Free Puppy Training Tips: Help a Corgi Learn Good Manners

For this Omaha puppy training session we worked with eight-month-old Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Gracie.

Her guardian scheduled this puppy training session to help Gracie stop doing some common, unwanted puppy behaviors. These included barking, jumping up on people, mouthing, nipping, and chewing. Her guardian also wanted to teach Gracie to come and train her to stop pulling on the leash.

Gracie was very excited when I arrived for the session. She jumped on me, barked, and ran in circles. It was hard for her guardians to calm her down or stop her excited behavior.

Easy Puppy Training Tips

I tried to sit down with her guardian and her mother who watches Gracie during the week. Gracie kept jumping up and barking so after a few minutes I pulled out a leash and gave her a leash time out. As soon as I put her on the leash and stepped on it to prevent her from running about, the barking stopped.

During my talk with the guardians, I learned Gracie had remarkably few rules. She ate people food and received pets whenever she wanted. If someone stopped petting her, she would nip or mouth at them.

Fortunately, Gracie is still a puppy so these unwanted behaviors haven’t been going on very long. Usually behaviors and habits that have been going on a long while are hardest to stop.

I suggested that the guardians begin to set rules and limits, and start practicing petting with a purpose. This will help Gracie see them as authority figures. It will also help the guardians practice being good caregivers.

Just like a young child, puppies often want things that are not good for them. Additionally they don’t always know what they need at the time. If you have ever seen a parent argue with a child about nap time, you know what I mean.

How to Train a Dog to Come

Later in the session, I showed the guardians how to train a dog to come. I noticed that Gracie would get up and move away. She did this instead of letting the guardian scratch her under the chin. This is a result of the guardian snatching Gracie up at times she didn’t want to come or cooperate.

While sometimes you have to do this, repeatedly trapping or snatching a puppy can erode their trust in us. While it’s clear Gracie loves her humans, I knew I needed to show her how to fix this problem.

I had the human hold out a treat between her thumb and forefinger then let the dog chew little pieces off. We tried to touch under the chin while this was going on, but this proved too much or too early for Gracie. We kept at it, and after some patience, the guardian was eventually able to touch her under her chin. It was only a second before Gracie moved away; but still, progress.

I gave instructions on how a guardian should continue this exercise. This will help Gracie become comfortable with being touched. If a person practices this a few times a day at Gracie’s pace, they can rebuild trust. This will help stop the dog from running away.

The good news is once we changed the command word from “come” to “here,” Gracie picked up on it right away. With some practice on the come exercise and avoiding snatching, Gracie will soon run to anyone who calls her.

We wrapped up the session by going over Gracie’s roadmap to success which you can watch in the video below.