<p>Abasket, you are a great dog mom! He is really lucky to end up at your house. :)</p>
<p>We don’t have an electric fence because we could install a real one (it was a better option because the neighbors all have dogs on the loose and one guy had chickens and ducks that occasionally wandered onto our property). Sorry I do not have any ideas on how much it costs to install Invisible Fence.</p>
<p>Here is what some Yahoo posters had to say about costs:</p>
<p>Do you want a travel crate that will stay in the car at all times? (It’s much safer for you if your dog is not loose in the car… imagine a 30 pound dog hitting the back of your head in an accident.) Or do you want a crate that can come into a hotel room and be set up easily? Those are two different things.</p>
<p>I have two crates permanently installed in my car (they were custom-made so that I can carry my two standard poodles safely). I also have a folding soft-sided crate and a folding wire mesh crate. Those are for hotel rooms. Many hotels are much more welcoming to dogs if they know the dog will be kept in a crate if the owner is not there. </p>
<p>As for flexi leashes, they are the work of the devil. Not only do they encourage pulling, but a dog on a twenty-foot flexi has the capability to injure you very severely, given the right situation. I ended up with a pinched nerve in my shoulder when my dog ran from twenty feet behind me to twenty feet in front of me using a flexi. She hit the end of the leash so hard that she pulled both herself and myself off our feet. Then the flexi handle hit her in the head when I let go.</p>
<p><please stop=“” laughing.=“”></please></p>
<p>As for electric fences, they work well to keep many (far from all) dogs in, but they do absolutely nothing to keep other dogs out. If you don’t want to fence your yard, don’t. There’s no reason you can’t take the dog out on leash for the rest of his life. I take my dogs out on leash twice a day–because I don’t want them running loose in our yard and barking too early or too late. </p>
<p>No such thing as too much walking, from a dog’s point of view. However, there might be too much “close-managed walking”–dogs do enjoy the chance to wander and sniff and if you constantly say “no!” it’s very challenging for them.</p>
<p>I don’t have the time or patience to muck around with picky eaters. I like my dogs lean and so I feed them on a schedule and a very carefully controlled amount. If they don’t finish it in a few minutes, I put it away for the next meal. Check your dog’s weight once a week and cut back on his food if he’s gaining (10% less) or add a bit if he’s losing. </p>
<p>Squirrel craziness. Lots of dogs love chasing squirrels. There’s a long involved “look at that!” game you can play to get the behavior under control. But… Do you have access to an off-leash park where there are reliably squirrels around? Are you willing to spend 10-15 minutes there three or four times a week for a few months? Or… you can run with the dog when he sees a squirrel and turn it into a fun game of chase for a moment, and then keep on running right past the squirrel tree, so that you become as interesting as squirrels, over time.</p>
<p>Regarding the invisible fence (which has been a life saver here), I used a small local company instead of a big chain and it was A LOT cheaper and we could then afford to do our entire 2 acres.</p>
<p>You could also only fence a portion of the yard. Many people have ‘dog runs’ which don’t include doing the whole space. They wouldn’t let us adopt without being sure that we would have a fenced-in space. We went with 4 ft white vinyl which looks very neat and clean. As corgis are pretty low to the ground (can they achieve a leap?) you probably won’t need 6 foot chain link on anything.</p>
<p>that corgi (niece’s, we were dog sitting), when we let her out at night to do her last business, would waddle out the door about 20 feet, look back at us, and then take off into the dark, not to return until the early hours (3-5 hours) looking like a bad dog but a full stomach of cat food, Where she had had been must have been many many houses.</p>
<p>We just left food out for our golden/mix rescue dog. He ate when he was hungry. If he was out of food and hungry, he would pick up his empty bowl and bring it to us. When his arthritis got so bad he couldn’t run with H anymore, we gave him less food each time, but still left it out.</p>
<p>No matter how well-behaved he was at all other times, he still liked to chase squirrels and chipmunks on walks. We kept him on leash and just hoped he wouldn’t run too fast.</p>
<p>abasket: yes on crate training! I have a Vari Kennel for my shepherd and I feed her in there. She goes in for a nap sometimes when she “vants to be alone.” My Schnauzer hates the crate but she does have one. Get your dog used to it because sometime you might need it if the dog had to have surgery. Also good for travel or some odd situation like painting the house.</p>
<p>Start asking around about vets, obedience training places, and boarding kennels/ pet sitters. You might think you don’t need a boarding kennel but you might want to go away sometimes and it’s great if you have a kennel you trust.</p>
<p>Food - For lots of dogs I don’t think it’s a good idea to make an endless supply available. It may work for some but definitely won’t work for some others and it can impact their health. I know my boxer hunts out back for food and supplements his diet with avocados and some other fruit he finds out there. If we find he doesn’t eat his dog food (we also feed him twice a day) we pick up the bowl and he gets those leftovers for his next meal. </p>
<p>Leash - I don’t like the retractable leashes either because of not enough control. If I think he wants to investigate some bushes I just walk over there with him. There are times I have him ‘under command’ when he needs to not pull on the leash and go where I direct him but other times I ‘release’ him which allows him to be more free yet still on the leash attached to me. I also have it tied in a knot about 18" from the collar to help me restrain him if needed (boxers are strong) and allow me to ‘jerk no’ him for training yet not get my hands close enough to his head for him to think I’m using my hands on him. (this latter is from a trainer who I felt was very knowledgable).</p>
<p>Car - the dog s/b restrained to protect him in the car just like anyone wearing a seat belt. A crate works but it’s really a pain to use for most people. We secure the dog by putting a harness on him and then securing the harness to a rope with a collar clasp on it that’s secured to car onthe anchor points in the back of the SUV. This allows him some movement but not enough to jump in the front seat potentially causing an accident, jump out the window, or go flying if we need to slam on the brakes. It’s quick and easy to use. Since he loves going in the car, if we hold the harness in front of him he just puts his head in it on his own and lifts his front leg for the other part. It’s kind of funny. </p>
<p>It sounds like you and the dog are getting along fine.</p>
<p>The dog was plenty long enough so that for her to turn around in my back seat was almost an impossible task. The Log mostly lied head and paws forward on the back seat, or stayed on the (front passenger or rear seat’s floor, since she couldn’t swing herself around to jump up on the seat. When on the floor, she could only go forward when she exited the car. Not much room for your feet with a furry 34# log down there.</p>
<p>A crate for traveling may be useless-
You need to teach a corgi to backup and parallel park :)</p>
<p>Corgii are smart but they are going to get AP credit for agility in a confined space.</p>
![http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pembroke_Welsh_Corgi_agility.jpg]File:Pembroke](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pembroke_Welsh_Corgi_agility.jpg%5DFile:Pembroke){kind=link}
