Watch-Corgi? What heroics have your corgis engaged?
OMG! Cassie just scared a prowler off!
I'm sitting here laboring over the accursed computer (a device that allows work to expand to fill 24 hours of any 7 days of the week you would like) when I hear some tapping and a little whack out toward the front of the Funny Farm.
It's a gorgeous day (sorry, Mid-Westerners and Down-Easterners) and I have the front door hanging open. There's a super-hardened security door out front, installed after the Late Great Garage Invasion episode (we do, after all, live in Crime Central), and the deadbolt designed to break the burglar's drill bit is locked, so I'm not especially concerned by stray noises. Besides, it's Saturday and the neighbor's unruly teenagers often bat around in front when the weather's nice.
I look up from the monitor. Cassie is listening. She's practically on point.
Then there's one more whack, and she goes ABSOLUTELY FREAKING BATSH!T. She ROARS out to the living-room, mad as a flaming dragon and ready to kill.
Naturally, my pistol is locked up. (Why do I do that?) But the coyote shilelagh, a mighty hefty stick, is next to the front door. Without thinking I chase after the rabid dog, who now has worked herself into a fury fully comparable to the rage that Greta the GerShep flew into when she caught a cat burglar in the house at 3 a.m., lo these many years ago.
By the time I dodder out there, our guest has excused himself. Presumably he's strolling up the alley, out of sight and, he hopes, out of mind. Good.
That was interesting. I've heard that corgis are utterly fearless and even will get themselves killed trying to protect their humans. But I've never seen her go into action before -- and she's lived here for a good five years.
It was a very German-shepherd-like performance, but the interesting thing is that Cassie's not especially Alsatianish: she's not suspicious of people, she's not aggressive, and she's not conspicuously protective. Now, Greta the Gershep, who was an old-line pre-popularity-ruined-the-breed German shepherd dog, pretty much fit Cassie's psychological profile, although she did distinguish between strangers that were harmless and strangers she thought were not so benign. Cassie does not: everyone is her friend.
Gersheps of more recent acquaintance, though, have been very different animals: wary of strangers, dog-aggressive, trigger-sensitive, and capable of homicidal rage.
I've had German shepherds do some amazing protection of their little flock, the cat burglar episode being only one. Greta once saved my son's life. Anna chased a mentally ill neighbor out of the yard in the aftermath of a quarrel between him and the ex-boyfriend. And on and on. But all of these incidents depended on the dog's size and the fact that when a 90-pound dog gets itself worked up, it can be truly terrifying (and, in the case of the kid rescue, very powerful).
What can a 23-pound corgi do? Other than bark, that is. Do you have any True Corgi Rescue Tales?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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This past summer while walking around the RV campground with our 70lb doberman and my little, very mild mannered 25lb corgi, Izzy, we were rushed by a huge German Shepard that was intent on eating our doberman. The dobie stayed behind my husband who was kicking furiously at the GSD while Izzy rushed around before I could stop her and started biting at the GSD's back legs. Fortunately the dog's owner came out and grabbed her dog before Izzy was hurt. I would never have pegged Izzy as a dog that would take on anything but she showed me that even though she is a total Diva normally she is quite capable of being protective! So glad you are safe too!
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Permalink Reply by Vicky Hay on
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A neighbor's Ger-Shep pounced Cassie. Grabbed her by the neck and tried to snap her spine, but the corgi had so much fur in her main that the shepherd couldn't get a good enough grip. Shep's moron humans came along and dragged it away -- it being allowed to run loose in the street off-leash. Afterward, one of my readers at FaM explained that the way to defuse an attacking dog (assuming you're not the attackee) is to grab its hind legs, lift off the ground, and start circling.
This sounds pretty scary...what happens when you run out of circling steam, or when the GerShep realizes you're an idiot and decides to rid the planet of you? At any rate, others chimed in agreeing that this is a viable strategy.
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Permalink Reply by Roger/Laurie on
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Our Tenby would take on "anything" if he thought I was in danger. He is very protective, now Chepstow is the opposite, the world is his friend.
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Permalink Reply by Doglover on
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I think I have an atypical corgi. While she exhibits the typical corgi behavior of being stubborn, bossy, and with a mind of her own, she's a timid one when it comes to protection. She never barks at strangers (although she's never shy about barking up a storm to tell us what to do), and is afraid of anything new/unusual. She's afraid of bubble wrap, runs away in fear if I wave a carrot at her. Our 5-lb Maltese puppy is a much better guard dog than she is. As our 7-month old Maltese is charging forward fearlessly at an unusual sound, unaware of his small size, our Corgi is running away in the opposite direction, with her ears flattened. Go figure!
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That is hilarious! Those dog-eating carrots...you never can be too careful!
They say a Maltese can be fairly lively. It sounds like that's so, at least around your house!
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Permalink Reply by Denis J. on
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Nothing to report, other than I beleive Wally would hold his own easily. I often bring him to the dog park and he plays with Boxers, German Shep, Great Danes and anything that is 2X-3X and 4X his size. He likes to get in a middle of a skirmish wrestle as the referree. I need to find him a little black and white stripped jersey.. :)
But we walk in the local park often at night with only a flashlight or just the glow of the moon. If bright enough we venture into snow shoe trails and sometime we hear a few cracks in the bushes or around us. Plenty of deers, jackrabbits, porcupines and other critters that keep to themselves.
But he never flinches and keeps an attentive ear to what's the sound about. I would have never seen myself venturing in any woods at night but we got us to it. They way he can jump out of bed and bark at what's happening outside, sometimes it makes our heart jump a beat. :)
Although I have to say that the first time he saw a couples of horses pulling a carriage in the trails, he completely freaked out. He was only about 6 months at the time but he cried and cried by seeing them coming. Maybe it was the sounds of bells that freaked him out too but we pulled the side in the branches and I held him close to me petting him down to calm him.
We heard the same horses last weekend but I haven't attempted to expose him again to those beasts.
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That's amazing. Cassie also seems unafraid of large dogs, although she wasn't pleased by getting pounced by the idiot neighhbors' GerShep. Fortunately, they were renters and they moved out a day or so later...heh...prob'ly thought they could get out of town ahead of my lawyers. :-D
I don't go in the park at night -- it's way too dangerous. Women have been assaulted there, and at least one has been raped that I know of. But we do walk in the neighborhood (which is silly: crazies don't have to confine themselves to parks at night). I carry a big walking stick made of a weighty hardwood with a loop that goes over my arm, making it hard to snatch away -- ostensibly to discourage coyotes (of which we do have a-plenty) but in fact as a defense against two-legged predators.
Cassie's not afraid of horses -- we have horse property in the neighborhood -- but then, she's never seen a horse in action. She probably thinks their function is to amble over to fences and sniff at humans and small dogs.
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Permalink Reply by Rachael & Waffle on
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We went camping on a 1.5 acre lot, a field surrounded by trees on three sides and the road on the fourth. A few months prior, a couple had been killed there by a random crazy guy who stumbled out of the woods. Also, there was a widlife management truck going up and down the street with a radar antenna and a box of bear bait in the back. So, there was a minimal risk of murderers and a real risk of bears being out there at night. Waffle spent the whole time we were out there patrolling the perimeter, stopping and listening, then barking a bark that made him sound 3-4 times bigger than his 32 pounds. He escorted people to and from the bathroom (a shack over a hole in the ground) and patrolled the outside of the bathroom while they were busy. Good boy.
Waffle sometimes barks when he's looking out the back door, but one time he starting HOWLING and running up and down and barking like someone was coming to get him. A HUGE dude--at least 6 feet tall and almost just as wide--entered our backyard unannounced and Waffle was responding to that. It was just our gas guy filling the tanks, but wow, if he had been a threat, he definitely wouldn't have snuck up on us.
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Permalink Reply by Julia on
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Just today Lilliput showed me that she will indeed protect me. I was in the living room, watching the new season of a show I won't mention (SPOILERS!) Two main characters were talking. One of them grabbed the other without warning and threw her under a subway train. I reacted with shock, visibly and audibly. Lilli saw my distress and instantly jumped up on my head and started licking my face all over, BLOCKING MY VIEW OF THE TV! She knew the source of my distress and threw herself between me and the danger. She is such a good, brave dog.
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That is hilarious.
And th'trouble is, knowing how smart these dogs are, it's even credible...
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Thankfully I've never had to test out what would happen, but Jack has two separate alarm barks: the usual "Who goes there?" when he hears something that he wants me to be aware of but he is not overly concerned about, and a much deeper, chestier, baying bark mixed with low growls when he's really angry about something. He is one who generally runs towards suspicious sounds, so I'm pretty sure he'd charge into any situation.
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