"I wants it."

Sometimes, I wish my concentration on the things I want most in life was this good.

-Mel, Corgi-keeper

**Photo by Diane Hargreaves

Christmas is coming early this year.

Seeing as it is almost October, and this year will be Darwin's first Christmas, the puppy thought he would get into the spirit early by creating a 'snowfall' in the apartment.

Snow gremlin begins his work.



Minutes later, he has left a nice trail of 'snow' in his wake.



"Merry Christmas, Mom!"



"Now, can I have my toy back? I want to spread the Christmas cheer throughout the rest of the apartment."



-Mel, Corgi-keeper

Darwin and Jarod: The Epic Struggle

Here is a lengthier example of the style of play that Jarod and Darwin have adopted. They are so very good together, and Jarod has taken it upon himself to make Darwin 'his' puppy. This video is the first example of Jarod, who is normally a very dominant dog, allowing Darwin to take the upper hand. It may be rough housing, but it sure is sweet.



Those two are so great together.

-Mel, Corgi-keeper

Bunny Butt.

While Cardigans have a tail so the likening of their keisters to a bunny's is a little less convincing, I believe that you can still see the similarity. They also tend to 'bounce' when they run, strengthening this image.



I would also accept the descriptor 'Aladdin pants,' you know, the puffy kind of pants worn by the character in the Disney movie.

-Mel, Corgi-keeper

Life is Good.

This is Darwin's motto.



-Mel, Corgi-keeper

Epic tongue

Whatever else you may say about Darwin, you will agree that he has an epic tongue.



-Mel, Corgi-keeper

Bit off more than he could chew.

"Perhaps this stick is just a wee bit too crunchy."



-Mel, Corgi-keeper

"Also, I can kill you with my ears."

-Mel, Corgi-keeper

Abstract art (or fun with noseprints)

Yes. You are right. That is indeed a small pink blurry nose print on the camera. You can see Darwin's butt in the back. It was supposed to be a nice picture of Darwin, but alas. The cat wanted some airtime on the blog, apparently.



-Mel, Corgi-keeper

Darwin's future career

There are multiple reasons why I think that Darwin will be a great agility dog. Here are just a few:

1) While he is going through his slightly rebellious teenage phase, he is a good listener, hard working, and likes to please me. This will make training easier.

2) He is fast. I don't know yet how driven he will be with an agility course, but he is very very fast, and adores running, so I think that aspect of agility will suit him well.

3) He will go around an obstacle when bringing the frisbee back, even if he doesn't have to. He also likes to have his zoomies around the legs of the kitchen table, showing a preference for obstacles. This will also suit us well in agility.

4) He is very agile on his feet. So, not only is he quick, he can also change course without a moments notice.

Overall, I am very excited to begin his agility career next summer, and think that he will do very well with it.

And so you don't feel cheated that I didn't have a picture associated with this post, here you go. One of Darwin in full frisbee fetching mode, which is where these agility characteristics are coming out:



-Mel, Corgi-keeper

Zoom!

Darwin plays with the big dogs by racing around confusing them with his speed and insanity. This is a little preview of what is known as the 'Corgi zoomies' or the 'corgi 500,' which Darwin performs in our living room on a nightly basis.



I like that Jarod gets up in the middle of this, gives us a look that says, "You want me to deal with this strange little white blur?," then decides to go in after Darwin. Also, note Darwin's tail curled in a loop over his rear. I call this position 'monkey tail,' and it is also observed when cats get the zoomies.

-Mel, Corgi-keeper

Darwin v. Phone

(Or how curiosity can get a puppy in trouble... though not is this case.)

So, Darwin is in full-fledged teenagerdom now. As the trainer explained last week, the dogs his age are at a point where they start to realize things are 'there' and thus, must explore them. Usually with their teeth.

So, it's like teething, but because of curiosity rather than a biological drive to chew.

And Darwin has made full-use of these newfound powers of discovery, picking up and chewing on items I never would have thought he should be interested in (like a bottle of leoapard gecko food) and simply must analyze everything new that is brought into the apartment (like the new magazines my husband brought home today).

My mother-in-law was on speaker phone today, and that was a new experience for Darwin. Below is a photo of him being utterly confused by the noises issuing from the small blue box resting against the cat tree.



So, even though he's a bit of a brat right now, he is occasionally completey adorable with his confuzzled face.



-Mel, Corgi-keeper

Purposeful Delay

Sometimes Darwin doesn't race back to me with the frisbee.

He might start out strong. But then the distraction of the sheer chewey goodness of the floppy frisbee sets in.

He does make it eventually though.



**Also note the finesse with which he uses his nose to flip the frisbee over so he can get a better grip on it. Yeah, he taught that one to himself.

-Mel, Corgi-keeper

**Also, apologies for the crappy lighting of the video.

Old Herding Soul

I look at Darwin and sometimes I see the first corgi, herding those cattle/sheep in the Welsh highlands. The instinct is still alive in him, and it is an amazing thing to see awaken. He may be far removed from the place of his breed's birth, but that old herding soul is very much a part of who he is.



-Mel, Corgi-keeper

Anticipation

This is the response I get when I ask Darwin a simple question.



(By the way, the frisbee lives on the table next to the door -- he is looking from me to it to indicate that that is indeed what he wants).

-Mel, Corgi-keeper

Squish face

Looking rather disgruntled.


Aaaand the close up.


This dog has so many looks.

-Mel, Corgi-keeper

Loofa on your head!

"Why must you people subject me to such humiliating torture?"



-Mel, Corgi-keeper

The Pain of "Leave It"

Here is a photo of Darwin performing a "Leave It" on several pieces of kibble (kibble not pictured). He is definitely pained by the sight of food but the inability to have it.



"But Mom, it's right there! All I'd have to do is stretch out my nose and snarf it!"

-Mel, Corgi-keeper

*Squint*

-Mel, Corgi-keeper

The Towel Monster Emergeth...

Well, yesterday was bath day for the first time in well over a month. Darling Darwin puppy, for as much as I love him, needed to be cleaned liek woah.

The actual bath part went fine.

However, afterwards, we were attacked by a mysterious green Towel Monster that strangely reeked of wet dog.

Image of the creature below.



We were lucky to survive.

-Mel, Corgi-keepr

Night of the braying Squeaker

Even when Darwin isn't 'talking' in his little Cardigan corgi language, he's attempting to make noise in some fashion or another. Here's a video with very crappy lighting to illustrate this point.



My goal is to upload approximately one video per week. We'll see how this goes...

-Mel, Corgi-keeper

Aroof

"I'm trying out my inside voice. What do you think?"



-Mel, Corgi-keeper

**Photo by Diane Hargreaves

Elongated

"Mom, look how tall I can be!"



(Unfortunately, in Darwin's brain, jumping up is his only way of being 'taller.' He does this often and it is a behavior I am trying to break.)


Speaking of behavior, we had our first intermediate obedience class last Friday and our 'command of the week' to work on is 'wait.' So now Darwin is learning to be polite whenever we reach a doorway. Overall, this is going well. The other two members of our class are a whippet named Jazzi and a Golden retriever named Mojo. Darwin is, so far, the champion of the class.

-Mel, Corgi-keeper

**Photo by Diane Hargreaves

Expectation...

Do you think they're waiting for something?



-Mel, Corgi-keeper

Carnage!

I came home the other night and discovered something amiss. There appeared to be white fluff everywhere, and it took me a moment to realize the source.

And the culprit.

"I didn't do this! Not at all! It was the cat!" (in spite of the clearly guilty grin on his face; also, there is clearly a hint of pride in his handiwork).



"Mom, I think it's broken."



-Mel, Corgi-keeper

(And for those of you who might worry, he was supervised during this wanton act of destruction.)

Also, RIP dear loofa dog. You had a hard life, but a longer one than I expected.

Short legs in motion

"Roll over," said the trainer.

"Okay," replied the corgi.

And so it was.











(Though I think you can almost hear the little noises Darwin likes to make when he performs this trick coming out of these images).

-Mel, Corgi-keeper

**Photos by Diane Hargreaves (who I will wish a Happy Birthday to today!)

Shake shake shake

Proving, for the record, that while corgis posess really short legs, they can, in fact, do the 'Shake' command quite nicely.



Darwin, looking earnestly up at me, inquiring, "Will there be a treat soon, Mom?"

Part I of multiple 'Darwin performing his tricks for the camera' pictures coming this week.

-Mel, Corgi-keeper

**Photo by Diane Hargreaves