Sam and Frodo - Walking Clients

We have had corgis over the past 40 years and then we got Frodo and Sam… Can you say problems? Have always had one, but never two puppies at the same time and weren’t prepared for how hard it was to train these pups as opposed to having only one. We were told to not come to classes unless separately because the pups were too connected – that was not a good compromise (the cost was too great).

While walking our corgis in our neighbourhood, we’d heard about a “Donna” from several people on the block and after a few months of searching, ran into somebody that gave us the name of her enterprise – Polite Pups.  We searched and found the most amazing person that we have had the opportunity to come to know. Frodo and Sam at 1.5 years were being walked by her once a week and each and every time she brought them home, we would get a complete run down on what she had been working and how to continue their training during the days she was not working with them. We would also receive pictures of them during their walks and they both sure looked happy. It became they “loved” her more than us??  You mention her name and they were both at the door absolutely vibrating to meet up with her.

She worked both individually and simultaneously with them as one is reactive and the other is “normal.”  He barks just because his older half brother of 10 days is barking and has no idea what it is he is barking at (lol). Donna points out the differences in personalities between each dog and advises when we should allow certain behaviours and when not to. She also gave us key words and actions to be used when they didn’t listen. She (Donna) listens to what we tell her has gone on, so that she can have a plan of action during their walk.

We are going to hopefully be working with her further to de-sensitization Frodo from being so darn reactive and hyper alert. We know it will be a slow go but have faith that we’ll get there.

Another problem:  corgis do so HERD and these two are connected at the hip and brain, so dog parks are out of the question because people don’t seem to understand that these dogs do in fact herd everything and these two seem to have that instinct so deeply imbedded to the point, they like cutting horses with cattle only in tandem. This again is something we need to have worked on and I am certain she will get us there. Frodo and Sam are extremely smart and stubborn – that is the trait of a corgi, but she absolutely showers them with love no matter how stubborn they get, and they learn. And so do we.

Deb and Martin