Ella Boo Bear

I know it's been awhile since posting....busy, but really don't know with what! Now for Ella's story.

Ella came to us October 2003. We got an email from Marla G. (Cardiridge Kennels) telling us to go look at the puppy pics on her website, she thought she had a puppy that would fit in with Fannie and Higgins. Now, we weren't planning on a getting a puppy, but had tossed the idea around jokingly. One look at the picture and it was basically a given that she was to come home to us!

Ella is what is known as a mismark in the Cardigan world. She has too much white on her face and also a white spot on her side. So, she is considered pet quality, not show quality. But if she hadn't been a mismark, she would have been a killer personality in the show ring!

From the time we drove out of Marla's driveway, we knew she was meant to be. She wanted to be in the back with the rest of the pack, not on my lap! We were concerned about her and Fannie getting along. Usually multiple corgi males get along better than multiple corgi females. Fannie took Ella under her wing and made her the princess to her Highness. :)

Ella is so laid back and happy. Always a smile on her face. She has definitely been the one dog that hasn't given us any trouble at all. (knock on wood, I hope I am not jinxing this!) We did find out that she has a compressed disc area in her back, so no agility training for her. Well, she does like to run thru the kiddie tunnels we have here at the house. So we decided that she might like therapy work.

We got her TDI certified, but couldn't find a place to visit that worked out. So, then we tested with Pet Therapy of the Ozarks. She passed (thank doG I had the flu two weeks prior to chill me out some!) the test and we have started doing therapy work. One of our visits is Cox Peds. She loves to visit with just about anyone. I think once we get settled into a good routine and get a groove going, she will do awesome. I did buy her an "Elmer Fudd" hat to wear on her last therapy visit. She loves the hat and it was fun to see the looks on peoples faces. We recently acquired (on clearance!) a trout fishing vest/hat combo. She loves the thing. See the pic! Let me tell you, it's hard to fit a corgi in pet attire. They are on the stocky side, but also short.

We are hoping to maybe do some Rally training when we get some time. She loves to work and is happy when she is doing it. Her favorite spot is on the back of the love seat under the front window, so that she may survey all that goes on out front. She is also happy digging when we leave the soft dirt area open.

Here's video of "The Dig". This is her favorite area to dig in. We just fill it back in and let her dig it back out. The video is a little on the long side, but the look on her face toward the end makes it work watching for us!

Well, that's it for now. Enjoy the pictures and I will update again soon!

Fun at the Dog Club

We went to the dog club Sat. evening in a downpour to work the dogs a bit. We took Higgins, Ella, and Jetson. Fannie stayed home to sleep and get a little peace and quiet from the young ones. :)

We worked on controlled heeling. This is where you get the dog to "choose" to come to the heeling position and stay there. Higgins and Ella pretty much know how to do this, if they so choose. This was more for Jetson to have a mini lesson. Our friends: Valeri and her Golden Chase, Cindy and Border Collie Sweetie, and Kathy and her Golden Gus, came along to work with us and help.

Jetson has some trouble with focusing and BARKING loudly. He has to announce that he is there, everyone look at me, and why aren't you looking at me. We are hoping this might fade in time, it did with the others for the most part. He is still puppy, but I am not holding my breath.

Once we got to the heeling, he did pretty good. I understand why people like taller dogs...it's hard when you are tall and your dog is height challenged! (my boss asked me the other day if any of the dogs had actually grew legs yet. LOL ) He is getting better at the come command. He is pretty cute when he is at full speed and hair is flying everywhere.

So after the lesson, we decided to let the place "go to the dogs" so to speak and free play began. Chase decided not to get involved, but everyone else did. Gus is a rescue and doesn't have alot of dog manners yet. Higgins told him he was being rude! Higgins won't tell Jetson to leave him alone, but a dog bigger than he is he had no problem. Guess Jetson hasn't quite lost his puppy license yet, though I think he will soon.

Jetson took on the two big dogs and WON! He managed to get the toys away from them, put them in a pile, and then herded everyone away. There was a moment when Jetson had a toy and Gus was chasing him. Jetson looked like a receiver going for a touchdown, bobbing back and forth and out manuevering Gus the length of the room and back. Then Jetson herded Sweetie around. This was funny as Valeri's Goldens are always the ones Sweetie herds, but she couldn't herd Jetson.

That's it from the corgi gang for today. The picture above was from Dogfest this fall. I will post about Ella soon.

Higgins

Now for a little about Higgins. What a character. :) Higgins was the second of the corgis to join the gang. We had decided that we didn't want a pup, maybe a 2-3 year old dog would be a great age. We applied with Cardigan National rescue to get on the waiting list. Luckily, there aren't many Cardis in rescue, unlike Pems. We heard there was a blue merle pup that had came into rescue. mmmm....blue merle? Now, blue merle isn't rare, it's just not as common. So we talked to our contact and they thought the puppy would fit in fine. We still weren't sure, but had the name Higgins picked out before we even saw pictures of him. ;) We think it fits, don't you?

We were supposed to be able to get him around Valentine's weekend of 2003, but snowstorm after snowstorm prevented that. He was being fostering in Indiana and the problem was getting him from there to St. Louis so that we pick him up. Luckily our contact's vet had to attend a conference in Indiana, so she brought him back the first week of March and we headed to St. Louis that day she was coming back.

Poor Higgins, his ears have been unique ever since we first saw him. They were taped, but it didn't help. We found out that he was very sick when they pulled him from the shelter and his foster mom stayed up 3 nights with him trying to get him to eat and drink. The only thing he would take was wheat toast sprayed with water. So, I am sure the poor nutrition in the early part of his life has to do with his ears some. And his teeth are not the greatest and that can be caused by illness in puppyhood when the permanent teeth are in the developement stage.

He was (is) such a good boy about housetraining and not chewing on inappropriate items. It was our first foray into crate training and we were quite impressed with the way it works! Above is the funniest picture of him when he was a puppy eating at home for the first time. He looks so happy and content!

Fannie took to him quite well, better than we expected, considering she was almost 9 when he came along.

We soon realized after a time that Higgins needed some obedience work (especially after Ella came along 5 months later!). So we enrolled in a Parks dept. obedience class, but that wasn't the right setting for him and it really didn't help. So we found Joan Guertin and enrolled in her Levels program with both Higgins and Ella. They loved it and we were all sad when Joan left. Higgins and Ella both passed the CGC and TDI test before Joan left.

We had talked about agility, but hadn't really looked around. Then we found Valeri at Paws Express and started classes. Higgins LOVED it. He looked so darn cute. Althought cocky was a term thrown around about him also! I will post a video of his beginning classes at the bottom of this. He has ran in two different NADAC trials. No Q's, but he was having fun. This past fall he did complete an entire Chances run, but did not touch the contact correctly. (I swear he touched the yellow, but NADAC has to be more than a glancing blow!) He was the fastest though and it was a great run, considering we had some trouble on him focusing on what we wanted, not what he did.

His confidence has blossomed, which is good and bad! :) He thinks he is the "motion" police at times, but we work on it constantly and work on focus. He does get bored easily, but it's because he is a high drive dog. Repetition he HATES, but most corgis are like that and we work thru it.

He is a Pet Therapy of the Ozarks therapy dog and just started doing regular visits at a nursing home. He has also helped in the PTO evaluations as the station "walking passed a strange dog" He has come a long way and made us love the "other" Corgi breed. He still needs to know he is safe and special, but has came so far from where we started.

Here is a video of one of his beginning classes and I will try to get another of how far he has come once classes start again.

Sorry for delays in posting

Sorry, I haven't posted for awhile. I have been busy and the ice storm limited computer time.

SNOW!!!!!!

Well the next post was going to tell a little about Higgins, but we got snow today and I thought that would be more exciting. :) Higgins and Fannie have both seen major snow, so this is nothing to them. Higgins' transport to us from rescue was held up for a month because of snowstorms in Indiana. The poor guy would only pee on white mounds of snow for the first week, because he wasn't sure what that brown/green stuff was!

Ella really hasn't experienced snow and this is Jetson's first winter. He loves being cold, so we knew he would not have a problem with the white stuff.

I made a snowball for him to chase and he proceeded to carry it in his mouth like a squeaky toy. Then Ella and Jetson decided they were going to fight for the snowball. At one point it was like they were having their own little snowball fight, complete with frapping around the yard. Here are a couple of pics and a video. More videos on PartiCardis Youtube.

GO PLAY IN THE SNOW!!!!!!!

Fannie

To get this started I thought I would do a post about each dog. Fannie is the dog that got this whole corgi thing started. I decided that I wanted a corgi and didn't know a thing about (PLEASE RESEARCH BEFORE DECIDING ON A BREED!!!!) them, just that they had big ears, no tail, and a goofy smile. She has been a challenge from week 1, but we wouldn't trade it for the world. Anyone who knows corgis, knows not to teach them to bark, especially for food. You guessed it, that was the first thing I taught her and she still does it reliably come breakfast and dinner. And she has taught Jetson to do it also! :)

About a week after she came home with us, she was diagnosed with Parvo. Nasty stuff and at the time the survival rate was not good. Thanks to Dr. Blackburn at All Creatures Pet Hospital she came thru and never looked back. Although, she did chew the feet off of a squeaky toy that was supposed to be a vet!

She has only been to one obedience class and that was when she was about 11yrs. old. So she isn't a performance dog, but she is Queen of the house. She is always around where you are and we made sure to socialize her well. She is well mannered when out in public and loves attention from strangers. She probably would have made a good therapy dog, but we just didn't know about stuff like that back then.

She has helped raise the Cardis in the house now and has her bluff in on them. She can be grumpy, but mostly she just sleeps and watches everything now.

I could go on and on about her, but I will stop here. It's hard to believe this corgi thing started with her and that she will be 15yrs. soon. She has slowed down a lot, but the spark and spunk that make her Fanniegirl are still there.

Hi

Well, here is the Corgis 4 blog. We are just getting the hang of this blog thing, so you will have to bear with us for awhile. Here is a pic, so you will know what we look like! :)

We have four corgis. Fannie, a sable Pembroke, who will be 15 in April. Then there are the three Cardigans. Higgins, a blue merle who is 5 yrs and came from CWCCA( Cardigan Welsh Corgi Club of America) Rescue. Ella, a brindle and white mismark who is 4.5 yrs and Jetson, a blue merle who is 9 months old. Ella and Jetson are both from Cardiridge.

This blog is about them, so we hope we don't bore you too much. They are pretty fun to watch and it should be interesting with a puppy in the mix.

Stay tuned for more from us. :)