mel deng

If you don’t personally know me, I am a corgi lover! I’ve wanted a corgi for I don’t know how long, like 10 years. Since I’ve been working part time, I’ve had more time and thought I’d finally pull the trigger. I started reading more about the breed, what to look for, price range, etc. I started looking at breeders and found one about 45 minutes away from my house so my husband and I decide to visit the puppies which were at this point about 6 weeks old. This was back in June 2019.

Some background information:
-Puppies go home around 8-10 weeks
-They need a lot of exercise as they’re herding dogs so they’ll also nip and chew A LOT as puppies. Be prepared for that!
–Corgis are prone to some genetic diseases:
–DM (degenerative myelopathy) – where they eventually lose all mobility in their hind legs however they it doesn’t hurt them. There is no treatment for this disorder. The signs and symptoms appear in older corgis, average around 11 years old.
–VWDI (Von Willebrand Disease I) – bleeding disorder where corgis who are affected have less than half of the clotting factors in normal dogs which results in bruising more easily and prolonged bleeding after trauma.
–EIC (Exercise induced collapse) – neuromuscular disorder where after exercising 5-20 minutes, their gait becomes unsteady and they may lose muscle tone. They don’t feel this and may continue to over exercise and further injuring itself. Worst case is it may even result in death!
-AKC registered dogs = American Kennel Club corgis meet a certain criteria to be registered, essentially, they’re pure bred.

Genetics! A little background on how genetics work. If somebody is all clear of the disease, they would be considered to have two genes that are dominant, or for example, “AA.” If somebody is a carrier of the mutation gene, then they’d be “Aa,” which would result in a really rare case to ever express the mutation/disease. If somebody is “aa,” which means they are recessive for the disease, they are at risk of expressing that.

Okay! Now that you’re all caught up, we visited the breeder at their house and were instantly greeted by the dad of the puppies, friendly amd somewhat overweight yet pretty calm. The mom seemed pretty small and sweet. Going into this, the breeder and I had exchanged emails back and forth about the pups. I asked about their genetics and specifically about DM. They said they didn’t test because they got one parent from North Dakota and the other parent from Yakima so their lineages aren’t close at all. If you know anything about genetics, their distance has nothing to do with it. The dad is about 9 years old and they said the disease would have presented itself by now. They also said none of the other dog owners complained about their dogs presenting with this disease, however their dogs are only about 4 years old. The mom is also on the younger side so the disease wouldn’t have presented itself yet.

I was a little skeptical but hopeful it would work out. We ended up putting a deposit down for one of the pups that seemed really low key. The breeder agreed to do a cheek swab that I paid for that would tell us if Otis was at risk for the disease. I’m a first time dog owner and I just wanted a healthy pup not that I wouldn’t care for it if it had the disease. I think personally, I just wanted to prevent any kind of heartache down the road. The breeder had asked us what we’d do if Otis had it and I said we’d likely regretfully pass. :/

A week or so later, I get a text from the breeder and I kid you not, it says:
“Otis came back positive so I will be looking for a new loving home as you said you didn’t want him. Good luck finding one without this potential DM. My research says 70% have it and usually die from something else”

WOW. Is that super passive aggressive or what?! I asked them to call me to clarify if he is a carrier or at risk because they are two different things. They fail to call me and I call them after several hours. I understand they’re upset but I was upfront with them. The conversation was harsh and they said things like “I learned a very valuable lesson from all of this” and “You screwed me over 2 weeks of not being able to sell the dog.” I asked for the results because I paid for them and they said I’m not getting him so it doesn’t matter. I’m interested to know what lesson they learned – not to test their dogs and to not breed dogs at risk? Clearly, they’re just in it for the money and and I’m glad I went through this to find the truth about them. I would not want to support them and I just feel bad for the dogs.

I ended up finding another breeder who tested their dogs prior to breeding and went home with a really sweet pup who loves cold tiles, chewing on everything, and can sit. I couldn’t have asked for a better little guy.