Dog Breeds

I weighed my friend Mara’s Corgi puppy on a kitchen scale every Sunday. At eight weeks he hit five pounds. By his first birthday he was thirty. The jump caught her off guard. A Corgi size chart tracks that growth month by month. It shows weight and height for males and females. Most Corgis reach…

Mara texted me a photo of her Corgi puppy on a bathroom scale. He was twelve weeks old and six kilos. She asked if that was right. I pulled up a chart to check. A Corgi puppy weight chart answers that question fast. It lists a healthy weight for each month, male and female. A…

My friend Elena has panic disorder and works from home with her Pembroke, Miso. Miso alerts her to rising anxiety about 10 minutes before Elena feels it. Miso isn’t a certified service dog. Her psychiatric service training still took 14 months. She now joins Elena on flights and at medical appointments without trouble. Yes, a…

I still remember the day my neighbor Sarah brought home Biscuit, a red-and-white Pembroke puppy who came with a $2,400 price tag and a stack of vet receipts. She had saved for eight months and still got sticker shock at the first wellness visit. That experience is why I now warn every friend asking about…

My aunt’s Pembroke, Winston, made it to 16 years and 4 months, which is remarkable for any corgi. He was lean his whole life, never overfed, and walked twice a day until arthritis slowed him down at 14. That combination of diet, exercise, and good genetics is what the research keeps pointing to. The average…

When my friend Marcus adopted a Pembroke named Pickles at 8 weeks old, he kept overfeeding her because she acted hungry after every meal. Within four months she was a chunky puppy at 18 pounds, well above the target for her age. A switch to measured portions and a higher-protein kibble had her back on…

I dog-sat my cousin’s Pembroke, Tater, for a week last fall. I learned more about corgi temperament in those seven days than in years of reading breed profiles. He herded me from room to room. He barked at every delivery truck. By the third night, he slept pressed against my legs. The classic corgi temperament…

The first corgi I ever met was a blue merle Cardigan named Juniper, at a breed meetup in Portland. Her speckled gray coat and one pale blue eye set her apart from the red-and-white Pembrokes around her. I figured they had to be related. They are, but the link runs further back than most people…

My neighbor got a chocolate Lab puppy named Cooper last spring. By his first birthday Cooper hit 70 pounds (32 kg) and looked grown. The vet still kept calling him a teenager. That mix-up trips up a lot of new Lab owners. The dog looks adult. The brain and body run on different clocks. The…