Tobias is the perfect puppy outside of my home but at home he refuses to listen. We practice NILF, but now he won't do anything without a treat. He knows his verbal and physical cues and will do all of them for the tiniest of treats. But if you prompt him to do anything without a treat he won't listen. Petting and verbal praise does nothing for him, he will jump on you for a treat if you offer him nothing in food form. I ignore him after this, but then he won't listen even with treats after this. He almost never listens to my boyfriends commands, he always just lays down no matter what command is given.

The worst is at night before bed, he will run around and bark and bark and bark. We ignore him but then he will come and nip us, we give a firm no but he contests. He knows it's bedtime and after this 5 minute bark fest he will pass out and be fine. But even treats cannot get him to stop this. Now my neighbors (after a spat about their incredibly loud music every night) are now saying they hear him barking and running around all night. Which isn't true, he stays in our room and the door is closed so he can't be running around or barking as he would wake us. But this 5 minute bark session worries me as my neighbors have been harassing me about him.

In March Tobias will be attending intro training classes, we only waited so long because the classes offered last semester were only offered when we were in class, and the January section filled up. I would really like Toby to be a decent listener by the time he goes to his first class. Frankly, I'm embarrassed that at nine months he isn't more well behaved, but corgis are stubborn and we're not the most experienced in dog training.

What can I do to get him to listen better? We do practice NILF and ignore him when he barks, but I think we need some more advice.

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I had a corgi that was way too food motivated to give him treats for training and had to eliminate food treats except for the Come command. It was difficult at first but he learned that I was not going to give him food and still was able to be trained. You can use a leash in the house for the times when he is being too rambunctious. I wonder if you should increase his exercise? He may just need alot longer walks and will settle much better after at least two 45 minute or longer walks a day. That really helped with mine. Also try training tricks at this point because it is great mental exercise.  There are lots of methods described on the internet. Use a play session or favorite toy as a reward. Good luck, he sounds like alot of fun.

The problem with long walks is it has been very cold in Maine, Toby doesn't seem to like it for very long, I can't make it around the block before he's ready to turn around and cries. In the summer he wouldn't want to stop walking, he'd refuse to turn down our street and want to keep going. Lately it's been negative with the wind chill, so neither him or I enjoy the outdoors for too long. We play fetch forever when it's reasonable to have him running around (or when the neighbors are playing their dub step music so loud at night). We have been working on new tricks, he knows how to do a cute spin and fist bump on command. We are currently working on bow since he naturally does it whenever we take him out. Any other stimulating tricks to learn besides roll? He doesn't like the assist part in learning roll, so he hasn't been successful with it.
There is a way to treat that should eliminated this. Think of it this way; if you put a dollar in a vending machine, you expect your soda or snack every time, right? And if the machine doesn't always give you your soda or snack, you won't use that machine any more.

But a SLOT machine: well, with a slot machine, sometimes you put in a quarter and get nothing. Sometimes you get a nickel. And sometimes you get $100. So if you put money in the slot and get nothing out, you'll still keep trying.

So, what you have learned is you have trained your dog to work for a pay day, and if he doesn't get his pay check, he won't work.

What you WANT him to think is he's at the casino. :-) That means sometimes he'll get a treat, and sometimes he won't get a treat, but sometimes he'll get LOTS of REALLY GOOD treats, and he does not know which is which til after he's performed.

Keep treats in a drawer or something, not on your person. And sometimes reward him, sometimes not, but sometimes give him ten or twelve small treats in a row, and sometimes make it cheese or liver or something.

Also, sometimes use toys and ALWAYS use verbal praise.
By the way, what I described is called "random reward" and it's more effective than consistent reward in maintaining or improving behaviors. Consistent reward (every time) should only be used when you are first teaching a new behavior.

Oh yeah, the cold makes it harder. With my very active corgi I used to play fetch for about 10 minutes a few times a day. Also, practice the tricks too. My current corgi, Izzy, prefers sleeping and being petted so doesn't need the stimulation.

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