Temperament I find it impossible to regard as a true Cardigan corgi a dog which is excessively highly strung, easily intimidated, afraid of strangers, nervous, or intensely excitable. Reason: Both the original corgi and the brindle herder were dogs of high courage and good nerve appearing at their best in the face of danger. Accordingly, courage I consider to be indispensable in a Cardigan corgi. The dog which cringes and flees from a stranger acts countrary to all corgi tradition. When meeting a corgi I expect to encounter a cool, self assured, but unassuming and good mannered dog more ready to dispute my passage – if I am a stranger – than to run from me, and yet possessed of discrimination together with a suitable leavening of caution; a dog ready to bow instantly to his master's word, although indifferent to that of a stranger; one normally quiet and reserved, but displaying healthy excitement under appropriate stimulus such as when his hitherto absent owner approaches Likewise, I expect a dog, if mature, with a natural tendency to trot quietly at its master's heels – or perhaps a few yards ahead – when he walks and to lay contentedly and unobtrusively at his feet when he sits. Such any way is my idea of the Cardigan corgi. W. Lloyd Thomas, quoted from the American Kennel Gazette, November 1935 |