Are Corgis Good Guard Dogs?
You may not know that Corgis actually have a rich history of working alongside people. Yep, working, not just scooting along behind us asking for food.
They were actually herding dogs as well as all-around farm dogs, giving the breed a rich history and a lot of leftover instincts.
If you’re wondering whether or not Corgis make good guard dogs, the answer may surprise you.
Are Corgis Good Guard Dogs?
Corgis are good guard dogs because they are smart, alert, and hard-working. Since they are a fiercely loyal dog breed, they will protect their home and family despite being a friendly dog breed. They have a good sense of hearing and will be alert to what is happening around them and their household unless they are old, a puppy, or ill-health.
This dog breed is a working breed which means guarding their home and protecting their family will be a great occupation for them to do.
Corgis thrive in homes and families where they have work to keep them busy and expel their energy.
We are each uniquely individual in life, and the same goes for your Corgi.
They would make a good guard dog doesn’t mean that every dog from this breed will be a good guard dog.
Many factors determine a dog’s qualities and what they do with those qualities: their temperament, nature, upbringing, and their personality.
Some Corgis will not even be interested in acting as a guard dog, but these are exceedingly rare because of the nature and temperament of the breed.
Characteristically Corgis are fast and have good agility; they are also fearless.
These qualities will make them extremely good at the job of guarding their home and family.
A wonderful quality they have is their bark.
Corgis will bark at anything and everything. They will wake you at three AM to let you know something is happening outside and think nothing of continuing the barking for two hours if you try to keep sleeping.
Some people consider barking a negative quality for a dog, but those who want a guard dog will consider it a reward for their benefit when keeping their home and family safe.
Since their bark can be loud and nonstop, it may even work to chase off intruders who want to come into the home. They may not know the Corgi is small because the bark is so loud.
The Corgi is a highly intelligent dog and can be instructed which people who come in from outside are safe and which ones are not.
For instance, Aunt Rita comes to visit, and you can teach them that she is a safe person that is not an intruder.
Corgis form a close bond with their humans, and because they form a close bond, they can be very protective of those they love.
Their protection of these humans can be fierce and intense despite their size.
Their breeding as a herding dog has the Corgis nipping and biting when necessary.
Despite their strong working abilities and skills that can make them a great guard dog, they can still be happy, loveable, and friendly dogs to everyone they meet, unless they sense danger or that something is off with their keen intuition.
How can I teach my Corgi to be a good guard dog?
Some ways that you can teach your Corgi to be a good guard dog is to train them to be such. This training can be formal and done by a professional or done by their parent if they have the right amount of confidence and presence in the family to get it done.
After that, you will want to foster and encourage their natural abilities.
You, as their parent, will want to encourage their smarts when it comes to hearing things, noticing what is going on around them in their environment, and being alert.
You will want to praise these traits and offer treats or rewards when they display them.
If they bark at something they hear that is important, you will want to encourage that too.
The same can be said for negative qualities that don’t help them be better guard dogs.
For instance, if they bark when the baby is crying, you can teach them not to do that.
Training doesn’t need to be formal and strict, it can be passive, but the parent must have a commanding personality that requires obedience without question for the Corgi to accept what is being taught.
Along with having tremendous smarts, they also have a stubborn nature, and if they don’t want to learn what is being taught, they may choose not to learn it.
What can my Corgi do to protect me and our home?
What our Corgi can do to protect you and your home is bark and be alert to bad situations and people in your home or near you. They might warn you if someone unsafe approaches you or your home.
The Corgi will alert you to what is happening outside if they hear a noise, see movement, or smell something. If they sense activity happening in your neighborhood or town, they might alert you to that.
While they are not big dogs, it is even possible that if someone were to come near you and try and harm you, they might jump in to protect you.
This dog breed should never be underestimated as its size isn’t the only thing that matters when protecting. They can have a nasty and fierce bite which can have an intruder running.
As a herding dog breed, they might try to herd an intruder into a certain area where they might keep them there like they would the cattle.
They are big dogs trapped in small bodies.
While they might never meet the perfection and abilities of a larger dog that was bred to guard and protect their family, the Corgi can certainly try.
In Conclusion
Corgis make good guard dogs because of their personality, skills, smarts, and breed background.
While this doesn’t mean they will want to be a guard dog, most Corgis have strong skills that make them perfect for it.
Obedience training can help, but so can passively training from a confident parent or family member. When this training is done, your small Corgi will be even more fierce than it was before, which is saying a lot for this dog breed!