Corgis are beautiful creatures. They have a unique stout build with short legs. No doubt, corgis have incredible intelligence with aptness to pick up instructions and new tricks. They are excellent family companions. They can be very loyal too, once you have successfully established your dominance over them.
The high intelligence levels of corgis make them relatively easy to train. While they are very receptive to instructions, training corgis is not entirely a smooth process. Corgis retain a bit of self-dependency and can take their own paths at times. Patience and consistency are needed when training corgis so that they fully digest your commands or absorb the routine.
Training corgis can be an exciting journey. There is so much you can teach your corgi. But it is fundamental to pass your corgi through obedience training, showing it to respect you. How can you do this? How long does it take to train a corgi? Also, how do you solve their negative behaviors? Let us learn these and many more in this guide.
Teach Your Corgi to Respect You
Your corgi is unlikely to submit to your command if it doesn’t fundamentally respect you. Your whole relationship with your corgi (all through its lifespan) is built around this respect.
Of course, your corgi will not respect you spontaneously. It is a continuous process that needs persistence or consistency in application. From the first day your corgi pup is adopted or given birth to, you start building trust with it. Yes, this requires substantial devotion.
Strive to position yourself as the head of the dog pack. While you should know love to your corgi, you should let it know you call the shots and know you are serious when you give it orders.
You will establish respect when you don’t perpetually let your corgi pup go scot-free every time it flouts orders. It must sit when you tell it to sit. When you regularly allow your corgi to follow its bidding, it may learn to disregard your commands.
Training your corgi to respect you doesn’t necessarily mean a 100% authoritarian approach. Yes, be firm, but more importantly, be gentle with it. Don’t always reprimand your corgi violently. You want it to respect you, not fear you.
Corgi Training and Daily Routines
The daily training routine of your corgi is critical. When you adopt a corgi, you need to give it time to adapt to its new surroundings to reduce the stress-strain on it when you start its new routine.
You must let it know where it can always find its water and food. Also, it should readily locate its bed. The training routine should be consistent.
It is essential that exercise or training is not too close to its bedtime. It should also know when it should wake for the day.
Being active dogs with high energy levels, you can train your corgi for more than 30 minutes daily and exercise it as well. It may take some time before your corgi fully adapts to its daily routine.
Corgi Obedience Training
Every training you would give to your corgi along the line is founded on how well your corgi takes its obedience training. In the obedience training, you establish your superiority over your corgi.
This should be done patiently and subtly, so they respect you.
In the obedience training, you can teach your corgis basics like “Stop” and “No”. This way, your corgi starts learning which behaviors you approve of and those you condemn.
The good news is that corgis learn very quickly. We have noticed that corgis have a penchant for absorbing obedience training quickly. This is so long you adopt a blend of firmness and friendliness in your training approach.
Don’t reward your corgis every time they do well. This way, whether you reward your corgi or not, it will sustain the positive habits you want. Also, consistently rewarding your corgi with treats at any interval it does well might leads to obesity.
Leash training is also a core part of your corgi’s obedience training. This should be done immediately you get them home. A leash is important when you walk them outdoors. You can walk them in just any direction. It is inconsequential.
Solving Behavior Problems
Corgis aren’t perfect behaviorally. They have some negative habits you may need to solve. Let us explore some.
Excessive Barking
One of the most frequent behavioral problems with corgis is excessive barking. First, if your corgi appears to be barking too much, some underlying factors could be triggering it.
It could be that your corgi is trying to alert you to an unusual happening. It could be that it is just seeking attention, or it is just excited.
Your corgis can also bark excessively if it is too bored or experiencing anxiety. Nevertheless, you must control this overwhelming barking. You can train your corgi to accept the “stop barking” command or sign. This may take time and dedication.
Canine Separation Anxiety
This is another behavioral problem you may need to correct in your corgi. Remember, the corgi is an emotional dog that needs sustained human attention. If you leave your canine far too alone, it may develop separation anxiety issues.
Sadly, this may deteriorate into other negative habits like chewing, extreme barking, or urinating and defecating in the wrong spots. There are some apparent symptoms of separation anxiety in your corgi.
You may notice an increased restlessness in your corgi anytime you are preparing to leave. If your corgi starts misbehaving within 15-45 minutes after you leave, it is a strong sign of separation anxiety. You may detect this by installing surveillance cameras.
Indeed, you can solve such separation anxiety by taking your corgi for a walk before you leave. You can increase the rigorousness of the trail by adding a dog backpack enhanced with additional weights.
This would wear its energy levels down when you are leaving, making it need far less attention. You can also reward the submissiveness of your dog (to allowing you to leave) with some treats.
Socializing Your Puppy or Adult Dog
Socializing your corgi goes a long way in its training. Preferably, you should socialize your corgi early enough as a puppy. Nonetheless, if you adopted an adult corgi, you shouldn’t still relent in socializing it.
Socialization combined with dedicated training reduces your corgi’s propensity to herd people – especially nipping at the heels of kids.
Over time, your corgi will get accustomed to the company of people, reducing its discomfort around strangers. Such irritation around strangers could prompt aggression or extreme barking.
Establish a Training/Exercise Schedule
Corgis have enormous amounts of energy and stamina. They require substantial exercise. Basically, your corgi needs a minimum of 60 minutes dedicated to exercise daily. This keeps from learning destructive behaviors or boredom.
The exercise schedule of your corgi should be built around daily walking, mental stimulation, and high-intensity exercise. Your corgi loves daily walks. You can walk it for about 30-45 minutes every day.
Daily walks may need to be augmented with high-intensity exercises due to the energetic nature of the corgi. We prescribe high-energy games to keep its muscles in great shape.
This may cut across strength training as well. These high-intensity games would sustain the strength of its muscles, giving the joints excellent support and protecting the tendons from injury.
The exercise routine of your corgi could also include mentally stimulating activities like puzzle toys and nose games like scenting.
Struggles of Training Corgis
As we said, training your corgi is not an entirely smooth adventure; there would be challenges along the way. We severely condemn harshly reprimanding your corgi when it goes wrong. Avoid hitting it or yelling at it perpetually.
Take note that corgis are brilliant dogs. While they are quick to learn commands and tricks, they can be dubious enough to manipulate you into ceding control to them.
They need patience as they are bit headstrong. A corgi would tend to do things its way. This inherent disobedience will melt away once your corgi accepts your superiority over it.
You shouldn’t take all of its independence – as a bit of that is connected to their brilliance. Nonetheless, your corgi must accept the nature of the leader-follower relationship between you two.
Common Mistakes Made While Training
There are many notorious mistakes we have seen people make when training corgis. Let us touch on some of them.
They Tend to be Inconsistent
Corgis are quite stubborn. They will not always accept your commands at a go. You need to apply it consistently, so it soaks into them. When you train a corgi, you shouldn’t make the mistake of teaching it two converse habits.
Don’t reward it for a habit today and reprimand it the next time it performs it. Such inconsistency would confuse it. This way, you may end up reinforcing undesirable behaviors in your corgis without evening knowing.
Once you make a rule to your corgi, stick to it. If you don’t want your corgi to lie on the couch, NEVER allow it to. Don’t pardon it at intervals. Your corgi may get baffled whether lying on the bed is wrong or not.
Corgi Owners Tend to be too Impatient
Corgis are intelligent, but sometimes training them takes time. Not all corgis will learn at an incredibly fast rate. Don’t get mad at your corgi. Otherwise, it could suffer stress and depression.
How Long Does it Take to Train a Corgi?
Ideally, your corgi training should take about 2-4 weeks. Given the inherent intelligence of the corgi, a combination of premium care, positive reinforcement, and attention should speed it through its training.
How Long Do You Need Every Day?
You should train your corgi at least 30-45 minutes every day.
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Mike is the Founder of Familylifeshare. Mike is well-knowledged in marriage, parenting, dogs, blogging and committed to sharing his knowledge and expertise with his readers. Know more about Mike from here.
