There are many situations you will have to go through until you fully get to know your dog. Corgis are a tricky bread, and they can sometimes surprise you – and not in a good way.
You might have tried to pick up and cuddle your Corgi on a lazy afternoon just to get an angry growl as an answer from your cute puppy. What is this display of aggression, and what does it mean? Is your dog just not fond of cuddling? Do Corgis hate being picked up in general?
We know what you’re thinking – impossible! Your cute little fluff can’t hate being picked up. They are a beautiful breed that’s basically made for soft hugs! Well, you might be in for a surprise.
Don’t worry, we’ll explain ourselves. It is kind of a complicated subject. Any dog can show aggression, no matter how cute. So you really shouldn’t put it past your Corgi. But let’s firstly answer the main question so that we can continue without the suspense:
Do Corgis Hate Being Picked Up?
Well, the most straightforward answer would be NO; Corgis don’t hate being picked up. There really is no specific breed that hates getting picked up.
Some dogs might find it a bit strange, especially the big ones. Let’s face it; if you randomly pick up an 80-pound Mastiff, it might think that there’s something weird going on!
But we’re not talking about giant breeds here; we’re talking about the adorable short-legged Corgi. Why would they find it so strange to get picked up? Well, it depends on the situation, really.
Understanding Your Dogs Behaviour
The first thing that we must mention is that your dog will never show aggression for no reason. It will not show any emotion or have a response to a situation randomly. If your dog seems angry or scared of being picked up – there’s an underlying reason for that.
So what could that reason be? Well, there are multiple situations in which your Corgi might not be down for getting picked up (pun intended).
The first and most important thing you need to eliminate from the list is physical pain. An illness can cause this, or your dog could have injured itself somehow. The response to this won’t always be aggression, and it might be a lot more subtle than that.
If your dog is usually okay with you carrying it around but is suddenly terrified of the idea and makes a distressful sound once you touch it – you should contact your vet.
With that out of the way, we move on to behavioral problems. You need to figure out what the situation was in which your dog reacted negatively to getting picked up.
The most common case is territorial and possessive behavior. If your Corgi gets carried around like a baby all day long but growls at you once you try to pick it up and move it off the bed – you have a possessive dog.
Don’t worry, though; it’s not the end of the world. While it may seem scary to see your cute Corgi show its teeth instead of the usual dose of cuteness – this problem can be solved relatively easily.
Your dog is simply trying to tell you that this is his bed and that you shouldn’t touch it. This may be a bit awkward, considering that it’s probably your bed and that you would like to sleep on it.
A lot of people will try and punish this and maybe put the dog in another room for the night. We have to stress that we don’t recommend you punish your dog in any extreme or violent way. We know that it may seem like it will work, and maybe it seems like it already worked if you tried this method in the past.
But we can assure you, your dog did not learn not to do something because it was punished. All it learned is that it should be afraid of you, and that’s not a good thing.
Getting your dog out of the room can be a good idea, but you should be prepared for a night of crying in this case, especially if you have a young Corgi in the house! They are a loud breed, and they will try their best to let you know that they’re not satisfied with their sleeping position!
To be honest, crying is kind of inevitable. But you have to stand your ground if you want it to stop permanently.
If you have a part of the room that is fenced off, put your dog there. Make sure that it’s comfortable for your Corgi there; the point of this is for it actually to want to be in its part of the room. You can’t expect to be happy with sleeping in a dark, empty corner after all!
Now, we know that it may seem crazy to think of your dog not sharing a bed with you. But giving in to a possessive and territorial dog brings more harm than good. This is why this behavior shouldn’t be rewarded. And when you give in to aggression, you’re rewarding the aggression!
See Also: Why Does My Corgi Hate Me?
How To Teach Your Dog To Cuddle?
So now we know that there may be some sort of behavioral problem that you need to deal with. But what about when your Corgi just plain doesn’t like to get picked up?
Well, if this is the case, then your Corgi probably just doesn’t know how to cuddle! This is usually the case with young puppies, as older dogs rarely develop a hesitance toward cuddling out of the blue.
The most likely scenario is that your puppy just hasn’t been around humans that often. It could be that it was separated from its family a bit sooner than it should have.
While this usually ends in a dog that has problems with separation anxiety, it can go the other way too. Again, this is not the end of the world. Your Corgi can learn how to cuddle with humans, we promise. And once your puppy’s ready for cuddling, you’ll be picking up the fluffer all the time!
It’s all about working one step at a time. Your puppy just doesn’t understand what exactly you want from it when you try to cuddle; you have to show your intentions. Well, we say show, but just like with all other doggy training, it’s all about the reward!
If you reward a specific behavior, your dog notes that it’s a good one, simple as that. So when it is scared of being too close to humans, you can imagine that it helps if you offer it a tasty treat.
But making these kinds of connections in your Corgis brain, you are slowly getting it to think that cuddling equals rewards. Now, this may sound a bit strange, as if you need to bribe your puppy; but that’s not what the rewards are for.
See, if a young puppy doesn’t want to cuddle or get picked up, it’s probably because it’s scared of the action. By rewarding the times when fear is not present, we show the dog that there’s nothing scary about getting picked up by a human!
We have to mention that you really need to be calm while doing this. If your dog doesn’t want to get picked up, it’s going to let you know. It will wiggle out of your hand, and sometimes it might even respond with aggression.
In this case, it’s extremely important not to punish your puppy. It did nothing wrong! Keep calm and try to stay positive, it might take some time, but you’ll get there.
Learn More: How To Stop Aggression In Corgis?
What Aggression Means
We already touched on this in the article, but it’s important to go just a bit deeper and explain a few things.
While trying to pick up your Corgi, there is a chance that you’ll be met with aggression. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly your dog could be suffering from a physical injury. It’s essential to know what to do in this kind of situation.
While it is more common for a dog to get scared and try to get away if you are aggravating an injury, that fear can turn into aggression. This is more often the case for dogs that have been adopted later in life and are still not ultimately used to the new home.
Understandably, a young puppy or a veteran that’s been living with a family for years will not act in that manner. But what should you do if it does happen?
First of all, you need to try and calm the Corgi down and locate where the injury could be located. If there is one, there will be other signs that you can spot. For instance, if your dog looks like it has trouble walking or sleeps in a strange position, it usually doesn’t sleep.
Whatever you do, don’t go poking your dog in various spots on the body to try and figure out where it hurts. Contact your vet, and they will tell you what the most sensible next step should be.
Final Words
So there you have it! Corgis, just like pretty much all dog breeds, don’t mind being picked up. There are always exceptions, all dogs are unique after all, but in general, they love it.
Sure, there could be an underlying reason that you need to figure out and solve to get your dog to trust you. But even if they seem to hate it, they can always learn to love it! So don’t worry, if you’re the kind of person that loves to carry little puppies around, a Corgi is a perfect breed for you.
