Does your corgi shake all the time? This is commonly seen in corgis and many owners want to know and how to help. I’ll explain the main causes behind a shaking corgi, when it’s cause for concern, and ways you can help. Let’s get into it!
Table of Contents
6 Reasons Why Your Corgi Shakes & Trembles
Anticipation or being too cold are the two most common reasons why corgis shake. Other reasons include anxiety, excitement, age, or feeling uncomfortable in her environment.
Let’s run through the common reasons why you may see your corgi shaking on a day-to-day basis.
1. Anticipating Daily Events
2. Due To Being Cold
3. Anxiety and Nervousness
4. Reaching Old Age
5. Excitement
6. Pain or Underlying Health Problems
1. Anticipating Daily Events
One of the most common reasons among dogs who shake is waiting for routine events to happen.
Dog’s have an internal body clock, just like we do. And this makes them very skilled at knowing when the same thing is about to happen every day.
This includes things like being fed, going out for a walk, being let outside for a potty break, maybe your partner arrives home from work soon. All of the typical daily events that have a schedule, your corgi will get to know very well.
Before these events take place, anticipation builds up and can cause your corgi to shake with nerves and or excitement.
This isn’t really anything to worry about and is actually considered a fairly normal response. All breeds do this.
2. Due To Being Cold
Corgis have substantially thick double-coats, but this won’t stop them from getting cold outside or even inside when it’s winter.
Small dogs are always more susceptible to getting cold than big dogs. Mostly because their bodies are close to the ground, which will absorb a big portion of your corgi’s body heat.
Shivering is a natural automatic response produced by the body in order to generate heat. The exact same process happens in humans too.
The muscles very rapidly contract and relax in order to create kinetic heat that will radiate throughout the body.
3. Anxiety and Nervousness
If you notice your corgi shaking continuously throughout the day, this may indicate some underlying anxiety that’s affecting her overall demeanor.
The difficulty with anxiety is that it can be very hard to pinpoint the original cause as there can be so many.
Anxiety could be caused by previous bad experiences (particularly if your corgi was rescued from a shelter), or perhaps her general needs are not met, like exercise, training, receiving enough attention.
One of the biggest contributors to anxiety in dogs nowadays is being left alone too often, for too long. With our busy lives, it becomes incredibly easy to be out of the hours for several hours at a time. This is way too long for any dog to spend alone, even if they appear to handle it well.
It helps to think about your corgi’s overall life situation and be honest about whether she’s lacking in any area.
4. Reaching Old Age
It’s very common for dogs in old age to shake and tremble.
When dogs reach old age they can shake for a number of reasons including both non-harmful tremors and tremors from underlying health conditions, which may or may not be painful.
As your corgi ages the chances of her needing ongoing medication increase. There are several different types of common medications that may cause tremoring (this will be indicated on the packaging). Medications do this when they affect the neurotransmitters throughout the nervous system.
Older dogs are also more susceptible to getting cold which as previously mentioned is one of the most common causes of shaking among corgis.
Pain and any ongoing health conditions may also cause your corgi to shake.
5. Excitement
Excitement is another common and non-harmful cause for excessive shaking.
Your corgi may become excited anticipating events, or when she playing and running around.
When it comes to corgi puppies, their energy levels and desire to play reach new levels.
Corgi puppies are little balls of immense energy just waiting to burst at any moment, and when they can’t contain it, they often shake and tremor as a result.
6. Pain or Underlying Health Problems
Pain or underlying health problems could also be a potential cause.
Shaking from pain could involve infections, canine arthritis, or other injuries. If your corgi is in pain you will likely see other symptoms aside from shaking including vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, weakness, and even vocalized distress.
Underlying health issues like kidney disease, distemper (typical in puppies who haven’t been fully vaccinated) GTS which stands for Generalized Tremor Syndrome is also common among young dogs and the causes are still mostly unknown.
As shaking and trembling can be caused by such a wide array of health concerns, it’s always best to play it safe and speak to your veterinarian about it. Especially if you have reasons to believe her shaking isn’t simply due to excitement or anticipating events.
Can You Stop Your Corgi From Shaking?
If you have an idea behind what’s causing your corgi to shake, the first thing to think about is whether you can make some actionable changes that will help her.
Can make you make any changes?
If you suspect your corgi is shaking due to being anxious or nervous, take a moment to consider the viable causes? Perhaps you are currently working long hours and are leaving her home alone for more than 3 to 4 hours?
This by itself could be causing her to be nervous around you, anticipating you to leave again. This can be quite a challenging situation to overcome. I have recently written an entire article dedicated to how corgis tolerate being left alone. << This post contains valuable tips and advice!
Perhaps it’s something environmental making her nervous like outside noises, building works, people walking by, or hearing other animals in the distance. In this case, you could opt to keep her in a quieter room throughout the day and take her on more walks around your own neighborhood.
This will help her adjust to those noises and be less frightened by them when she hears them from home.
⭐ Times when shaking isn’t a problem:
If on the other hand, you notice she only shakes temporarily around dinner time, or when your partner arrives home from work. Then there’s not much you can do to stop this, other than keeping her fully distracted. But this kind of shaking is actually very normal and isn’t anything to worry about.
This is also the cause for very excitable corgis who have no underlying health concerns. As long as you have ruled out health concerns, you may just have a corgi who has tonnes of energy and is simply, well, bonkers! And that’s completely fine.
A Word On Cold Weather
Corgis get cold easily, despite having a reasonably thick double coat.
Many owners assume their corgi will be fine due to having a thick coat, but it’s not as simple as that.
In fact, nearly all small breeds are susceptible to cold weather regardless of their coat. This is because their bodies are located close to the ground. The ground saps away a large amount of body heat, making it a continuous struggle for her to remain warm.
As the wintertime approaches consider getting your corgi a waterproof winter jacket for when you go on walks outside, and even a soft lightweight jumper for use indoors.
When To See a Veterinarian
I believe there is no wrong time to see your veterinarian, other than too late. So, even if you’ve only just started witnessing your corgi shake, you have every right to call your veterinarian for a professional opinion.
If you can’t explain the shaking easily with a non-harmful reason (like getting excited to play or waiting for her dinner at the same time every day) then contacting your veterinarian is the right thing to do.
Diagnosing issues ourselves is a difficult and potentially very risky thing to do. So I always stand by that if you are unsure or have an inkling of concern, give the vets a call.
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Last Thoughts
If your corgi is shaking it’s likely caused by anticipating daily events, being too cold, due to old age, getting excited, or in more unfortunate cases due to pain or underlying health concerns.
Anxiety can be caused by a wide range of issues, some are more problematic and hard to identify and overcome than others.
As this issue could be caused by something serious, I always recommend visiting your veterinarian for a professional opinion.
⭐ View more Corgi articles >>