Flashback: First Days with Dockers

When we adopted Dockers and brought him home, he was intended to be an indoor furkid.  We set him up in one of our bathrooms (I know, that sounds horrible but it was a large bathroom with two parts and two sinks. It was actually larger than our master bath!) and had it all puppy-proofed, including a baby-gate.   We also had two other much larger fur kids, Nike and Puma (both Lab mixes), who were very sweet and accepting of the new puppy addition.   From our very beginnings with Dockers it was evident that he was a head-strong, energetic and very intelligent canine.  I’m sure most people feel this way about their kids but I say this with no bias and (unfairly) with comparison to other dogs I have known and other dogs that were my own.

We bonded immediately.  He was so eager and tireless to learn…I really should’ve taken his motivation to another level, especially for the type of breed he is.   Dockers was really a “perfect” puppy.  He rarely got into trouble and not for our lack of discipline, he was just very obedient and learned so quickly.   When correcting or scolding him, you never needed to raise your voice.   The tone in your voice and the use of the word “bad” was effective enough.   It would pain me to see his imploring eyes wanting my reassurance of forgiveness and not being able to rest until he knew he was back in good graces.  

A very puppy Dockers.
My brother-in-law teases and calls him “Radar” because of his healthy ears (5/1999).

My husband and I worked full-time plus, so Dockers was indoors alone for most of the day.   When we came home, we’d let him out with Nike and Puma in small intervals to use the bathroom and play.    As the days turned into weeks and we began establishing a routine, I started to notice his demeanor change when we brought him in after being outside with our older dogs.  We had him baby-caged for amounts of time after his outside visits and while we ate dinner, etc.   He was becoming depressed. I remember one evening, I picked him up and was concerned that maybe he was sick.   I looked into his eyes and then I knew…and I really started crying.   He was depressed and unhappy and I knew what it was.   We started to slowly ease him into being outside more and eventually his indoor time with us became more like visits than him being an indoor kid. He was happier…and because he was happy, I had to let go of the idea that he was going to be our full-time indoor dog.

For the times that Dockers is inside and when he was younger he’d sleep in our room, I treasure his Corgi behaviors like flipping over on his back to sleep and the suckling noises he’d make at night cleaning his paws (like a cat!).    He’s a character to be sure…and one that always needs to be busy.   

My Dockers.  Our ambassador to the Corgi-kind.  We couldn’t have asked for a better representative and experience.