115 pound chow !?!?!?!?

[nean007]

This is a long story so bear with me. Remember Denny, my mutt that we had DNA tested? Well, DH is in a video editing class and needed a semester project so he decided that once we found out what Denny was, he wanted to interview people and ask them what their guess was. So we went to a new mall that advertises as "dog-friendly" and each store gets to decide if they allow dogs or not and we picked one that would allow us to video inside (it's raining) and interview both their employees and customers. You wouldn't believe how many corporate companies DO NOT allow that sort of thing. So I ran the camera while DH did all of the interviews. They got to look at Denny (he was with us), pet him, etc. I would say most people guessed chow even though few actually looked at his tongue. Denny was in dog heaven with all of the attention and behaved himself quite well, I might add. Anyway, one man approached us and he didn't want to be on video but ended up chatting with him for over an hour just about dogs and I told him I had a chow at home and he told me about his brother in law who he said had a 130 lb chow. I said, "NO Way! Was it fat?!" He said no, just huge and that he looked like a lion and would intimidate people by sitting next to them and snapping his jaws shut just for effect. I still couldn't believe the weight so he actually called his BIL right then and asked him who said the dog was more like 115 lbs. Have you guys ever heard of a chow that big or what they called a "King Chow"? This was all new to me and I thought I knew my chows. The man claimed he was purebred but he had to have been mixed with something to be that big. ANyway, I gave this man my email and he's going to try to get ahold of a digital photo of this dog so I'll post it when I get it.

p.s. Dargo, annoyed that he wasn't included in all of this, did something he hasn't done since he was a puppy: he peed on the carpet while we were gone.

[Sylvia]

I've never heard of a Chow that large, but a couple of Sweetie's Chow uncles were in the 90 lb range. I met one of them at a Chow get together and he was definitely huge. My Sweetie is only about 55 lbs, and I'm good with that.

[Auddymay]

I have a pixie Chow, so I can believe anything. I think Butters is about the biggest on here, or maybe Tai...both are are king Chows, for sure! Some lines have more predominant features, but I really never heard of a king chow. Someone asked about Silver Chows (or something along that line) before too. I do not know if there are any recognized strains. An example- my brother breeds Llewelyn Setters, which is a recognized line in the English Setters. He was an Earl or such (Llewelyn), that was also into his hunting dogs, and improving the breed.

[Victory]

I've heard of them up to 90lbs, but one could get that big, of course I'd want to know his endoctrin panel readings, some hormonal problems can cause dogs to get TOO big, this is a real problem in Malamutes who have a nasty form of giantism that causes sever malformations of their legs, this has happened after too many breeders tried to breed super big Malies. I hope they don't breed this chow, if it is a pure chow, 115lbs puts him into the xtra large to giant breed catagory and they are supposed to be medium to large.

[Dogdad]

perhaps a chow mix or a very obese chow, Yoshi is chbby at 55 pounds, maxine is 38 pounds and Maxwell my mix was 75 pounds.

David

[lightforce18]

damn thats a huge chow. Need pics!

[nean007]

I forgot to include that these people also had a female chow that was 70 lbs. Again, I was like "What!?!?" Can you imagine two chows those sizes in your house? Talk about intimidated guests.....And the male did not like the female to get any attention so of course she would always go up to people for a pet because that was the only thing that got HIS attention. That's some scary dog politics if you ask me. I don't think they used these dogs for breeding and I do know that both of them died a while ago. I don't know if they were brother and sister but I will ask. I'd love to learn more about them.

[chow fancier]

My first chowgirl Chana weighed in at 60lbs, Tasha came next at 70lbs. Cinder seems tiny to me at 49lbs. And my boy Teddy is now 79lbs. So I think there is a significant range of sizes.

[chowchowdaddy]

I had our first chow, Chia, in the car with me one day while running errands and we were at the drive-up window at the bank. The teller remarked what a lovely chow she was and that she had a black chow at home, only hers was much larger. She asked how much Chia weighed and, as we'd been at the spa (our term for vet so as not to scare the kids!!!) earlier that day, I responded that she weighed 49 pounds. She said hers weighed 98 pounds, exactly double Chia's weight. I almost fainted. She insisted he wasn't fat, just huge...

Now, Emperor Ming weighs in at 62 pounds and Tempest, our little Diva, weighs in around 50 pounds.

[LEO's mum]

I have seen a black chow that looked more like an ox. It was just huge! Sort of like Mike Tyson of chows. I can believe it weighing more than I do, easily. My Big Baby Leonora can and did go up to 68lbs. She isn't big and had worn the weight pretty well. Now she is on 1/2 food diet, only fed once a day and is down to about 60lbs.

[Babs64]

Can you imagine stopping a 115 pounds of chow if he decided to take off after a squirrel? You'd go flying if you were on the end of his leash!

[chowpups]

My vision of one flying behind a 115lb chow is just making me laugh out loud . *hubby is wondering now what is so funny on the computer.

[rufnedge-2]

Please don't tell me there's actually a 115 lb chow - I didn't read the post.

[katannchow]

There is a breeder in central Canada that shows very large chows. I can't remember her name as it's been several years since I met her at a show in Iowa, but she told me many of her chows were well over 100lb even though purebred/pedigreed chows. One of her smooth chows that I saw in person was a bit under 100lb and definitely all chow. It was a female. The males were generally larger.
There is a VERY wide range of sizes in chows. More than most other breeds.
Deanna
Minnesota

[bama]

Strange thing happened today...talked with a guy who has a 150 lb chow mix. I did not see the dog, but he told me the chow was mixed with lab, but looked mostly chow. He also said his temperament was that of a sweet chow. The guy has five dogs that he has rescued and said he took this big one, because everyone else was intimidated by his size.
Personally, my largest chow was 85 lbs, and I thought he was a monster!

[kingalls]

A 115 pound Chow doing a zoomie? stay outta the way!