Corgis and Great Danes?

[BetsyOK]

My daughter had both a Pembroke Welsh Corgi and a Great Dane at the same time. Poncho, the GD, lived an almost unheard of more than 12 years, but finally got completely down in his hindquarters. A sweetheart of a dog. He had two surgeries to correct his stomach "turning over" a year or two apart, but had no othe real problems. The two got along very well together, along with a Boston Bull Terrier--all three neutered males. She's had three corgis and loved them all. However, her Rhodesian Ridgeback (gotten as a small pup after the Great Dane) doesn't like either the Corgi or the Boston Bull Terrier, all three neutered males, so she's going through very difficult special training.

 

[BobwhiteQuailLover]

Thank You!!!

 

[michickenwrangler]

I had a Great Dane named Freya who was a rescued puppy mill dog. She was 7 or 8 years old when I got her and she died of cancer about a year and a half later.

While I loved her and really liked the breed, they are huge, their tail knocks over everything and they eat as much meat as a lion (not an exaggeration). However, she was a sweetie and very protective of me.

If I had a larger house, I would consider getting one again.

 

[scrambledmess]

I currently have a rescue Dane from a horrible backyard breeder, confirmation and temprement is in the toilet. The normal qualities she has for a Dane is that she is very social. You can't put one of these big dogs outside and leave them. They have to be with their people. She has taken this to the extreme and has separation anxiety. We have worked on it now for 5 months (and got her her own puppy) and I have finally been able to leave the room or put her outside on her own (with said puppy). Now to be able to leave the house with all humans and her not have a toileting meltdown...... Great dane size toileting meltdowns are NOT fun and are often classified as catastrophic... ~shudder~

The other bad temperment is that she is really terrified of new people. She has never attempted to bite or attack. But I am always vigilant. She has growled at every new person who has walked through my door. To her, if they aren't here 24/7, they are always a new person.

Her good dane quality is that she is excellent with my twin 3 yos. They crawl all over her and she just sighs and puts her head on them.

They also have very thin fur coats. You can just about see skin over much of her body. Thus going outside just to potty in the winter often requires the need for an actual coat. These coats are pretty cheap for a toy breed, NOT cheep at all for a giant breed and are hard to find. Heck most all supplies for the giant breeds are hard to find.

Most Danes out there come from backyard breeders. You don't normally get these breeds from puppy mills. The cost is just too high to house these dogs even with what seems like high prices on the pups and they take up too much space. So the millers tend not to make this breed a center piece like they do the smaller breeds.

Most backyard breeders though really see dollar signs with this breed because you can ask for $1000 + for the pups. So they pay no attention to the fact that dad is aggressive, shy, etc. They pay no attention that if you cross this color with this color you will get a deaf/blind pup. No, they see that this color with this color may also give this color (the new fad color) and boom now we can ask $2000+ for the pup. They don't care that mom's mom died of cancer at age 2 or that dad's mom and entire family is prone to bloat, or that wobblers is somewhere in either of the line. The don't care that mom has a underbite so bad that she looks like a boxer in the head. They have AKC/CKC/UKC papers so they can breed and produce pet quality pups for a nice fee.

This is probably one of the most risky breeds to get from a backyard breeder. A dog this size can/will drain your bank account or seriously injure one in your family if the breeding isn't done correctly.

I know this wasn't really what you had asked. I just put it out there since you are thinking about this breed and I wanted you to make an informed decision of WHERE you may get your pup if you ever decide to get one.

Now done right, they still can be expensive with the cost of supplies, food etc. But they really can be great family dogs and they are always a conversation starter at the park!

 

[BlacksheepCardigans]

On Dane coats - yes, they do often need a coat in the winter. You'll find the best value and warmest dog if you buy a foal coat - like for a horse. The big guys usually take a regular foal coat and the littler ones do well with a pony foal coat. Measure them just like you would for a horse and they do great.

And yes, most Danes are convinced that they'll melt in the rain and freeze in the snow. They're really never supposed to be outside dogs - they are not mentally or emotionally built for it (no dog *really* is - even the livestock guard dogs are outside only because their herd is outside, but Danes are especially bonded with their people and horrified/terrified when they are left outside) and their bodies can't take it either. But a good coat will at least let you get an hour of snowy play from them instead of five minutes and then they're banging at the door to come in.

 

[funnybirds]

This is Max, a Sable Welsh Pembroke Corgi with our cat Pharaoh. He's about 3 months here.

Here he is again at one year.

Here he is with Charlie at 3 years old. (They are the best of buddies.)

Corgis IMHO, are a very smart breed. This doesn't mean they are all easy to train. Max was not, and is not a food motivated dog so training has had its trials.
(He's more a fan of lower back scratches.)

He herds the cats, when he's in the mood but he will also start a round of chase with Charlie directed towards the cats. So that’s not so good.

Out of our two dogs and all of the dogs I've ever had, he's the oddest little duck Ive ever been around but we love him to death.

Corgis can be very weird about their feet. Know this going in and handle them every day.I've had people say they aren’t foot sensitive but I've heard an equal amount of people, including the vet say that they are, so just factor that in.

They also SHED, A LOT.

That said, he will bark if anyone even walks by, and is on constant alert for anything out of place. He's a fanatic about our kids and will be the first there if anybody starts to sound unhappy or hurt. He has a wild bark which borders on a howl/bark/song, which is very entertaining, unless you have neighbours who don't like noise.

They are truly amazing little dogs.
They are prone to back issues and foot issues.
Max is very good with other dogs and large animals and with children. But, I worked hard training both the kids and Max not to play run and chase games. (Corgies can be nippers as they are a herding breed.)
I hope this is what you needed.

 

[funnybirds]

I forgot to also include large dog info. We have a Bernese , not a Dane, but I figure the costs involved are probably about the same. Beds, shampoo, coats, and some grooming costs will be a lot more expensive than average dogs.
Charlie weighs 120 pounds. His head reaches my bent hand when I walk. Grew about ten pounds a month, chewed everything he could find even though you can't walk two feet without tripping over a dog chew toy. (Which by the way will be three times more expensive on average for the extra large toys).
Has been to the vet for more than his fair share of ailments. He could probably still pull me off my feet if he got an urge to see something while we were on walks. (I am 6 feet tall, 170 pounds and strong.) And can do significant harm to older folks and kids by jumping up on them. (For joy, of course.) All of this said, I would never ever find a better, more even tempered, sweeter, more loving and easier to train dog. He's been worth every chewed remote control, cell phone, door casing, and errant toy left out. Even my car door handle. And I really liked that door handle...
Large breed dogs aren’t for everybody. They require a larger budget for food, vet and incidentals. They can do major damage to furniture in a very short span of time. Bathing them makes the bathroom look like a tsunami hit. They can get sick more often, and they traditionally don't live very long lives. But as far as Burners go, you just can't beat their charming, warm and wonderful personalities and usually appropriate protective instincts.
Also Berners don't drool. Mastiffs do. Not sure where Danes are in that regard.
I agree with the previous poster. Where you get your dog is the most important thing. A big dog with, aggresive, unhealthy or issued parents may be a nightmare for everybody concerned. Be careful!
Theres a website out there called "The Big Dog Porch" which will have unbelievable amounts of good information and advice if you need more opinions on big dog breeds.

 

[Smoky73]

I know that I will be the odd one out in this thread but I own a Corgi and mine has been a terrible dog since the very beginning. While she is better now than she used to be, it has been a long road. she is 7 years old now.

One thing I want to say is make sure you check out the breeder if you get one, do research, look at parents on the property, do more homework, so you can get a good dog like most people have. We did not check things out probably as much as we should have.

My story
My husband found the breeders and we went there on 2 occasions, one to pick a pup and once to pick it up when it was 8 weeks old. Breeder had all of them AKC registered, as mine is as well. We should have seen the parents and so forth as I feel the breeder was just for the money due to the quality I received, though I believe our neighbors got his from the same person (2 different dogs) and his are fine.
we had agression issues since puppy hoood. Food aggression and Fear aggression and also Dominance aggression though I have been told they cant have both dominant and fear.
She is aggressive over her food and treats and used to steal food any chance she got them try to bite you afterward if you stopped her.
Any time of correction you give her, even so much as a shaking finger in her face will get her to snap and lunge at you, that would be the fear part. The dominance comes in to play when you make her do something she does not want to. like get off the couch. If you push her, she might try to bite you. She is dominant over our other older and much bigger dog, some times jealousy happens and a fight insues.
She has never been offically Potty trained, as any chance she gets to pee on a carpet, towel, rug, her own dog bed, she will, although she can go all day with doing nothing on a hard floor or tile.

Most of all of the agression issues I have managed to control for the most part with heavy training as myself as leader instead of her. Though once or twice a year, we have an issue where she tries to take my hand clear off and I have to pin her down to the floor while she is growling and snapping at me. Its a control issue and she is always looking to test those boundries with me. I pin her down into the submission on her back.
anytime she is anxious she trembles like she is chilled to the bone. she does this while in the sit stay mode before feeding. Learning to wait till she is not so anxious has helped both of us.

So, my dog (Chloe) may not be the picture of mental health, but she is not a picture of physical either. At 5 years old, she has severe hip dysplasia -had hip x-rays taken and at the time had only 30% left of her hip left on one side, about 70% on the other. She has been on Rimadyl and Curaflex for joints ever since. Eventually we were told she will have to have complete hip replacement or surgery to cut off the ball completely and let the tendons create a soft joint. Because of the issues with her hind legs, she now has 3 of her 4 feet deformed. it started with just a front and has progressed to both front and one back. The only one not effected at this time is the worst hip, as she favors it. Becaus eof pain issues she is fearful when we handle her by brushing or even just petting her or touching her hind end. She is so afraid we might her her, she snaps even when we really have not. Plus she has a breathing issue, where the vet said the flap I think to the trachea does not close properly so she aspirates even sometimes on nothing and she will cough like she is trying to dislodge something stuck.

Edited to say that she does not understand what a toy is, and cannot fetch to save her life, but, she loves to herd cats and is very smart when she wants to be. Emphasis on when SHE wants to be.

How can one dog have so many health issues? I just wanted to share my story as it is extreme case, but can always happen. I think that if we checked out our breeder prior, and asked more questions, saw the parents etc....we might not have gotten such a faulty animal. We keep her because she is a member of the family despite her issues, and that there is no where for her to go where anyone would tolerate the issues she has around here. We would not feel right pawning her off on another unsuspecting family, so here we are. We often wonder what old age holds for her, we would probably have to end up putting her down when she gets too bad as she ages but who knows, we will see.

 

[scrambledmess]

Thanks for the tip on the foal coat. You would have thought I would have thought of that myself with the number of comments about her being the size of a horse LOL

 

[teach1rusl]

Diesel - 5 mos.

Diesel - 4 1/2 mos.


Here' my dane boy Diesel. He's 6 1/2 months old right now (95 lbs) and a really good boy. We got him from a breeder at 9 weeks. He's a smart fella, and was easy to housetrain (had 2 - 3 accidents that were OUR fault for not keeping a better eye out/reading his signals). He's good with other dogs, our cats, and the chickens (although his wagging tail has sent a few squawking). He's a little more hesitant around people he doesn't know, but warms up quickly with an introduction. He thinks he's a lap dog, and he's a leaner (like a cat, he likes to rub/lean against you when you're standing there). This is our first dane, so I don't know whether we lucked out or not, but he's been a really easy pup. The biggest issues we've had is that he has a fondness for shoes...lol. So we make sure these are put up. And of course now we don't leave food sitting right there on the counter, as he can rest his chin on the counter top. He does shed a decent amount, but it's really short hairs that are easy to vaccuum up. Oh, and he's claimed one particular loveseat for himself, so people who are picky over their furniture probably wouldn't want a dane.
We just had his stomach tacked, as I was super paranoid about eventual stomach flip issues. He had it done on Friday, and WOW is it fun trying to keep him "calm, not running, jumping, etc."...lol. Much easier to keep a small, recovering dog contained.