The Corgi is a beautiful sight, low to the ground with ears pointed upwards! Many different people enjoy having these animated little dogs as a companion. Corgis can live in almost any household, whether it be an apartment or a big house with a yard. They are adaptable and love the whole family.
Size
Weighting no more than 30 pounds, Pembroke Welsh Corgis stand between 10 and 12 inches tall at the shoulders.
Personality
Even though they are still used as working dogs, Pembroke Welsh Corgis are now mostly kept as family pets. They have a reputation for being joyful, devoted, and intelligent, but they can also have a tendency to be stubborn or independent. They are easy to train but don’t expect you to be obedient to Pembroke. They enjoy developing original thought.
Food is a great motivator for them when they are being trained, even though they want to please their owners. Proceed with caution: Pembrokes love to eat and can become obese if their food intake isn’t moderated.
Pembrokes are also effective watchmen. They can be wary of strangers and are quick to bark if they perceive a threat to their family or home.
Like every dog, the Pembroke needs early socialization — exposure to many different people, sights, sounds, and experiences — when they’re young. Your Pembroke puppy will develop into a more well-rounded dog with the help of socialization.
Health
Although Pembrokes are generally in good health, they are susceptible to some health issues like all breeds. Even though not all Pembrokes will contract any or all of these illnesses, it’s still important to be aware of them if you’re thinking about getting one.
If you’re buying a puppy, find a good breeder who will show you health clearances for both your puppy’s parents. A dog has been examined and found to be free of a specific condition, as shown by a health clearance.
Disease
Hip Dysplasia
The thighbone doesn’t fit snugly into the hip joint due to this inherited condition. On one or both of their rear legs, some dogs exhibit pain and lameness, while others don’t show any overt signs of discomfort. (The best way to identify the issue is through an X-ray screening.) In either case, as the dog ages, arthritis can appear.
Ask the breeder for documentation that the parents have undergone hip dysplasia testing and have come back negative if you’re buying a puppy because dogs with this condition shouldn’t be bred.
Cataracts
Poor vision is the result of this condition’s opacity on the eye’s lens. It will appear as though the dog’s eye(s) is cloudy. Cataracts usually occur in old age and sometimes can be surgically removed to improve vision
Cutaneous Asthenia
This condition, also known as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, dermatosparaxis, or dominant collagen dysplasia, results in the skin having weak, stretchy, and fragile connective tissue. Additionally, blood vessels are impacted, which causes excessive bruising and blood blisters.
Cystinuria
High levels of a protein called cystine are excreted in the urine under these circumstances, which may signal the development of stones. Usually, only men experience this issue.
Degenerative Myelopathy (Dm)
The lower back’s supporting and nervous tissues of the spinal cord are deteriorating gradually in this condition. It frequently goes undiagnosed as disk disease and results in rear leg lameness, weakness, and eventually paralysis.
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a neurological condition that’s often, but not always, inherited. It can cause mild or severe seizures, which may manifest as strange behavior (such as running frantically as though being pursued, staggering, or hiding) or even by falling down, limbs rigid, and losing consciousness.
Although watching a seizure can be terrifying, dogs with idiopathic epilepsy typically have a very good long-term outlook. As seizures can have other causes, it’s crucial to take your dog to the vet for a proper diagnosis and treatment.
Intervertebral Disk Disease
Pembrokes are vulnerable to spinal disk ruptures because of their long backs. Unsteadiness, difficulty moving around on furniture and stairs, knuckling over limbs, weakness, and paralysis are some symptoms.
Patent Ductus Arteriosus With Pulmonary Hypertension
Unoxygenated blood can bypass the lungs due to PDA, a vascular system congenital defect. Usually, it is found in puppies when they are being examined by a veterinarian. Pulmonary hypertension is high blood pressure within the lungs and is a rare part of the PDA disease that can be treated surgically.
Progressive Retinal Atrophy
PRA is a family of eye diseases that involves the gradual deterioration of the retina. Affected dogs develop night blindness early in the illness; as it worsens, they begin to lose their daytime vision. As long as their surroundings don’t change, many affected dogs are able to adjust to having less or no vision.
- Retinal Dysplasia: This is an abnormal development of the retina. Blindness may occasionally result from the retina detaching.
- Von Willebrand’s Disease: This blood condition, which affects clotting and can be found in both humans and dogs, affects both. The symptoms of an affected dog include nosebleeds, bleeding gums, prolonged bleeding following surgery, prolonged bleeding throughout heat cycles or after whelping, and occasionally blood in the stool. This condition can’t be cured and is typically diagnosed between the ages of three and five. Treatment options include cauterizing or suturing wounds, giving blood transfusions prior to surgery, and avoiding certain medications.
Care
Athletic and surprisingly fast, Pembrokes were bred to be herding dogs and require plenty of exercises each day. That said, they make fine apartment dogs as long as they get the physical stimulation they need.
They shouldn’t be expected to hop up onto (or down from) the couch or any other modest height; fractures are common due to their short legs and long backs.
Pems can easily transition to a rural or urban lifestyle. They can survive in most climates thanks to their weather-resistant coats, but because they are so people-oriented, they must always be with the family and should never be left outside by themselves.
Feeding
3/4 to 1 is the suggested daily intake. 5 cups of high-quality dry food a day, divided into two meals.
The amount of food your adult dog consumes is influenced by his size, age, build, metabolism, and level of activity. Dogs are individuals, just like people, and they don’t all require the same amount of food. It almost goes without saying that an active dog will require more than one who prefers to lounge around.
It also matters what kind of dog food you buy because better dog food will nourish your dog more effectively and require you to add less of it to the bowl.
