if you plan on visiting other homes with your dog. The upside is that males are not picky about where they potty and if you've ever wandered outside endlessly in a rainstorm, or when you had a 103-degree fever and the flu, waiting for a picky female to find a spot to pee you would be thrilled with the male who lifted his leg on the nearest tall blade of grass!
I always thought I preferred females but now if I had to have just one dog I would probably lean towards a male, all else being equal.
An adult Corgi can easily walk 3 miles (or more if conditioned for it) with no break as long as it's not really hot out. A puppy under a year to 18 months should not go that far. That's true of most breeds, not just Corgis. Off-leash play and lots of shorter walks are safer for dogs with open growth plates.
As far as leaving alone, is it possible for someone to come home at lunch? We found the ideal setup for a puppy is a round exercise pen linked to a crate. What you can do then is put newspapers down over the entire bottom of the pen. After a week or so you can reduce the papered area to half the pen, then about a third. DON'T use puppy-pads. The papers reduce run-off but still leave a wet spot the puppy won't like, and so pup will try to hold it to avoid the wet spot. If you can come home at lunch, you will find that after a month or two pup will usually hold it til lunch time. After pup has dry papers for a couple weeks you can then remove them.
The pen leaves room for a water bowl (some pups play in water and need a large hamster-type bottle instead) and some safe toys as well as a clean spot to get away if there is tummy upset and an accident. It's still small enough, though, to encourage age-appropriate cleanliness. It's really not a great idea to leave a puppy crated for 8 or 9 hours during the day and then crate again at night. Since a sleeping pup will remain dry longer than an awake one, what we did was crate at night and ex-pen in the day. We kept this up til pup was a year or so old. The great thing is that once ex-penned trained, it's a good solution if you have, say, workers at the house or a dog recovering from surgery. I got the tip from two breeders and really prefer it to a crate.If no one can come home at lunch, it's still safe to leave pup confined all day but housebreaking will be much, much harder because it will be a good seven months or so til pup can hold urine for 8 hours and since he'll be peeing for so many months in the pen, he might never get the idea that it's preferable to go outside. It's also not desirable to leave pup confined with the ammonia of the urine for such a long time and if there is no chance to come home at lunch OR use a dog-walker, you will have a much harder time house-breaking.
Good luck with your new pup!
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By the way, puppies can hold urine in general for as many hours as they are old in months, plus one.
So a three-month old pup can hold it for 3 to 4 hours if properly confined, but will need to go at least once an hour when loose, awake and playing.
A 30-inch tall ex-pen like this one should be high enough for a Corgi.
http://www.amazon.com/Midwest-Black-Exercise-Pen-Inches/dp/B000H8YTJI
You'll need brass snaps to attach it to the crate, if it doesn't come with them. A good investment is a cheap piece of vinyl flooring (found in a big-box store) to put underneath it; it will protect your real floors, though be careful no edges are inside the pen or pup will likely chew it. If you have the space (we used our breakfast nook) it's an ideal solution; you can set it up far enough from any wood trim to avoid having your house gnawed to pieces.
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Permalink Reply by Ginny and Diggory on
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I'd have to say from my experience, I have a female, and while she's very assertive / bossy / stubborn, she's also really affectionate. She's also IN LOVE with my Dad. Going to Grandpa's house is literally the highlight of her life. She really likes men in general. I agree with Beth that it is probably much more about the individual puppy than whether they are a boy or girl. I think if you have your puppy fixed early, they'll be much less likely to mark inside. Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by justine moeller on
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If the breeder is fairly good she will not allow you to choose a dog based on gender but will in fact help you pick a dog suited to your personality. Each pup in the litter will have a different personality and the breeder will get to know each one over the time she/he raises the puppies. We have two boys, both loving, cuddly, affectionate (one likes to mark territory in other place, the GOOD one actually) but not at home. The female corgis we have fostered were all very loving, smart, sweet but were all fairly dominant. Important to note that these dogs were all rescues and did not have the best life prior so I am not sure if that was life experience or gender. I presume life experience. If you are getting a puppy you will have time to train it properly so I wouldnt worry about which gender would be more likely to act compassionately towards a male owner.
PLEASE dont pick a gender based on names you have picked out that you like!!! :) Go with personality and energy level, it will pay off in the end! :)
Good Luck!
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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on
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I second this. We did not get to pick Al. Carrie picked him for us.
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We have Al & Gwynnie. Al is somewhat more "cuddly"; I dunno if this is a gender thing. Gwynnie is a good lap-dog too, but more independent. Al seems more attentive. We've never had a problem with Al marking in the house. We've had 3 corgies, 2 females, 1 male. Each has had a remarkably different personality.
We regularly walk around Greenlake from Maple Leaf hill (6 mi. roundtrip) without any "breaks" other than the many scratch 'n sniff breaks. For that matter, you can walk a corgi for 23 miles in 14 hours with 8000' of elevation gain without many breaks. The only time I have to wait for these dogs is above timberline in summer without shade; like any dog, they can wilt in the heat. You have to be an athlete to be able to outwalk a corgi.
They do need exercise. We're lucky; a local playground is mostly fenced, we poach there discreetly and play soccer til they're panting and tired.
Get on touch with me. Our breeder has a litter due in May (her first in a coupla years). We're gonna go and squeeze some fur -- just window-shopping -- when the puppies are ripe.
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Yes, our breeder did firmly tell me "No big physical challenges or long hikes until 1 year old."
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Permalink Reply by Potus on
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We wanted a male dog when we started looking for a Corgi (and we got one) but thinking about it now we can't remember why we were so set on a boy. In my experience with my dog, Potus, he has only ever marked twice inside. He has never done it in our house but did pee on the corner of my friends couch (though we think he was peeing where a puppy had peed earlier) and once in a pet store.
I can't comment on compassion for male owners in terms of boy vs. girl but Potus loves my brother, though he's not the primary carer. He plays with him well and gets excited when he comes home. As for leaving the puppy for whole days, everyone else has really covered what I was going to say. Potus was never crate trained (it doesn't seem as 'big' a thing here in Australia as it is in the US) just confined to the kitchen. Definitely have a scrap piece of lino under wherever the puppy is confined to though unless you have indestrutible floors as Po ripped up part of our lino floor, though he's grown out of that.
And definitely trust John's advice in relation to hiking, his hikes with Al & Gwynnie are awe inspiring.
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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on
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I agree with everyone else about letting the breeder pick the gender. I think all of us will have different experiences with different genders mostly based on the individual dog's personality. I personally would never get a female. I have had 3 female dogs in the past (not corgis though) and ALL of them were much more independent and didn't really care to please the owner all that much. I have also had 3 males, all of which would risk life and limb to make all of the family members happy. I don't think a female dog would be any more compassionate to a male owner, I think that it is just based on how the dog is raised. Two of my male dogs were raised mostly by my dad and I and both of them were very very attached and affectionate toward my dad more than my mom since she didn't play a very big role in their training. My corgi now is IN LOVE with my dad even though I (female) did all of his training and my parents only see him on a very occasional (think every few months) basis. Franklin doesn't seem to care whether you are male or female, he loves EVERYONE equally, be it man, woman, baby, dog, cat, horse, you name it!
I also have to point out, the whole peeing thing is 100% a training issue. Male dogs will only mark everything if they are allowed to. I have NEVER EVER EVER had a problem with marking in any of my male dogs. All are neutered and all have been taught marking will not be tolerated. I have never had a male mark inside a house, EVER! I have also trained the kennel dogs at my school that it is not ok to mark, even when they were recently neutered adult males. It is a very easy thing to teach a male dog not to mark, and honestly I have had more problems with females marking in my house than males. My friends female corgi constantly comes into my house and marks all over (it is not peeing, its marking). And my chihuahua female and german shepherd female also exhibited marking behavior, and I think this is mostly because we never trained them not to do it because we didn't really think females marked like males do. So you shouldn't exclude a gender strictly based on marking behavior, if you don't allow them to pee on every single blade of grass they walk by, they won't. If they learn early on it is not an ok behavior, as adults they won't even attempt it. My male dogs rarely, if ever, even lift their legs, they still squat to pee most of the time.
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I agree they can be taught not to mark inside, though one can't assume a dog will generalize; mine is ok in strange houses but will mark in PetSmart, for instance.
As far as outside and whether or not they squat or mark: everything I've read suggests that neutering eliminates urine-marking in about 50 to 60% of dogs. If yours is one of the lucky ones, he'll mostly squat. If not, he'll mostly lift. Jack was neutered at 6 months. He started lifting his leg to pee a few weeks before he was neutered and has never squatted since. If he really has to go he sort of lifts one leg and humps his back a bit to pee. Outside he's a prolific marker unless he's on "heel" on a walk. My friend has two neutered males, a Collie and an American Eskimo. The Eski marks like crazy and the Collie nearly always squats. Growing up we had a lab who was mostly a squatter. Again, outside I think it's more a case of how much the neuter reduce sex-related behaviors. My neutered male also still is fascinated by females in heat, so... well, it's just hard to predict.
We go to nursing homes and I must say I do watch him like a hawk and don't allow him to sniff any vertical surfaces.
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Permalink Reply by Carolyn and Gracie on
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Everybody's different but I can't imagine walking a Corgi 23 miles. My corgi tore ligaments in both knees before she was 3. I have no idea why. She was just running around in the backyard like dogs do. So after two surgeries to the tune of $6K we take it easy and when we go for a walk and she sits down and smiles up at me, I know it's time to turn around and go home.
I came home at lunch for my dog when she was a puppy. I think a crate is enough if it's big enough. Mostly they'll sleep while you're gone anyway. Now she has a doggy door and the run of the house. Not one accident yet. I still come home at lunch...mostly so we can play together.
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Permalink Reply by Jane on
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If you're not dead set on a certain gender I would just let the breeder help you choose a puppy. Although I have heard a couple of people say that they would never get another female after having a male, lol. In general females tend to be more dominant and independent, but there are always exceptions. I've never heard of females being more compassionate towards male owners. Pems are usually pretty outgoing and will love just about everyone.
If you're not able to come home during lunch to take the puppy out, I would do as Beth suggested and use an xpen attached to their crate. It's not really fair to expect a young puppy to hold it 9 hours, so there should be some place for them to relieve themselves away from their crate. I don't think a puppy will be able to hold it that long until they are at least 6-7 months old.
A 3 mile walk is totally doable for an adult, but I would wait until they're at least a year old so their bones and joints have time to develop without too much strain on them. It's recommended to keep their walks to about a mile until then.
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