Having a major problem with Chi-Ching He 'attacked' someone

[PurpleKisses]

I do not know what to do. Chi-Ching went after a neighbor two days ago. The lady was petrified and went to my husbands work very upset and told him. He promised her it would never happen again. Chi-Ching got out of our yard sometime in the night (he can get to the backyard whenever he wants, and lately he has been sleeping outside because of the heat), anyway, he got out at sometime and when my husband left for work in the morning, he found Chi-Ching at the front door. He called him an idiot and told him to get inside.... then he told me that he got out and asked me to see if I could find out how he did. Then he went to work.... that is when the lady came in saying that she was taking out the trash and Chi-Ching came flying up to her barking and growling and snapping. She has been attacked by dogs before and was very scared. She yelled at him to go home and she said he backed off a bit, long enough for her to go inside.
I am so upset about this. I am most upset because I have seen him do this before, but always from inside the fence, and usually I tell him to knock it off and he wags his butt and quits.... He has done this before to a girl on a bike too. But I was able to stop him before he ever got to a point to go to far.
My husband told the lady that he has very few teeth and would not hurt her..... basically reassuring her. But I am concerned. He is fine with all of us, and he is fine when I am with him, but I can not trust him at all when I am not around right now. We have found where he got out and fixed it but what do I do about this?

He is not unsocialized, and he is not aggressive, but why does he keep going after people when I am not around? I do my best to keep him contained, we have padlocks on our gates now(neighbor kids open the gates)..... But I am very scared that he may do some actual damage to someone one day. What else can I do to socialize him? We go for walks, he gets groomed, he goes to pet stores, the parks, the school.... but as long as me or my family are around, he is perfect. But when he gets out on his own he turns into a complete and total idiot and I am really worried about him hurting someone.

[chownuzzle]

Some Chows will only be loving to when their family is around. He probably is well socailized but might actally need to be socialized with strangers better when your not around. Which you wonder how your going to that - me too. My suggestion is dog boarding school where a stranger would be educating his final quirks. I am sorry I am not much help. Hope you figure out what to do.

[CoraP.]

I have found that Molly is not as friendly when I'm not around too. I don't know if she feels she needs to be more protective or what, but several times when I haven't been here, she has snapped at people. I wish I knew for sure what causes it, though. Chi-Ching is so beautiful, it seems hard to believe he would do that. I think you are doing all you can to keep him where he should be. Maybe keep him in at night too, instead of outside. I haven't been much help, but just wanted to let you know Molly seems to be like that at times, and I hope you will be able to figure things out. Good luck!

[sweetpea]

The problem with people who are super scared of dogs, they tend to make the event sound 10xs worse than it actually was. I'm not saying Chi-Ching didn't bark at her and scare her, but he may not have been as threatening as she is claiming.
If someone walks in our home when were gone to take the girls potty for us, Gracie will hide, every time. She'll run to the bathroom or the last time she hide under a desk. The last one was real shocking because she loves the person, will lay on the sofa with her, she'll let her walk her, they are great friends. But, I'm always right there for her to know its ok. Let me not be here and its a different story.
I wouldn't let Chi-Ching be outside at night. Keep him inside to avoid him getting out while you sleep.

[bubba]

Get a grip ....

my boy is the sweetest in the world and he grabbed the avon lady by the leg.. not a BITE. NOT AN ATTACK , JUST GOT AHOLT.. ,...
no old chyno would bite, he bit me more than once.. bless his spirited soul...


go to immediatly and study ..
WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE?
A Lesson in Becoming Alpha
by Vicki DeGruy


http://www.chowwelfare.com/cciw/alpha.htm

Canine Boot Camp for Alpha Attitude Adjustment
From this day forward, you're going to teach your dog that he is a -dog-, not a miniature human being in a furry suit. His mother taught him how to be a dog once and how to take orders. Along the way, through lack of training or misunderstood intentions, he's forgotten. With your help, he's going to remember what he is and how he fits into the world. Before long, he's even going to like it!



http://www.chowwelfare.com/cciw/chowinfo.htm

http://www.chowwelfare.com/cciw/socializ.htm

[janet]

i dont know how to say this the right way but here it goes.
chingers is doing his "job". when you are not around he is protecting his territory. when i am not home, or around i know for a fact that my two act totally different. my boys tell me that when they have friends over and im not home that my two are lets say "not as lovable" as when i am. my boys are their territory, and when their friends come over they are watching them. FOR THIS REASON when they do have friends come over when im at work, they know that if my two furries start acting "odd" they are to gate them in another part of the house.period.my son has told me that luna has actually growled at one of his friends on a couple of occasions. the same friend that he licks and kisses when im there.
also, chows(dogs in general) can sense fear a mile away. so if your neighbor is scared $hitless
from dogs, chingers picked up on that immediately.
i know you are worried that he might do harm to someone, but i highly doubt it. he's probably all bark and no bite, just intimidating.
when your neighbor said he "attacked" her she was probably exsagerating due to her fear of dogs in the first place, with it being dark it probably escallated her story even more.

[PurpleKisses]

I miswrote, it was in the morning that he did this, and it was not at our house, the neighbor lives a few houses down and it was in the alley. We do not know how long he had been out of the yard. I have seen him do this before, he ran up to the girl on the bike barking and jumping up at her. She is only 12 and had also been attacked by dogs. I saw him and stopped him but he ran out into the road to do this. This was a couple months ago. Then this happened.

I am definitely going to be keeping a closer eye on him, and double check all my gates every night.

I am just afraid that he could do something, I don't think he will, I am just afraid he could.

[Jeff&Peks]

I don't think Chi-ching did anything wrong except getting out, no one was home so he was guarding the homestead. Chi-ching didn't attack the woman he was probably reacting to her fear and reaction to him. Pekoe doesn't pay attention to anyone but when they show a sign of fear or react to her she takes that as the person is acting suspicious and goes into lock down mode, stops and stares at the person then won't take her eyes off them until they are out of site now if I weren't with her it would probably be a differant story she would go into attack mode and react the same way Chi-ching did.

Do you walk Chi-ching around the neighborhood or let him out so he can see who belongs and who doesn't, if Chi-ching is anything like Pekoe its not only her home she is guarding, as far as Pekoe is concerned she guards the whole street but she knows the neighbors and knows who's supposed to be around. I don't think Chi-ching attacked her I think he was reacting to her attack.

Attacking and aggression are sure used loosely around here, I haven't heard of a Chow Attacking and aggressively killing anyone yet. Don't make more out of this then it is becouse you might create a bigger problem.

Chi-ching has a home, family and kids to worry about he dosn't have time for some old lady yelling at him.

[sweetpea]

Jeff is right. Gracie knows our entire neighborhood and watches every move made in all their yards. I think thats what she likes about sitting in our front yard, she is able to see all of them from the front. When our next door neighbors moved in it took a while for Gracie to accept the fact they belonged there. She'd stand at the kitchen window barking and having fits about them, when we were out front and they'd park in their driveway she'd stand up and stare them down, sometimes even barking at them. She was very unhappy with the intruders in that house. She did the same thing when the family moved in across the street from us. Once she figured out they lived there she was fine with it. Let them have company though she will go into alert mode. Another house across the street has a retired couple who use the house only a few weeks out of the year. Gracie thinks that house should be empty. She still is not happy when that couple is in town messing around in the yard. She thinks thats the rabbits house, not the home of those people.

I've noticed when we sit outside, most of the time Gracie just lays on the sidewalk or grass watching as people or kids walk by, run by or ride bikes by. Just lays there like its nothing. But then someone else will be walking towards us and she jumps to her feet and acts nervous about it. No apparent reason. Everytime that person will walk by acting nervous. She has to be picking up their fears.

[PurpleKisses]

That makes sense. This house is one of the only people that have not met us personally(she knows my husband from when he was a kid) all of the other neighbors have met us and him. He doesn't bark at the neighbors with the kids anymore(the one where the guy was staring at him), the neighbor across the alley he loves, and we do not have a neighbor on the other side of us. The people across the street he never barks at, he seems to like them well. But this person we never see, and she has not come over to meet him at all. I think she has seen him in the backyard and now I am wondering if she is one of the people that I can never see when he is barking like a maniac. Maybe there is some other reason he doesn't like her? Maybe just mutual dislike?

The girl on the bike we chalked up to the bike, he is fine with my girls on their bikes but for some reason he hates scooters, bikes, roller blades, etc. I am not sure why.

I will start making sure to walk him by that house more often.
I didn't really think about him not knowing the neighborhood. We only moved a couple blocks from where we were but he had been there forever, he knew everyone there.


Thanks, you have all made me feel better. I am going to have my husband ask the lady to meet him. Maybe that will help them get over what ever tension it is they both have for each other.

[bubba]

Breeds of dogs involved in fatal human attacks
in the United States between 1979 and 1998

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/duip/dogbreeds.pdf

beware the deadly Dachshund... twice as deadly as Chow during this study period

Pinckney and Kennedy13
studied human DBRF from May 1975 through April
1980 and listed the following breeds as responsible for
the indicated number of deaths: German Shepherd Dog
(n = 16); Husky-type dog (9); Saint Bernard (8); Bull
Terrier (6); Great Dane (6); Malamute (5); Golden
Retriever (3); Boxer (2); Dachshund (2); Doberman
Pinscher (2); Collie (2); Rottweiler (1); Basenji (1);
Chow Chow (1); Labrador Retriever (1); Yorkshire
Terrier (1); and mixed and unknown breed (15). As
ascertained from our data, between 1979 and 1980,
Great Danes caused the most reported human DBRF;
between 1997 and 1998, Rottweilers and pit bull-type
dogs were responsible for about 60% of human DBRF.
Indeed, since 1975, dogs belonging to more than 30
breeds have been responsible for fatal attacks on people,
including Dachshunds, a Yorkshire Terrier, and a
Labrador Retriever.

[sweetpea]

You know Gracie is scared to death of scooters. She about took out the fender of a parked car to get off the sidewalk because of a scooter laying on the sidewalk! Terrified. She's getting better about them lately because the kids across the street will come over and ride their scooter by our house. It helps Gracie to get use to them. Oh, another thing that scares her is people in wheelchairs!
It should help if you can get Chi-ching use to that lady. It may help her to once she figures out he's not going to eat her. They tend to take their jobs seriously of watching over their territory, which like Jeff said, isnt just their own homes, its the homes of our neighbors too. I love watching Gracie sitting out front. She sits right where she can look down the street 4 directions.She might look east, stand up and just stare down the street. I'll look to see what she's looking at. It might be I see nothing so I figure its a squirrel she seen or it'll be someone in another block has company, she is always alert to her surroundings as far as she can see.

[PurpleKisses]

Thanks. I do feel alot better. I just kind of panicked when I heard that she was terrified and actually came to the office. I knew what he did, as far as his actions were, but it was more my fear of having her report him as a vicious dog or something. I feel like I have worked so hard to socialize him and then we took a step backwards..... but I guess we will just have to get through this too.

[jacqui]

I agree with what everyone has said.Chi-Chings episode reminds me of my first chow Chang.very protective of his neighborhood.when we were there with him in the yard,house ,car,etc. he was fine.but if we weren't there he bit a few people in his life that thought they could get near the car,house,etc.
chows are guard dogs naturally.that is their job.I don't think he would have bit the woman,he was trying to intimidate her.
I think if he gets to see her more often around the neighborhood he''ll be fine.

[Laura]

My concern in all of this is that he got out and was free to roam for who knows how long that night. I would make 100% sure that he can't escape again and even still wouldn't let him have access to the yard when you aren't home or are sleeping. Growling at some lady in an alley is secondary in my opinion because all I can see is the many things that could have happened to Chingers...hit by car, attacked by another dog, carted off to the pound, getting into something poisonous, actually biting someone, getting lost...a million bad things that can happen to loose dogs.
As for the lady she probably scared him as much as he did her.
I'm glad he was ok and sorry that all of this happened. Escape is always a worry of mine too.

[PurpleKisses]

we have fixed where he got out. The side gate of our house was opened up during the neighbors bbq that night. They are members of a certain religion here and have a TON of people over all the time, including many, many little kids. Unfortunately they also have no rules and no one watches the kids. We have had to tell them multiple times to get out of our yard. They have opened the gate before but we talked to them and thought it wouldn't happen again, but we have now put padlocks on the gates so they can't open them. We also now have to make sure our garage door is completely closed or we have kids playing in there
We are also going to be planting some big bushes where our fences our conjoined, I don't know what else to do. I cannot even do anything to the neighbors because it was some of their companies kids, and of course they would not to admit to it, or would say they have no idea which kid did it, etc, etc, etc....
Chi-Ching is normally not ever allowed out without us. He doesn't take off when we have him out or off leash, and he recalls very well. I do think that if we go anywhere though overnight, or someplace we can't take him with us, we will definitely be boarding him or taking him to our friends house.

So, we are taking as many precautions as possible.

[Jeff&Peks]

Your not looking at one of the bright sides of all this, Chi-ching stayed home and didn't run off or go exploring, how many can say that about their Chows. Chi-ching deserves a treet and praise for his actions.

[Auddymay]

Take what the lady said with a grain of salt. A couple winters ago, Lily pulled her anchor near the road, and I didn't know. A lady from 3 doors down pulled it back to the house, and I came out as she was half way up the drive. She told me in the course of our conversation that PIP had been down to her house a few times. I have no doubt that was true, but then she claimed she yelled at Pip to go home, and Pip growled at her. There is, excuse my French, NO FRICKIN' WAY Pip growled at her. Anyone that knows Pip from this site, can attest to her stellar character. I would stake my life she never growled, or did much of anything, except poop in their yard, and leave when asked.

[PurpleKisses]

That is true Jeff. I am glad he didn't take off. We don't have to much worry with that anyway, where we live now is not near any busy streets, and pretty much everyone knows whose dog he is, even the cops around here. We don't really have a pound per say, the cops come get the dog and try and find the owners. Hehe, not that they would catch him, they would have just called us had they seen him.
But I am glad he didn't take off because the one real danger here is about 5 blocks away is a field where coyotes live. We have lost a few cats to them.

Pip growling!!! That just made my day! I have never met her, obiousely, but just from her pics and the stories, I couldn't imagine!

[kingalls]

IMO, I think that the places that our Chows go, they assume its territory they should protect & if they meet someone they don't associate with the territory, that person is intruding. Mr. N is use to the groomer's place. The first couple of times that the groomer's husband came into the area, Mr. N was not happy and took a protective attitude (growling). I think Chingers was protecting his territory. Has he seen this person before?

[ChowChowInTheCity]

From a legal perspective, I have been terrified of such a situation since I adopted my chow, which so many people brand as a predatory menace merely based on breed. When I was younger, my family was frivolously sued by a fed ex delivery person who claimed our golden retriever had "snapped" at her. This was so ridiculous because this dog was the most docile animal ever. It was later revealed that this woman was running this scheme on multiple families in my neighborhood to gain profit, but it made me realize that even if your dog does NOTHING, someone could come after you with such a claim.
After going through the experience with my family, I have been extremely cautious with my Ruru. When we are walking on the street, I do not let him go anywhere near a person or another dog without explicit permission. I also try to keep him on a tight leash so that he doesn't accidentally brush up against people who may be afraid of him or "charge" at people who are afraid of dogs. It is so unfortunate, but I feel that in order to best protect yourself and your dog from absurd accusations, you need to keep them on close watch. Whether it's a dog in his own yard, fenced, electric-fenced, what have you, or a dog at the door when a delivery person stops by, or a dog on the leash in your own supervision, this is an issue that every dog owner needs to realize COULD HAPPEN TO THEM. Owning a chow makes it even more of a liability since they are apparently so "aggressive".
After what my family went through, I could never leave my dog unsupervised outside, even in a fenced yard, because I know what can result from it. It sucks, but there will ALWAYS be a way to sneak out of that fence and there will ALWAYS be haters out there, and if being ultra-cautious is what it takes to keep my Rudy and I safe from harm, then that's the sad reality of our legal culture

[PurpleKisses]

I understand and agree with what you are saying. Unfortunately, I have 3 kids, the youngest is 1 and Chi-Ching prefers to be outside. He has access inside whenever he wants but he prefers outside. Our backyard has a 5ft chainlink fence, most of which is hedged so he cannot see through or get through. One side is left open and it has a gate which is now padlocked. We have a gate to the alley for the garbage, which is now padlocked, and we have another side gate(the one the other kids opened) and it is now padlocked. We are going to be replacing some of the fence with solid vinyl fencing.

Luckily, he is not a digger, but we are doing the best we can in preventing more issues. We have also talked to the neighbors about the kids(it is not their kids, but their friends kids) and we have also met all the other neighbors and I think that knowing him will help.

Also, he is on either a retractable leash or a 6' leash when we walk him but, like I mentioned before, when we are with him, he is perfect. We did get a motion light for the back deck so that when he goes out it comes on, it shines right in our room so we know when he is out...... He usually goes out around the same time, and comes back at the same time, so I have been checking periodically at night to make sure he is where he supposed to be..... lately he has been wanting to sleep outside on the deck.... I think it is cooler out there at night.

[Jeff&Peks]

From a legal perspective, I have been terrified of such a situation since I adopted my chow, which so many people brand as a predatory menace merely based on breed. When I was younger, my family was frivolously sued by a fed ex delivery person who claimed our golden retriever had "snapped" at her. This was so ridiculous because this dog was the most docile animal ever. It was later revealed that this woman was running this scheme on multiple families in my neighborhood to gain profit, but it made me realize that even if your dog does NOTHING, someone could come after you with such a claim.
After going through the experience with my family, I have been extremely cautious with my Ruru. When we are walking on the street, I do not let him go anywhere near a person or another dog without explicit permission. I also try to keep him on a tight leash so that he doesn't accidentally brush up against people who may be afraid of him or "charge" at people who are afraid of dogs. It is so unfortunate, but I feel that in order to best protect yourself and your dog from absurd accusations, you need to keep them on close watch. Whether it's a dog in his own yard, fenced, electric-fenced, what have you, or a dog at the door when a delivery person stops by, or a dog on the leash in your own supervision, this is an issue that every dog owner needs to realize COULD HAPPEN TO THEM. Owning a chow makes it even more of a liability since they are apparently so "aggressive".
After what my family went through, I could never leave my dog unsupervised outside, even in a fenced yard, because I know what can result from it. It sucks, but there will ALWAYS be a way to sneak out of that fence and there will ALWAYS be haters out there, and if being ultra-cautious is what it takes to keep my Rudy and I safe from harm, then that's the sad reality of our legal culture

I have never seen an aggressive Chow only aggressive people, I'm really careful with my Chow and don't let anyone she doesn't know pet her (either does she) or come near her, I watch her constantly, however by keeping that tight of a leash on your Chow and being so paranoid of her actions you may be creating what your afraid of. As close as I watch my Chow she is on a 26 ft leash and has freedom when on walks.. As I've said before on this site my Chow has the worst temperament of any Chow on here but its not her I watch, its the people around her I watch, people are the problem not your Chow. if your Chow is anything like other chows he could care less about people and other dogs unless they approach him.... Your making your Chow suffer and not giving him room to grow, explore and become socialized because your afraid of him and what he might do, thats a big mistake, you are making him aggressive.

My Chow will growl and snap at anyone that coma's within a foot of her if she doesn't know them, Kids or adults but in 12 years of walking her on a 26" leash in parks, malls, schools, playgrounds, public events, through major downtown traffic, Lose in dog parks, you name it she's been there, not once in 12 years has she ever attacked or bitten anyone. A few Vets but thats a differant story.

I have had 4 chows in my house in the last few months 3 straight out of a shelter abused and miss treated, all labled agressive yet they have all walked with a 26" leash every day in a park filled with people and kids and had complete freedom on walks I never had a problem with any of them. two are now living with young children, two have died.

[Mia]

I don't know if I did the right thing, but as Mia and Chutty were growing up, I routinely had other people walk them, have them stay at other peoples houses and have people go to my house to feed them when i wasn't there.

So, they are used to meeting strange people and while I probably worked the territorial protection out of them, I am at least confident that if anyone came into my house whe I wasn't there that they would not "feel the need to be protective."

If someone broke into my house, I would rather they steal stuff and leave my babies alone. I could care less what happens to my stuff, but I would hate for someone to hurt my dogs because they felt threatened by them.

I know that's not ideal for most people, but in the long run, I didn't get them for protection.

If they ever got loose, broke away from the leash, were in the car when I had an accident or for any reason were "out in the world" without me, I would want them to be friendly to people so that they could be caught and returned - and not shot for being aggressive.

If anything happened to me, I want them to be able to go to someone else and be good, mellow dogs.

[ChowChowInTheCity]

Just to clarify, I use "aggressive" in quotation because I do not agree with that label in any way, or any other breed-based generalization for that matter. And I do agree with the aggressive people, remark - the point of my post to show that you need to watch out for those types.