How I'm keeping Winston young 🐣

Since Winston's CT scan came back clear a few weeks ago, even more people have stopped us in the street/in the park to comment on how young he looks. Seven years old and still got it!

Besides good luck, I think his spritely looks/nature comes down to a few things: homemade food with a nutritional powder every morning, keeping his weight in check (we always get told how slim he looks for a corgi), and regular scent games — hiding kibble around the apartment, wrapping treats in a towel for him to find to help keep his brain active.

How are you keeping your corgi spritely? 🧚🏼‍♀️

One thing I've talked about in a previous newsletter is the benefit of companionship for extending a dog's life (i.e. having more than one doggo!). Unfortunately that's not an option for us right now (financially, logistically) and it would definitely take my grumpy boy a lot of getting used to 😆

Any tips that are working for you, hit reply and let us know!

Snoot boops and bunny hops,

Winston & Bella x

Snipping beats heelwork for a happier Corgi 🥰

A 2019 paper in Applied Animal Behaviour Science — "Let me sniff! Nosework induces positive judgment bias in pet dogs" — found that dogs who completed 15-minute nosework sessions showed significantly more optimistic behavior than dogs doing heelwork. The researchers concluded that scent work doesn't just occupy a dog — it actively changes their internal state.

This matters more for corgis than most.

The breed was built for a full day of cognitive work: herding livestock, making split-second decisions, communicating with handlers. A corgi with nothing to keep their brain busy is a bored and unhappy corgi.

Practical options: sniff walks (let them lead and stop as much as they want), hiding kibble around the house before meals, or a snuffle mat (more on that below!).

I posted a Reel last week about Winston being a little bit (a lot 😆) of an anti-social Corgi and it resonated with lots of you! Some of the comments I received were hilarious:

My corgi woke up one day and said, “I hate dogs” and here we are. He used to growl at every dog we walked by, now with some positive reinforcement he can walk by a dog without a care 9 times out of 10.

My soul dog was an antisocial delight. ‘Sorry I can’t go, my dog doesn’t like people.’ Perfect excuse 🤌🏼🤌🏼

Mine thinks she’s a cat

Maisy starts asking people to leave 2 hours after they arrive. She’s been known to throw a tantrum until people go home 🫣

Watch the full video

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT:

We recommend...

The PETARENA Snuffle Mat hides treats in dense fleece loops that your corgi has to nose through to find. What looks like two minutes of entertainment runs to 15–20 minutes for a working sniffer, and doubles as a slow feeder for the especially food-motivated.

RESCUE DOGS AVAILABLE:

If you're based in the UK/EU

Follow Helping Paws for Corgis and keep an eye on their regular updates. They facilitate the adoption of ex-meat market corgis from China to the UK/Europe. There are lots of heartwarming adoption stories on their feed!

In case you missed it...

🧠 How To Mentally Stimulate Your Corgi At Home

If you want to go further with the scent work and brain games stuff, I cover a lot more of it in this article — including things you can do at home without buying anything!

Corgis of the day

Meet Kathy's 4th and 5th corgis, Queen Elizabeth I, aka Queenie (red and white) and Queen Elizabeth II, aka Bess (tri color). These two gorgeous girlies live in San Antonio, Texas and travel to Colorado each summer for 8 weeks. Lucky things!

Reply with a photo of your adorable Corgi, their name, and a few words about why they're so special to be featured in the newsletter! Check out our growing gallery of Corgi Companions here.