Corgi puppies are one of the loveliest pets on the planet. Their floppy ears, cute little eyes, and stumpy legs make them irresistible.
But just wait until they start biting in their puppy phase with their sharp teeth! So, if you’re looking to prevent those Corgi bites, we have some useful information for you.
The easiest method to stop your puppy from nipping and biting is to redirect their biting behavior to a chew toy.
You can also train your puppy to stop biting by distracting it with treats. Consistent training in the early years will help your pup control the biting behavior when it grows up.
This comprehensive guide will help you understand the Corgi puppy biting behavior and give you tips to control this behavior.
Is It Normal For Corgis To Bite?
Nibbling and biting are common behaviors for dogs, especially for herding puppies like Corgis.
However, when your puppy’s adult teeth start growing, a nip isn’t so cute anymore. It is very important to train your Corgi not to bite in its early years to prevent nipping issues as it grows.
You can’t expect your Corgi to stop biting overnight. But, with consistent training, you can make them learn what is and what isn’t allowed to bite.
What To Do If a Corgi Bites You?
If a Corgi puppy bites you, there is a trick that might work to prevent the biting. You just take your finger and curl it into the top of your Corgis mouth. Apply some pressure to their mouth with your fingernail without pressing too hard.
Make sure that you don’t hurt them, but press hard enough to let your dog know that biting is hurting you.
This method will let your dog know that biting makes you feel uncomfortable. It won’t actually stop the biting behavior, but it will teach them to apply lower pressure.
How Strong Is a Corgis Bite?
It is surprising to know that these little cute dogs have the bite strength of a large breed dog. According to the American Kennel Club, the teeth of a Corgi can exert 200 PSI power.
Your Corgi’s bite force will be around 100 PSI when it’s a puppy, but if you don’t train it in its childhood, the biting behavior can become dangerous.
If you are wondering: do Corgi bites hurt, then the answer is yes.
While the Corgi bites are weaker than most dogs, they can still hurt because puppies have sharp teeth. You must divert this behavior to prevent your pet from growing into an aggressive dog.
Can Corgis Be Aggressive?
Corgis are playful and friendly dogs for the most part. However, they have been bred to take care of their owners. So, if they sense something fishy or come across as a stranger, they can be quite aggressive.
Their protective nature makes them bark louder when they feel that a threat is present. These little pets will even nip at a stranger’s feet to get them to move.
Biting and nipping come as a natural instinct to your dogs because they are just looking out for their pack; in this case, you!
How To Discipline A Corgi Puppy?
A dog can bite its owner for a variety of reasons, none of which mean any harm. So, if you want to discipline your dog for biting, you should avoid violent, physical, or aggressive punishments.
You should just remove your Corgi from the situation before it becomes aggressive. Choose positive reinforcement methods to discipline your pup. Don’t forget to reward your puppy for good behavior.
Here are the different ways to discipline your dog to stop biting:
1. Yelp When the Corgi Bites
Puppies have a lot of learning to do, and the most important thing they should learn is how hard they should bite while playing. This is known as biting inhibition, which refers to the dog’s ability to control its force of mouthing.
Since puppies can’t play with other pups until they’ve got all their shots, you have to be their testing grounds.
When playing with your puppy, let them bite your hands. If they bite too hard, you should yelp in pain, mimicking a puppy in pain.
This helps your puppy know that biting is causing pain to its loved ones. Just limp your hand away from your pup to let it know that biting too hard stops the fun time.
It will take a few hard bites on your hand, but your pup will learn to exert low pressure with time.
There are some things you need to remember when yelping on your Corgi:
- Avoid yelling straight into his ears because it can scare him.
- Yelp facing upwards.
- React as soon as your dog bites you.
- Don’t yell too loud because that can scare him off and damage your bond with it.
- Use the same words to yell every time your dog bites you.
- DO NOT punish your Corgi.
2. Redirect and Intervene
You don’t want your Corgi’s nipping behavior to become permanent.
Since nipping is an unavoidable behavior in Corgis, you should learn to redirect that behavior to other things. Redirecting means diverting your puppy’s focus from one thing to another.
Puppies live like there’s no tomorrow. So, they will put almost anything in their mouth.
As soon as your pup starts to nip at things, get a whole lot of chew toys to divert its focus from your hands and clothes to toys. Use the distraction that your dog finds most alluring!
Make the toy fun by playing tug with your puppy because it is a great way to give toys as a reward for good behavior. Additionally, it is a good opportunity to practice the “drop it” command.
It is possible that your dog would like to nip at different things throughout the day, so keep a variety of chew toys on hand.
3. Work On Socialization
Socialization is essential for the psychological growth of your dog. It is perhaps the most important skill you’ll ever develop with your Corgi.
Socialize your dog with other dogs, your friends, your kids, and your neighbors from an early age. This will help your dog learn to be patient. Additionally, your pup will tire itself out and avoid aggressive behaviors like biting.
4. Stop Play or Interaction
If your dog is determined to gnaw on your skin, there should be a small punishment, known as the negative punishment.
According to this theory, you take away a small, loving thing from your puppy to decrease a particular behavior.
You should deprive the puppy of attention, play, and engagement to make them understand that nipping is not an acceptable behavior.
Your puppy should learn that biting humans means no more fun. You need to be consistent for this method to work.
Even if you give attention to your dog for nipping once, it will set you back in the disciplinary process. Make sure that your Corgi knows that biting is not an option.
5. Ignore Your Furry Baby
If your Corgi starts biting you constantly, you should stop everything and start ignoring your furry baby, no matter how many puppy eyes you get. Nipping and biting is a natural behavior in Corgis to get your attention.
However, if you ignore the canine companionship, your dog will get the message and stop biting you. When your pup realizes that it can’t get attention from you, it will quit biting.
If your puppy is trained to bite you in order to get your attention, this technique might not work on your Corgi. In that case, you might want to take a different approach.
6. Use The Time-Out Technique
If your Corgi does not stop nipping even when you try interrupting it, you should try the time-out technique. Put your dog in its pen after calmly removing them from the situation. Puppies tend to nip when they are hungry or exhausted.
Give it a good chew toy to work on, or give it food if it’s time to eat.
This modified time-out technique should not be used as punishment in any way. Make sure that your puppy does not find its pen as a type of punishment by giving it an appropriate activity in its pen.
Putting your Corgi puppy in its pen will stop the nipping behavior eventually because it will learn that nipping means going away from you.
7. Get Professional Training
If you have tried every method and still can’t get your puppy to stop nipping and biting, you should consider getting help from a professional trainer.
Adopted Corgis can sometimes be challenging to train on your own. You might even encounter aggression problems for various reasons.
Keep in mind that every Corgi is unique, and its personality is influenced by a variety of factors including genes and the environment it grew up in.
Getting professional help will make it easier for you to enforce positive behavior. They will also help you develop positive behavior in your Corgi in every aspect.
You might even get to know something surprising about your dog that you wouldn’t know by yourself.
How To Train Corgi Puppies?
It’s best if you start training your Corgi from a young age. Schedule daily training sessions to teach your Corgi puppy not to bite. You can use treats or toys to reinforce positive behavior in your dog.
Here are the steps to teach your Corgi to stop biting ankles:
1. When your dog starts to nip, start saying the command “leave it” or “drop it”.
2. Stop giving attention to your Corgi whenever your dog bites you to let it know that the behavior is unacceptable.
3. Give treats to your dog every time it listens to your command and stops biting.
4. Continue reinforcing the positive behavior with treats until your dog associates biting with a “no fun” time.
Why Do Corgis Bite?
Many Corgi puppy owners struggle to curb their pup’s nipping behavior. In such cases, it is important to find the root cause of your dog’s biting behavior.
If you want to know how to stop your Corgi from biting, you must first understand what exactly is triggering that behavior.
Here are some of the common reasons why Corgis bite:
1. They Are Tired
Regardless of the breed, most puppies become extremely mouthy when they are exhausted.
Puppies require at least 16 to 20 hours of sleep daily, and when they are sleep deprived, they tend to get fussy and irritable. This initiates the nipping behavior.
It is important to give a little quiet time to your puppy throughout the day at regular intervals. Prepare a peaceful area in your home for your puppy to sleep without being disturbed. This will help keep the nipping behavior in check.
2. Your Puppy is Overstimulated
Puppies can easily become overly excited in a stimulating setting where people or other pets are moving around. Corgis have a natural impulse to nip at the heels of moving animals because they were developed as herding dogs.
Herding can be a particularly challenging behavior to stop in Corgi puppies because of the genetic factors at play. The first thing you should do is stop moving if your puppy starts herding you while you are walking.
This way, you are eliminating the puppy’s stimulant. Then, you should give your puppy something they can herd in order to divert their herding habit. This is where chew toys come into play.
3. Your Corgi is Teething
All puppies naturally experience teething when their baby teeth fall out and their adult teeth break through the gums.
It is an extremely painful process for pups. So, they look for objects to chew and nibble on to comfort their sensitive mouths and gums.
The teething phase is a very hard time for most pet parents. You will come across chewed rugs, clothes, and shoes in your entire house.
Unfortunately, human skin is also soft and chewy for dogs, and Corgi puppies love to chew on their owners’ hands and fingers. In all honesty, you are the ideal chew toy for your dog!
The best thing you can do for your teething puppy is to provide more tempting chew toys that your dog loves to nibble on. We advise dog owners to keep a variety of chew toys, in case your dog gets bored of one.
4. It’s Nap Time
Have you ever played with a human kid happily when all of a sudden they start throwing blocks at you?
You ask them to stop because that’s not polite, but they simply get more violent. Finally, you say, “Alright, I suppose it’s nap time,” but they immediately start yelling because they aren’t tired. Well, it’s definitely time for a nap.
The same goes for puppies. They will suddenly start acting aggressive and turn into snapping turtles.
If your dog has been playing for a long time, and then it suddenly starts to nip at your hands, you should put your dog to bed. Your pup might try to protest, but once it hits the bed, it will “sleep like a baby.”
5. Your Pup Wants To Play
You will often see your pup pulling your hand or leg back after it bites you when playing. He will continue biting you if you keep pulling your hands or feet back.
This reinforces the biting behavior because your dog sees it as a game. So it’ll keep nipping at you, and it becomes a never-ending circle.
Final Thoughts
Corgis are mouthy dogs and they tend to nip at things, especially when they are puppies. You need to stop the nipping behavior at an early age so that the sharp teeth don’t hurt you as they grow up.
No matter which training method you use to stop the biting behavior, make sure that you find the root cause of biting beforehand.
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