How old is my Corgi?

I recently adopted a Cardigan from a shelter and they guessed his age at 1 year old, but I suspect he is younger. He is still very puppyish in his ways and quite submissive. We live in the mountains of Colorado, he has a nice coarse coat but no undercoat at all, and the fringe on his tail is still short. He was a bit skinny and weighed 20.6 Lbs. His head is bulky and seems large for his size, as if he still is growing into it, ears are large, but not huge. I am thinking he may be around 9 months old. I tried to find some data on growth rate in the Cardigans, but have not found anything regarding averages for age and size. Would love some feedback.

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Permalink Reply by Michelle on January 30, 2011 at 5:13pm

My male looked a little lanky and out of proportion at one year. He really did not look mature for quite a while. While all doggies mature at a different pace if you go to my page you will see a picture of me holding him at 5 months i would say he was roughly 20 to 23 pounds.

It is really hard to tell without more pics....but is your fellow broad in the chest? It appears that he is. I think you can safely expect him to grow into that chest and head....again JR looked very out of proportion until he "grew" into himself. I would say he was 14 - 16 months before he was reaching his potential and looking normal in scale to his large ears!!!

What do you mean by puppyish? Does he have a short attention span, chew, or just act silly? I can tell you that our male cardi is a silly willie still and he is 9 years old. Very vocal, very hyper when we first get home from work and the likes. They are just very unique characters....very unlike other dogs we have had.

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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on January 30, 2011 at 6:14pm

I will post pictures as soon as I get some close up. I'm starting to think he may be younger than I thought, rather than older... time will tell. How to explain puppyish? He has a naive quality that pups have and is puppyish in his interaction with my other dogs, will lick the muzzle ofm y older 10 yr.old gal, who is quite submissive herself. He is not destructive, but then he's not left unsupervised.

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Permalink Reply by Lucy & Ricky (Wendy/Jack ) on June 14, 2011 at 2:32am

Anna, in the scheme of things, I don't think his precise age matters. Corgi males stay puppies for at least 2 to 3 yrs. Some longer. We were told Rafa was 16 wks. by his previous owner, who had him on a diet! The vet refused to believe that he was 16 wks. bec. of the many baby teeth remaining. He is still very much a puppy at 15 mo. and gallops with a toy like a 15 wk old Corgi. He's very long, lanky and high in the leg. He's 30 lbs and still growing. He has no fat, and no chest to speak of yet. He's probably as long as a cardigan, but he gained weight very rapidly after we adopted him. Lucy is only 20 lbs. So, as you well know, a lot of variation in weight, depending on bone structure. I know Cardigans are typically several lbs bigger than Pems. But, it sounds like you have one great dog in Mowgli, whatever his age. When my 2nd dgt. was born, we were never sure if she was 2 wks early or 2 wks. late. Based on her weight, she was early. But, her skin was wrinkled like a post-mature baby, so she may have lost weight after she reached term in my womb. BTW, I always lie about my corgis ages. I can't stand the thought of them getting older, so w/o even thinking, I deduct a year or two. I'm very honest and ethical in every other way except allowing my Corgis to get old, as if I could stop time! So I don't even care about Rafa's real age. I make it up, haha! Everyone thinks Lucy is the puppy because she is so much smaller than him. She may be tiny but she's mighty, at least for now! There may be changes coming as Rafa is reaching, hardly maturity, but middle adolescence. I'll keep you posted. Enjoy talking to you!

PS Photos would help in assessing Mowgli's age. His head looks mature, but so did Rafa's as a puppy. Rafa was all EARS. We called him ears Florin. We never thought he'd grow into them, but he defied all odds (and gravity...they even stayed up w/o tape!).